The Omo Valley, Ethiopia… The region where the weird and the wonderful regularly combine!!!

 

Hello hello,

So we have now after a very rough drive through Northern Kenya made it to Ethiopia. A country which has beaten our expectations by a country mile!!

We started our journey in the Omo Valley, a part of the country which has remained fairly isolated from tourism and western influence until relatively recently. This region is widely known for its many tribes all living very close together in “relative” harmony amongst the hills and valleys of this Southern Ethiopia region. Our first night was spent in the Konso region of the Omo valley, due to being limited on time we didn't really get to explore the villages here, instead just witnessing the stripy, poofy skirts on the women, striped shorts on the men and strange dancing from the children.

Our next stop was the Key Afar market, our trusty Lonely Planet told us this was one of the best markets in the Omo valley to see a variety of tribes all interacting together, and it wasn’t wrong!! The market was a colourful sight with the Banna tribe, the Hammer tribe, the Tsemay and the Aari all doing their weekly shop for everything from butter to beaded jewellery. We had hired a guide for the market, Aman a young but very knowledgeable Banna man to show us the market and he was brilliant showing us the various tribes and helping us negotiate taking pictures. He also proved helpful when Malcolm had 2 different sets of angry locals abusing him for taking down their power lines!! We had heard that some of the Omo tribes could be pretty aggressive and persistent towards tourists but it was hassle free for us (apart from the power lines) and everyone loved it for our first real Omo valley experience.

While in the market our guide told us that a Bull Jumping ceremony was happening about 20km away the next afternoon. The bull jumping ceremony entails a boy who is ready to enter manhood running over the backs of 30 bulls 4 times while his female relatives get whipped to show their love for him. If the boy falls he gets beaten by his female relatives. After a bit of consultation with the group which didn't actually take that long as everyone was keen, we rearranged our itinerary to spend another couple of nights and witness this strange ceremony. The afternoon started with us being welcomed into the tribe with dancing and local beer made of sorghum (with a large amount of flies too). We then moved onto the whipping, for many tribes in the Omo Valley scarification is a form of beautification and is weaved into many of their ceremonies. The females at the ceremony all grabbed sticks and vines and begged to be whipped. We looked on rather alarmed while their wounds bled and they begged for more.. it was very surreal. The day slowly progressed on Africa time, while celebrations; dancing, drinking and face painting continued and more and more people turned up. Finally as darkness came the real event began as the men made a grab for the bulls horns and tails to keep them in an orderly line and the women circled all singing and chanting, we stood by and watched the madness unfold. Countless bulls escaped queue children screaming and me almost having a panic attack but eventually the boy stripped naked and hopped on the bulls to run across not just 4 times but 6 times! What a man hey!!!

Our next stop in the Omo Valley was a town called Jinka, an access point to see the famous Mursi tribe. This is the most well known tribe in the Omo valley mainly for its weird but wonderful lip plates the women wear. The tribe was a 2 hour drive away from Jinka and enroute we encountered one of the best shows of team work I have ever seen. A large truck carrying 30 tonnes of sugar cane was jack knifed across the road, meanwhile around 8 buses loaded up with men heading to the sugar cane factories were all stuck behind it. Now in a western world the police, maybe a fire engine or even a breakdown team would be called upon to pull this truck out, but there was none of that around here. So instead the men proposed to……… pull it out by hand. The scepticals in our group (myself included initially) pronounced they could never do it. But sure enough with a little help from another truck towing him back a little to straighten up, they did it!!!

After the drama of the truck we quickly and rather excitedly arrived at a Mursi village. The Mursi were the tribe we had been warned most about for hassling us to pay for taking their photos and wearing jewellery which the children can pickpocket that kind of thing, so we were slightly sceptical of the visit we had planned. Thankfully we hired a good guide Becky who gave us the best advice; to leave the cameras in the vehicle for a good hour so we can actually interact with the tribe without being harassed. It was a great experience to meet a tribe so far removed from western civilisation, the men all walk around naked apart from a loosely strung blanket from their waist, the women's lips sagged loosely after being stretched to wear their lip plates (another sign of beauty and only worn at ceremonies or for our photos!) and we happily taught the kids clapping games while they held AK47’s over their shoulders! And then it was time for the pictures and all madness descended, we were prodded and pulled in every direction to take photos and subsequently pay them money and once this started within 15 minutes we were done. While this madness ensued another vehicle turned up with 3 or 4 tourists who literally hopped out to get photos for maybe 5 minutes before jumping in their vehicle and driving back to Jinka, a 2 hour drive for pretty much nothing, what a shame!!

All in all our visit was a success we can see why the Mursi have the reputation they do but while tourists like those we saw stay for just 5 minutes to take photos, pay them and leave is it really any wonder they act like they do? For us, thanks to our guide Becky we all felt we got a lot out of the day learning and interacting with the Mursi whilst also getting a few photos in the process.

Sadly the Mursi was our last stop in the Omo Valley before heading out to the bustling capital of Addis Ababa, for me and Malcolm and I think for many of the group it was a real highlight of our time in Africa and it sent us on our way through Ethiopia with high expectations of all that was to come….

Much love

Grace X

P.S. Yes that’s right Malcolm is holding a real AK in that photo!!