ON THE THRACIAN BORDER
Barışa Oyna
FROM Edİrne’s past - Half of our classmates were Jews. *** - To be honest, as Romas, we don’t own most things that make children happy. But you should believe that in impoverished societies and Roma families, children are very important. *** - I came to your room to play the Walnuts.
to the actors of today - You should be stronger with a few people first. *** - What is it a Jew? *** - I cannot go to Greece or Istanbul because I am dark skinned.
The Reconciliation Games is a project of the BoMoVu association. This book was printed and published by BoMoVu in Turkish in March 2018 in İstanbul.
This guide may be copied only if the content is unaltered and with reference to BoMoVu.
Concept, Research and Text: Nil Delahaye, Eleni Nadin Diker
Implementation: Nil Delahaye, Burcu Ayan, Anıl Berkay Vardıoğlu Cover Image: Ayşe Merve Kamacı
Page 7, 11, 16, 19 Photographs: Erdinç Habip Page 21, 23, 24, 27 Photographs: BoMoVu
Page 12: “A new map of ancient Greece Thrace, Moesia, Ilyricum and the isles adjoyning”, New York Public Library
Rear Cover Image: Çağıl Kayan Widegren
With the support of:
This book was prepared with support from the European Union under the scope of the Sivil Düşün Eu Programme. Responsibility for the content of this book belongs to BoMoVu and does not reflect the views of the EU.
PREFACE When we first found ourselves on the roads of South Caucasus in May 2016 for the first adventure of the Reconciliation Games we were extremely excited. o matter how endless the other end looks when you are at the border cities of a country; the frontier prefigures an absolute emotion that we were just coming to grasp . Despite having spent many hours thinking about the perception of children living in border regions, we learned many more things from them on the field. Like, for instance, that the children actually believe that the other End of Turkey is actually closer than neighbor countries‌ Therefore, we had a better idea as to what to expect when we went to Edirne for the second part of our project. Our goal is to explain in all simplicity to children that their distinct features are valuable, to remind them of the lost diversity of the land we live on t and to tell them about their old playmates who still live on the other side of the border or in different villages, cities, and countries playing similar games. We achieved this, not by making dramatic speeches but with chats we had during the moments of happiness they experience while playing games, which we hoped would create associations. During the preparation period of the Reconciliation Games, we tried to find traces of mutual heritage in children’s games. For us, embracing this heritage means reminding that we once spent good times together. It means that we also know how to laugh, learn and share and not just fight with one another. o stick our tongues out to the fear in our memories, caused by the big shadow of slaughters, organized attacks and pogroms, and remembering the warm feeling of the childish laughter must have something to do with justice. While this programme aims to invite children to think about their ideas of people they don’t know or have forgotten, it was developed with the ambition to remind them how much fun they had when they play and to leave a mark of happiness on their physical memories. December 2017 Eleni and Nil
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction 1- The Remains of Thracian Past 2- The Reconciliation Games 3 - Edirne at Play 4 - Games and Their Analyses 5 - Practical Information Acknowledgments
INTRODUCTION The Reconciliation Games is a physical movement oriented game programme for children developed by the BoMoVu team. By adopting the sports for reconciliation approach, we shared with children the power of dialogue embedded in body movements by means of traditional children games in the Thracian region of Turkey. The primary focus of the program is to ameliorate children’s crossborder perceptions by utilizing the space of freedom provided by games. While doing this we utilized traditional children’s games, which are an important part of cultural heritage. By bringing into the forefront the values embodied in sports such as tolerance, inclusiveness, equality, virtue, pleasure, happiness, love and respect, we tried to support the construction of a socially inclusive and peaceful environment. The Reconciliation Games programme is a tool based on a concept we call physical memory. Thanks to a body oriented approach, we have put forward that children as bodies can position themselves and the bodies of others, prefiguring that each person as a part of the society is valuable with their individuality and differences. With the belief that bodies also have memories, we tried to leave good and optimistic feelings about that “other child on the other side” in the physical memories of children. We realized this project in border regions where the perception of others is more pragmatic. Because living in a border region complicates the feeling of security being on either side of a line while requiring the person to recalibrate their own view on life on a regular basis. In a place where impartiality is impossible due to living conditions; talking, having opinions and feelings about the other side are conditioned. The Reconciliation Games aimed to release children living in border regions from their prejudices about life on the other side of the border and to leave the feeling of togetherness stored in their physical memory.
Through this handbook, we want to spread the body-oriented learning approach to stand in solidarity with the civil society working with children in the border regions, and to share our experience. BoMoVu – Network of Sport and Body Movement for Vulnerable Groups is a social movement that aims to turn sports with all of its qualifications into social value for all. We believe that sports and physical movement is a social empowerment tool. Aside from personal prosperity, we believe in the importance of sports for social development. As the founders of BoMoVu and people who experience the power of sports, we have been facilitating activities for various groups since 2014. Our journey that started with a Muay Thai box workshop for unaccompanied migrant children and continued with Capoeira workshops to the East of the country and long-term women based sports programs has led to a movement to transform sports into social value. We created the BoMoVu network in August 2015 with the belief that this understanding should be spread and that this information could be used to support more people. We are developing a culture of volunteering and solidarity in the fields of sports and physical movement thanks to this network. As we transform sports into social value, we are working to raise awareness about people’s rights over their own bodily integrity beyond the idea of sports for career opportunities or health, and to experience the social empowerment that accompanies it.
1- THE REMAINS OF THRACIAN PAST Edirne, which became a part of the Ottoman Empire in 1362 after violent battles between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Bulgaria, was the capital of the empire for 200 years. It was besieged by the Russians twice in the 1800’s and in the 1900’s Thracia was split in two by the Balkan Wars as Edirne was left to the Ottoman Empire. In 1920 it fell under Greek rule until reclaimed on the aftermath of the Greek-Turk wars. These constant changes of hands of the land brought the domination of many different identities over the region. Edirne has been the asylum for the many who have been forced to the population exchanges from the Balkans between 1893 and 1930. Edirne housed the Roma people who migrated to the Rumelia province during the 14th and 15th centuries, and the Jewish people forced to migrate from Spain in 1492. However in the summer months of 1943, the antisemitism wave that took over the media spreading hate speech against the Jews forced thousands to migration again during what is called “the Thracian Incidents”. Edirne remains as a bitter trauma in the memory of the Jewish community while those events simply vanished from Turkish History, still unknown and untaught. Unstable borders left an impact on the cross-border perceptions of its inhabitants who carried the prejudices of an unknown history handed down from generation to generation until today. Social memory is existential for a society. Remembering forgotten or lost values, embracing and stop the denial of pain, remembering times of peace will lead a society to heal and get better. Edirne is a city where people of various ethnic backgrounds, especially the Roma people, one of the oldest groups of people living in the region, coexist… With its border to both Greece and Bulgaria, Edirne houses today a detention center for undocumented migrants to be sent back to their countries which makes the city a critical location where migrants and refugees hoping to find shelter in Europe find a final destination to their dreams. This is why Edirne is that much more important for this healing period. At BoMoVu we believe that we can change the perspective and behaviors using sports and physical movement. We develop programmes to transform sports and physical movement into a social value, while also combating the discrimination within sports, as is being carried out in all areas of society. Most of the tools used to combat discrimination and prejudice use language and verbal practices, however, the concepts of body, movement and existing as a body and realizing that the other is also only a body have also recently been used as tools for development.
The Reconciliation Games programme was inspired and developed following the Anne Frank House “Teaching About Prejudice, Discrimination and Equal Rights� Seminar in 2015 and the individual experiences of the BoMoVu team members in transforming sports and physical movement into a social benefit. The primary goal of this programme is to improve the cross-border perception of children by utilizing the space of freedom that happens while playing games. In order to achieve this, we used traditional children games which are an important part of cultural heritage as a tool. We aim to assist children to recognize and question all of the prejudices about different identities that they have gained due to the region that they live in by bringing values such as tolerance, inclusiveness, equal rights, virtue, joy, happiness, love, and respect to the forefront in order to create a peaceful environment based on social inclusion for the relations children form with their surroundings.
2- THE RECONCILIATION GAMES The activities held via the Reconciliation Games aim at contributing to a common awareness of children in the age of learning, gained through physical,social and cultural experiences . This manual theoricizes the process we lived at the Caucasian and Thracian borders, explaining about the awareness gained through the experience provided with the Reconciliation Games programme which sets the moment of joy and pleasure when children hear for the first time in their lives the name of folks they historically played together with, before they will hear it again accompanied with the adjectives of “enemy”. This way the “others” with whom they will get a chance to form an empiric and therefore instinctive optimistic bond will have a positive place in their physical memories amongst the various other feelings they will feel when they meet them. The Reconciliation Games is a learning tool for physical movements and sensations, using games which are part of the intangible regional cultural heritage and targeting values of equal rights and reconciliation.
METHOD This programme is based on the basic principle that the body, being the person per se, is not a tool for learning, but the learning itself during experiences. The body/person is the place where emotions take place. These emotions affect people and the decisions they make. The Reconciliation Games tool guides children towards peace and optimism for the feelings formed about the “other” and “cross-border people” phenomenon. In the “Education Policies and Practices to Foster Tolerance, Respect for Diversity and Civic Responsibility in Children and Young People in the EU” report by Barry van Driel, Merike Darmody and Jennifer Kerzil, the importance of empathy and social-emotional education is conveyed as: “Social and emotional learning, as well as a feeling of empathy toward others, are powerful tools to foster tolerance and promote diversity. (…)Since experience can strongly influence attitudes, such programmes may include experience-based activities such as tutoring others, intervening to help others, as well as learning and applying conflict resolution skills.”1 Also, it is important to understand that our means of construction of the “other” is our bodies. According to Viviane Laroy, the body is “an indicator of how we feel about others and how others feel about us.” Yet again she states that “The body allows learners to reorganize and shape the world.” According to Deleuze, humans do not own bodies, they are bodies who carry intensity inside them. According to this point of view The body itself is knowledge and no longer knowledge of something else. Learning can then aim at the knowledge offered by the body and not only at intellectual knowledge accessed by the body.”2
1 Barry van Driel, Merike Darmody and Jennifer Kerzil, Education Policies and Practices to Foster Tolerance, Respect for Diversity and Civic Responsibility in Children and Young People in the EU, NESET II report, European Union, March, 2016. 2 Viviane Laroy, The Body in a Pedagogy of Being, in Humanising Language Teaching, November 2002.
PURPOSE The Reconciliation Games tool aims at transfering values of equal rights and reconciliation to children aged 7 to 13. Sports, as defined by the Report from the UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Sport for Development and Peace “brings individuals and societies together, underlines unifying factors and works as an intermediary between cultural or ethnic segregation.” Implementations of sports as a tool for peace in places like Rwanda or South Africa where ethnic conflict caused by racial hatred led to major losses can be found. Because during a game of sports the biggest feature of the “other” is implied by her physical performance. The idea of “Ubuntu” in the South African example which is at the basis of the philosophy behind the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, opens the door to many opportunities. The philosophy of “Ubuntu” used as a basis for policies by Nelson Mandela, the first President of Post-Apartheid South Africa, promotes the idea of individuals as parts of a community to be building stones of a peaceful system based on social rights and freedom. According to this point of view, individuals are elements of the society which is a whole; if one harms another they in fact hurt the whole in which they belong and thus themselves meaning that in the reconciliation process, both the “victim” and the perpetrator must be healed. Moreover, the dualism between victim vs. perpetrator is not senseful anymore. With this understanding, people are not divided once more inside the process of healing and reconciliation as they were during the conflict; they are a singular entity. Therefore the reconciliation process is a search for truth in which the society does not confront each other with one side offering forgiveness or claiming justice, it is based on the reunion of the victim and the perpetrator. The reconciliation tool developed by BoMoVu is thus not aimed at accusing or judging, it aims to become a part of the healing process by approaching the society as a whole. BoMoVu’s body oriented learning approach aims to teach individuals how themselves and the people around are positioned in the world as bodies and emotions in the context of the values mentioned above. As Montaigne said: “It should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity.” Playing is a field that is consistent within itself, it has binding rules yet freely accepted but nevertheless sine qua non; games are a space created by and belonging to the decision mechanisms of children into which they are not forced. Despite being an activity they take up with utmost seriousness, the
most important requirement for games is the necessity to not take it seriously. The reason we say “it is just a game” is that what we should really perceive as serious are the real world and its rules, what shouldn’t be taken seriously is the world created by the rules of the game. It is for this reason that when we approach concepts that go beyond the games such as conflict and hate via the games, we carry them to a dimension purged of seriousness. Actions towards other people mixed with jokes and games in a made-up reality, in other words, a game, create an area of freedom where to escape to places that would not be permitted in the world of adults. It is for this reason that “children” can change the “real” or “grownup” world into the complete opposite with their own perceptive system through imitative games. As much as there are games that include fighting and violence, that create systems of obedience and hierarchy; there are also games that perform the idea of love based on togetherness and solidarity. Similarly, team games can also be evaluated on the basis that it requires the success or failure of not a single person but a group of people. Beyond this, our body being the place where feelings of “enemy” and “evil” about the “other” animate us today becomes the field of the archeological sensations of playing together that belong to times of no conflict. History research tries to understand how people lived together for centuries while analysing political context, socio-economic conditions and societal structures. But is it possible to also understand the history of emotions?
3- EDİRNE AT PLAY In December 2016, we traveled to Edirne to conduct a preliminary field research in addition to our desk-based research to discover the traditional children’s games that form the basis of our Reconciliation Games programme. Our goal was to talk to elderly from different age groups who had spent their childhood in Edirne and listen to their childhood memories and get a chance to view Edirne through their eyes and to learn the games they used to play in the past. We heard the stories of Mr. Kerem who remembers the days when eighty percent of Edirne’s population was Jewish, the memories of Mr. Can who is the only Jew remaining in Edirne, the children of the people who came and the longing of the children of immigrants who came to Edirne during the population exchange Greece and Bulgaria as well as those who migrated from Greece and Bulgaria during the 1960’s1. Through this visit, we were able to find the traces of those people that had to leave Edirne , and the relationship of those that moved to Edirne with their own roots. We conducted our small-scale research with unstructured coincidental conversations. We explained our purpose to the people we encountered at the city market, Saraçlar Avenue, parks, the synagogue and churches and started listening to their stories.
1
Real names were not used in respect for privacy.
One of the most striking things we learned was that only one Jew remained in the city out of a population that reached four thousand in 1934 before the Thrace Pogroms. What was more interesting was that everyone in the city was aware of this fact. We first heard about it from the owner one of the most famous marzipan shops, Mr. Kerem. While telling us about his childhood in Edirne after the Second World War and the fact that half of this class was Jewish, he gave a hint at how pejorative the ‘Jewish’ word was used at that time: “Now get this straight, when I say Jew, normally everyone would take pride in their nationality, but we wouldn’t use the word Jew next to them, so they wouldn’t be offended.” According to Ayşe Hür in her book entitled The Other History of Non-Muslims, following the enactment of the 1934 Resettlement law that stipulates an increase in the population of people of Turkish culture and descent, the Jewish families in the Thrace Region were constantly persecuted by local fascist groups in different forms such as vandalizing their houses and shops, standing guard in front of their shops and stores to prevent entry of customers, and threatening them with death if they refuse to vacate the city.2 The Jews began to leave the region in time, as did many other minority groups who were stigmatized and persecuted. During this period, the relatively richer, almost three thousand Jews fled to Istanbul while the poorer people had to walk over the Greek and Bulgarian borders. After this date, the number Jewish people continued to decrease slowly over time. Mr. Kerem recalls that some forcefully displaced Jewish families still come back to visit Edirne: “They still call from Israel. They were unable to completely sever their attachment to their past. I remember a few more people also came and cried here. When they go there now they are treated like migrants […] They miss here a lot, they lived most of their lives here.” After listening to Mr. Kerem’s stories, we met Mr. Can who we also visited at work. No matter how much he said he missed the old days, he was cautious in his selection of words which seemed to intentionally make us feel that his longing has nothing to do with his ethnic position. For instance, when we asked him why even though most of his family lived in Istanbul he remained in Edirne, all he told us was “I didn’t want to go. Edirne is beautiful.” On the other hand, he didn’t refrain from telling us that his ancestors were Jews that migrated from Romania to Edirne in 1433.
2
Ayşe Hür, Gayri Müslümlerin Öteki Tarihi, Literatür Publishing, 2016.
Our next visit was to the Roma Youth Association to gather information about the Roma, one of the oldest communities in Edirne. The Roma who are the most discriminated against in the world that shared the same fate with the Jews during in the Holocaust, face the exact same problems in Edirne despite their high population. The 1934 Settlement Law was also a deciding factor in the fate of the Roma people. The law clearly states that nomadic Gypsies would not be allowed in Turkey alongside spies and anarchists. This discriminatory statement was removed from legislation only in 2006 with the enactment of the new Law on Settlement. Even though the exact number of Roma people living in Edirne is unknown, the city is known to host the second largest Roma population in Turkey after Kırklareli. It is said that there are a total of 25 organizations in Edirne founded by the Roma people. Even if the organizations have significant differences in their opinions and stance, their mutual purpose is to support the Roma and preserve their culture. We were greeted by the presidents and some members of three different organizations at the office we visited and started talking about the general situation of the Roma community in Edirne, childhood stories and the games they used to play as children. It was a pleasant chat filled with laughter and teasing with them either interrupting each other or completing each other’s sentences in perfect unity. For instance, when one of them began to tell us about Gypsy culture with pride, another one says: “Don’t go all Gypsy nationalist on us. [Laughter]”, he is promptly faced with the answer, “Ours is the nationalism of the oppressed.” Mr. Sercan told us that Neşet Ertaş, the famous poet, was actually a Roma but hid this fact so he wouldn’t be scorned. He argues that if such famous people openly accept their Roma identity, it would be much easier for them to gain social acceptance and he also mildly complains: “Because they don’t want to associate the word poet with Gypsies, they call themselves wandering dervishes, Alawites…” When we ask them about Edirne in the past, we get the expected answer: “[…] I am economically at ease, free but I honestly miss those days. The culture, solidarity, love respect… It was something completely different.” Our next stop was the cities’ open-air market that is set up every Saturday, selling village products. Here we meet a Bulgarian migrant lady. When we asked her if here is nicer or there, without any hesitation, she says “There”.
NURSERY RYHMES During our conversations about the games that we have listed in the following section, we also asked them about the nursery rhymes they could recall from their childhood. Mr. Kerem who grew up in the center of Edirne thinks that because there weren’t as many toys back then, the children were more creative. He also adds how games and the nursery rhymes linked to them are influenced by the political agenda even at a time when communication is limited to the radio. For instance, some of the nursery rhymes they used to sing during the time of the Second World War are as follows: “Please tell me quickly, how many bombardments would you like from the ten o’clock bombardment sir.” “Eni beni dosi dosi safrangosi saframbos saframbos French friend English Germen friend two chickens and bald hen.” Mr. Ahmet from one of the Roma organization called his mother to ask for a nursery rhyme which they had no idea what it meant or in which language it was: “İndon dini zalikatini zalikatikitom bom.” The nursery rhymes we learned during our brief trip to Edirne are restricted to these. We had to accept how hard it is to remember the nursery rhymes considering the age of the groups we questioned.
4- GAMES AND THEIR ANALYSES THE WALNUT GAME (Known as ‘Kıbab’ in the Siirt region) The walnuts are distributed to 2 equal teams of at least 1 person. A hole in the size of a fist is digged in the ground and players stand 1,5 meters away from the hole. One team chooses odd numbers while the other chooses even numbers. The teams, one by one, try to throw all their walnuts in the hole. If the team throwing has chosen even numbers and the number of walnuts that reach the hole are an even number, they get the same number of walnuts in the hole from the opposing team. If the number is an odd number then they must hand over the same amount. The exact opposite is true for the other team. The game is over when one team loses all of their walnuts.
Question suggestions for the analysis: - Do you think this game requires skill? - Can only people with skill win? - What is luck? What is fate? - How much can people control something? - What does it mean to decide your own fate? - A person cannot decide where and when s/he is born. Is this also fate? - What do you think about the fate of the people born on the other side of the border? - What do you think about the fate of people born here with different origins? ROPE PULLING Starting from the middle of a solid rope of 6-7 meters, an equal number of players are settled at both ends of the ropes and grip it firmly. Both teams pull on opposite ends of the rope and try to make the other team members fall down. To be successful team members must agree to pull at the same time. Especially if this agreement is non-verbal, the team gets a chance to surprise the other team. The teams must be formed with strength distribution kept in mind. Question suggestions for the analysis: - How did you agree to pull the rope at the same time? - Do you think ‘ strength’ corresponds to a reality? - Could manipulating the other team increase your strength? - Can we only manipulate the other side with physical strength? Do we have other powers? - Are there situations where we must pull something towards our self in real
life? (For instance when arguing with someone how do we try to prove ourselves right?)
- To coexist with the person across us, must we pull them to our side? - Can two opposites live together?
FIVE STONES (Known as ‘Amra’ in Syria) This game requires 5 flat and balanced stones and a ball in the size of a tennis ball. Groups split into two. A line is drawn 10 steps away from both sides of the stacked stones and teams stand behind the lines. A circle is drawn at equal distance to both lines and also 10 steps from the stones, and big enough to fit a person. A team can throw the ball for at most 3 turns with 3 different players to knock over the stones. If they can’t do it the other team gets a turn. If the stones are knocked over, the team is disbanded and while the stones are being re-stacked the other team tries to find the ball and aim to throw it at the other team to eliminate them from the game. If the team who has lost players manages to stack all the stones in time without losing all players, the remaining players watch the other team try to knock the stones and prevent them by using the stones. The team eliminated last wins. Question suggestions for the analysis: - Does this game require skill? - Did the teams try to form a strategy? How? - How do things work when they are in a group but have individual objectives? - Do you see people doing different things for the same goal in real life as well? Can you give an example? - Is it possible for everyone to contribute in different ways? - If we think like this, is there still someone who is viewed as “superior”?
BLIND MAN’S BUFF Everyone stands in a circle. Someone is chosen to be it and their eyes are tied. Everyone else waits silently around the chosen person. The it n starts spinning around him/herself until disoriented. Then s/he walks straight and try to figure out who the first person s/he touches is. To keep it fun, the person chosen as it must go different ways every time. If the group does not know each other well, games like “name-motion” can be played to familiarise everyone. In that case, the it must only remember a name or a motion. Question suggestions for the analysis: - What did you have to do for “it” not to recognize you? Was it hard to stay quiet? How can a person mask his/her excitement? - How did the it know who s/he touched? - Do you know anyone who is blind? - How can someone relate to their surroundings with a missing sense? MAP - A GAME FROM SYRIA The group is split into 2 teams. An object is chosen and one team hides this object while the other team closes their eyes. Then the team that hid the object draws the map of where the object is on the ground or on paper without speaking a word. The other team uses the map to try and find it. There is no competition in this game. Thus, the whole team wins if the object is found. Question suggestions for the analysis: - In this game even though there are two teams, both teams must work together. How do you think not having a winner and a loser affects the game? - Do you think there are winners and losers in real life? - Are there relationships similar to this game in real life? Can you give an example? - What do you think politics is? What does it do? - What do you think war is? What does it do? - Do you think the border you live next to was drawn by war or by politics? - Do you know what is happening in Syria? Do you think the children there can still play this game?
AYŞI - A GAME FROM SYRIA Someone is chosen as the ‘it’. If ‘it’ touches someone else, that person is sent to the predetermined “prison” area. The chosen person tries to protect the prison, while the other children try to free the children in prison. If they do touch them they shout “Ayşı” which means “Live!” and sets them free. Question suggestions for the analysis: - How did the chosen person feel? - How did the children in prison feel? - How did the last free child feel? - Should a person consider a given role as a duty? - Can a person get caught up in this duty and lose control? - Which occupations give a person great authority? - What is responsibility? FISHNET Someone is chosen as the ‘it’. When the chosen person touches someone else they hold hands and unite. From his point forward they move together without letting go of each other. Each person they touch joins this net and the game continues until the last person is touched. (If someone is caught when they are not holding hands it does not count. The net must move together.) Question suggestions for the analysis: - Did the first person who was chosen think of a strategy? - How should the first person be chosen? - What is required for everyone to move together? - What kind of a feeling does moving together give? - How did the last remaining person feel? - What is it like to stand against a crowd? - Can a person protect him/herself against an organized movement?
11.50 Standing in a circle, the right palm is put on top of the hand of the person in the right and the left palm if put under the hand of the person in the left in a clockwise fashion. The clocks are from 1 to 11 and when the clock strikes 11, each 10 minute is counted by touching the person’s palm on the left with the right hand. A person is chosen by counting “1, 2, 3, 4…, 11, 11.10, 11.20, 11.30, 11.40, 11.50”. The chosen person counts from 1 to 11 again and then starts chasing people. When someone is caught the person chosen counts to 11 while holding him. If successful that person is also it. The game continues until everyone has been caught. Question suggestions for the analysis: - Since everyone is busy running away, they do not know who has been caught. How did you understand who it is? - How do the actions of caught and uncaught people change? When one person is confident and the other is worried, how does that reflect on attitudes? - Do you ever try to escape a person or a situation in real life ? How does this make you feel?
WOLF-MAN Two kids are “mommy” and one is wolf-man. Everyone else is an “egg”. The eggs sit down in a line. The mommies chose a color for each egg and whisper in their ears. The wolf-man comes and: - Knock knock knock - Who’s there? - Wolf-man! - What do you want? - Eggs! - What color? - Xxx (chooses a color) - Run! /or/ Oh my, it cracked! (If already caught, you say oh my, it cracked and wolf-man chooses another color.) The egg who hears his/her color begins to run and the wolf-man begins to chase them. If the wolf-man is able to catch them they also become wolves. If wolf-man can’t catch them the mommies shout “Come to mommy!”. After running one round the egg jumps into the mommy’s lap and enters the safe zone, sits down and continues to be an egg. After all the eggs have been eaten except the mommy, the game is over. Question suggestions for the analysis: - Does the “Mommy” character resemble anyone in your life? - Is there a resemblance between the “Mommy” character and real mothers? - What does it mean to be a mother? (The children can either think of this as “giving birth” or what it means to them emotionally.) - (Depending on what has been said emotionally) Do you think a father could do the same things? - Does the “Wolf-Man” character resemble anyone in your life? - Why did they name him Wolf-man? - Do you think women and men all around the world act the same way? - Do you think mothers and fathers all around the world act the same way? - If not, do you think the behaviors of men and women come from birth or are these behaviors learned later in life?
OLD MATTRESS One child faces a wall while the rest of the children pat his/her back and sing: Old Mattress Show us your face Or give us a pose Is it pretty Is it ugly Is it like a statue by the pool Which-is-it! The old mattress shouts one of these poses or any other poses (battery powered mannequin, non-battery powered mannequin, etc.) When the others pose, the old mattress turns around and chooses his/her favorite. That person becomes the old mattress. Question suggestions for the analysis: - What do we base pretty/ugly on? - Does everyone like the same things? - Can the taste of different people be argued? - If we argue, can they also argue about the things we like?
5- PRACTICAL INFORMATION GROUPS It is ideal to work with groups of 10 because it renders possible for each person to play in a team game, where balls are thrown in turn or players are assigned certain tasks. It also allows easy management of the group and everyone to express themselves and listen to others. The diversity of groups in terms of age, gender, physical appearance (size, height, etc.) makes it easier to discuss the dimensions of social power relationships, empathy, respect, and love. MATERIALS Materials that should cover the basic needs of all games: - A sash to cover eyes - A ball in size of a grapefruit - Flat stones that are the right size and shape to be stacked over one another - A long and distinct rope or a chalk to designate areas and lines - Walnuts or marbles in size of walnuts PLACE It is ideal to play in a flat area and a soft ground like grass in order to prevent injuries if children fall. But the most important element is to choose a place where children can express themselves freely and feel comfortable. If the place is indoors, it is important that your acoustics are arranged in such a way that everyone can hear each other, and if it is outdoors, a quiet environment is crucial.
IMPLEMENTERS’ PREPARATION For the Reconciliation Games to reach its purpose, it is important that the implementers in charge of games and analysis do not intervene in the conflict and relations of children as long as there is no swearing or violence. In this way, the children can evaluate the issues that occurred during the games. In addition, creating an ethical frame of good or bad must be avoided and children should be encouraged to think for themselves. It is important that children reflect their own values through empathy and emotions. It will be a plus if implementers are flexible, spontaneous and creative in situations of momentary boredom and attempts to spoil the game. At least 2 or 1 of 2 implementers being women could be an example for and inspire little girls who are systematically told they are weak. It is for that reason that implementers must also join the games and run and sweat with the children.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Reconciliation Games, despite being built on very basic principles, puts us through very intense processes. he small words we catch in between our talks, the glances and voices, the sorrow and light in the eyes of the elderly when they talk about their childhood lie at the basis of this programme. We would like to thank Erdinç Habip for opening the doors to Edirne for us, without ever questioning us, trusting us with all of his heart and joining us with curiosity to learn all the old forgotten games with a childish joy. We are grateful to Rıza Ürütürkcü, the president of the AZ 81 Sports Club, for broadening the horizons of many children in Edirne through oil wrestling. We thank the older generations of Edirne for telling us their past with such sorrow and laughter. Lastly, we salute all the old playmates across the border or in different parts of the world longingly. Wishing for a world where we play together again…
The Reconciliation Games programme was inspired and developed following the Anne Frank House “Teaching About Prejudice, Discrimination and Equal Rights” Seminar in 2015 and the individual experiences of the BoMoVu team members in transforming sports and physical movement into social benefit. The primary goal of this programme is to improve the cross-border perception of children by utilizing the space of freedom that is provided by games. To this end, we used traditional children games which are important components of cultural heritage as our tools. We aim to assist children to recognize and question all of the prejudices“ that they have gained about the “other” due to the region that they live in by pushing values such as tolerance, inclusiveness, equal rights, virtue, joy, happiness, love, and respect to the forefront in order to create a peaceful environment based on social inclusion for the relations children form with their surroundings.