The Mursi tribe in south-western Ethiopia

*WS51 – The Mursi tribe in south-western Ethiopia*

The Konso people in the last posting do have a house with facility for children to receive basic education. But the people to be featured in this post do not have that basic facility because they are semi nomads.  

The Lower Omo Valley is a region, 165 sq km in size, in the south western part of the country. It is home to about 200,000 indigenous people, consisting of some 16 tribes, among them some of the most fascinating in the World. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its culture and diversity. The villages are far apart, naturally, as the tribes are mostly agro-pastoral and semi-nomadic. And hence very little infrastructure: no tarred road, no treated water, no electricity, no phone service, no ….. Our 4-wheel-drives had to stock up their own diesel needed. 

We were here for 2 days and visited villages of 4 tribes. To visit one of these villages we crossed a river with basic dugouts to reach the other side, 1st photo, then walked for a km. The villages are that isolated. 

The most fascinating are the Mursi tribe, living close to the border with South Sudan. They number about 3,500, a dark semi-nomadic people. 2nd photo shows their typical huts. The men are reputed fierce warriors. Look how "fierce" the 1st man looks. And look at the chest of the 2nd man: it bears elaborate scarification patterns. 

The Mursi women are even more famous. They wear unique clay lip-plates. The woman cut a slit in her lower lip, put a clay plate to stretch the opening. The lips are stretched for months, with bigger and bigger plates, the largest about 12 cm. Look at the ear lobes of all these women: they are pierced too which means they might also wear "ear-lobe plates" or hang heavy ornaments, though we did not see any. The origin of the practice of lip-plate is unknown, likely to be a symbol of womanhood as the women start to cut their lips around 15 years old. And to accommodate the lip plates, all the 4 lower front teeth have to be removed. How cruel a custom this could be? 

It is to be noted body scarification was common among many of the tribes. It has since been banned by the government. Those white lines on the bodies of the children are just paint work. Body painting is common among all the tribes. 

They of course receive no formal education. But all the women folks and children know these two English words “photo money”. You have to pay to take their photos. Official rate is 5 Birr (about RM 1) a photo but the unofficial rate is 5 Birr for several photos of the same person. And they had sales too. Near to the end of the visit, a woman would pull your camera strap, pointing towards her and two other women beside her, meaning you pay 5 Birr now you could take photos of all 3 of them. They knew the window of business is closing. 

This “photo money” applied to all of the 4 tribes we visited. But I have not met any man asking for “photo money”. You give them, they will take, but they won’t ask. They are that prideful.