Ethiopia’s Omo Valley is one of the wildest and most ethnically diverse places on Earth  and as such the Omo valley tribes is a ‘capture it while you can’ destination. This harsh and inhospitable place has over ten distinctly different tribes existing within a 60 km / 38 miles radius each with its own unique language, clothing, hairstyles and bodily ornamentation. The lower Omo is home to a remarkable mix of small contrasting ethnic groups –not only the Bume and the Karo, but also the Geleb, the Mursi, the Suri (Surma), the Arebore and the Hamer, to the name but a few. Lifestyles are as various as the tribes themselves. The Bume and Karo mingle with the pastoral Geleb and the transhumant Hamer. The Mursi and the Suri (Surma), meanwhile, mix basic subsistence cultivation with small –scale cattle –herding –lives of harsh simplicity uncluttered by the pressures of the modern world.

What to see

• Body paintings using clay and vegetation
• Unique hair styles
• Bizarre jewelry collection
• Stick fighting between young men      

     Tribe

Suri

Ee! Agge kano Suri (Yes! We are Suri), we also known as “Surma”, our brothers live in Republic of South Sudan also call as Kachipo, more about Suri on “Who We Are”

Mursi

Mursi Tribe is famous for the clay lip plates that the women insert in their lower lips; the Mursi tribe is probably one of the last Omo Valley tribes in Africa amongst whom it is still the norm for women to wear these large pottery or wooden discs or plates.

The lip plate (dhebi a tugoin) has become the chief visible distinguishing characteristic of the fascinating Mursi tribe people. A girl’s lower lip is cut, typically by her mother or another woman of her settlement, when she reaches the age of 15 or 16. The cut is then held open by a wooden plug until the wound heals. It appears to be up to the individual girl to decide how far to stretch the lip, which she does by inserting progressively larger plugs over several months. Some girls even persevere until their lips can take plates of 12 cm (5 inches) or more in diameter!

The Mursi tribe and their neighbours became part of the Ethiopian State in the final years of the 19th century, when Emperor Menelik II established control over the southwestern lowlands bordering Kenya and Sudan.

This was an area inhabited by several small Omo Valley tribes with fluid identities, highly adaptable to environmental conditions and capable of easily absorbing outsiders into their communities. The Mursi tribe as we know them today are the product of a large-scale migratory movement of cattle herding peoples in the general direction of the Ethiopian highlands. Three separate movements may be distinguished in the recent history of the Mursi tribe, each the result of growing environmental pressure associated with the drying out of the Omo basin over the last 150 – 200 years.

The Mursi tribe people attribute overwhelming cultural importance to cattle. Almost every significant social relationship – particularly marriage – is marked and authenticated by exchanging cattle. The “Bride wealth” (ideally consisting of 38 head of cattle) is handed over by the groom’s family to the bride’s father, who must meet the demands of a wide range of relatives from different clans. This ensures that cattle are continually redistributed around the community, thereby helping to provide for the long-term economic security of individuals as well as their families.

There is so much individual beauty found within and between the different cultures, as reflected by their spectacular bodily adornment. However the reality of photographing the tribes of Ethiopia is so much more than simply capturing images of the wildly varied peoples of the valley. It is about connecting with the people – with the tribes – whose traditions are being tested by a fast-changing world, while simultaneously experiencing ancient and beautiful cultures that may not be here in the near future.

Hamer

The Hamer tribe is one of the most well-known Omo Valley tribes in Southern Ethiopia. They inhabit the territory east of the Omo River and have villages in both Turmi and Dimeka.They are especially well known for their unique rituals, including a cattle-leaping ceremony that the young men have to undergo in order to reach adulthood and to marry. They are a highly ‘superstitious’ people, and to this day they consider twins to be babies born outside of wedlock, while children whose upper milk teeth develop before their lower teeth are deemed to be ‘evil’ or ‘unclean’.For this reason, such children are discarded in the bush and simply left to die few year ago but now aday they are much better which they learn something new how the world moving on it  , as they would rather lose a single child than inflict any disaster upon their community. The Hamar people are also known for one of the most bizarre rituals on Earth. This is when the women allow themselves to be whipped by the male members of their family as a symbol of their love! The scars of such encounters are conspicuously evident on the bodies of all Hamer tribe women. These Hamer tribe women take great pride in their appearance and wear traditional dresses consisting of a brown goatskin skirt adorned with dense vertical rows of red and yellow beads. Their hair is characteristically fixed in dense ringlets with butterfat mixed with red ochre. They also wear many bracelets and necklaces fashioned of beads or metal, depending on their age, wealth and marital status. The men wear woven cloth wrapped around their waist, and many elders wear delicately coloured clay head caps that are fashioned into their hair and adorned with an ostrich feather. As mentioned, the young Hamar tribe men are famous for their “Evangadi dance” and “Bull jumping” ceremony (it is as part of this ceremony that the afore-mentioned whipping occurs). This ritual entails young men who wish to marry jumping over a line of bulls, thereby proving their worth to their intended bride’s family. It also signifies their advent into adulthood.

[What to see]

Hamer Bull Jumping

Karo Tribe

The Karo tribe lives along the east bank of the Omo River and practice flood retreat cultivation, their main crops being maize, sorghum and beans. Unlike the other Omo valley tribes, they keep only a small number of cattle due to the prevalence of tsetse flies. Like many of the Ethiopian tribes in the Omo, they paint their bodies and faces with white chalk to prepare for any ceremonies. The chalk is mixed with yellow rock, red iron ore and charcoal to make its requisite colour. Facemasks are worn at times and they have clay hair buns adorned with feathers.Scarification is also an important part in the Karo tribe people’s lives. This includes the complete scarification of a man’s chest with which to indicate that he has killed an enemy or dangerous animal (Amongst the Karo tribe, killing one’s enemies isn’t viewed as an act of murder, but as an act of honour!).This scarification process involves lightly slicing the skin with knives or razor blades and then rubbing ash into the open wounds to produce a permanently raised effect. The Karo tribe women have decoratively-scarred abdomens, which are considered sensual and very desirable.