Educational Media Reviews Online

Canada has a reputation for opening its doors to refugees fleeing political unrest. In recent decades, African refugees from Sudan, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone have resettled in cities across the country. While each may have harrowing tales of their own to tell, not many would have the same dilemma faced by Adongo Achway Cham, an ethnic Anyuak man from southern Sudan.

The former Christian-school teacher from Sudan had to flee political persecution in his homeland. At the start of the documentary, we learn that his wife and eight children are in a refugee camp in Ethiopia waiting to be legally reunited with him in Canada. As he tries to adjust to his new life, he gets the life-changing news of his father’s death. After more than sixty years as a traditional ruler, the dying king chose Cham over his other sons to succeed him because he wanted a ruler who would modernize the village. Cham’s internal struggle about whether or not to honor his father’s wishes, which also meant putting his traditional family’s needs ahead of his own children’s, are what the film documents.

He does decide to accept the kingship, after consultation with, and financial contributions to his airfare from, clansmen in Canada. As part of his luggage, Cham makes it a point to take the Canadian flag along with him. In Sudan, he goes through the accession rituals, but draws the line at some traditional practices, as one would hope a modern ruler would – he does not have his six lower teeth pulled out, and refuses to marry the tearful, thirteen year-old girl offered to him.

These tensions between his Christian and traditional beliefs are just few of the many that would face Cham in his multiple roles as: a Canadian resident and ordinary citizen on the one hand and Anyuak king on the other; head of a nuclear family and a collective family; a community man, yet one who custom demands must eat alone and not visit friends; the modern city dweller and the village tribesman.

His story, in many ways, is no different from those of many modern Africans who slip in and out of physical geographic spaces and cultures. Nor does it, for that matter, differ for people from all cultures who must continually reconfigure and renegotiate their multiple identities in varied situations and locations. Cham manages to find some common ground as he cares for both sets of families in Canada (his wife and children ultimately join him there) and Sudan, travels between both places, keeps Canada in Anyuakland by flying a Canadian flag above his royal home, and gets a Canadian grant to build a school in his homeland. One wonders how long he can keep up with being a global nomad, living in two places that are oceans apart and playing split roles. The documentary deftly sidesteps any definitive answer and keeps the viewer guessing. By taking an intimate look at one man, it highlights the larger issue of the transborder and transcultural existence that is very much part of today’s globalized world.