OMO VALLEY - THE VANISHING TRIBES OF ETHIOPIA

INTRODUCTION
Surma woman with lip plate.
At a young age, they remove
their bottom teeth and they
pierce their bottom lip, which
is stressed to allow insertion
of a clay lip plate.
Surma men spend most of
their time looking after their
precious cattle. They guard
them with AK-47 Kalashnikov
machine-guns.
Cattle, goats and sheep are
vital to most tribes’ livelihood
providing them with blood,
milk and meat. They are
highly valued and used to buy
brides.
Omo is a major river in southern Ethiopia. Its
course is entirely contained within the boundaries
of the country and empties into Lake Turkana, on the
border with Kenya. However, its final destination was a
source of controversy: Did it end in the Indian Ocean,
the Nile River, or Lake Turkana? In 1896 the famous
Italian explorer Vittorio Bottego, under the auspices
of the Italian Geographical Society, put an end to this
controversy. His expedition explored the lands known
as the Lower Omo Valley, confirming that its waters
were in fact the great source which fed Lake Turkana.
Towards the end of the 19th century the Omo region
became part of Ethiopia, but remained isolated from
the historic events which shaped the rest of the
country. Bordering with Kenya and Sudan, far from
any city, it is a lost world, a region traversed only by a
few bad quality roads, passable only in the dry season.
In its 500 mile course the river curls through gorges of
volcanic rock and channels of ancient mud. Near the
Kenyan border, the Omo carves serpentine oxbows as
the countryside flattens, and ribbons of forest appear
along its banks. Riverine creatures, including crocodiles
and hippos, become more abundant.
In the 1970s and ‘80s, international anthropologists
and linguists found it quite disconcerting that a territory,
which was not excessively large, could be home
to so many different ethnic and cultural groups. For
generations the tribes of the Omo were shielded from
the outside world by mountains, savanna, and by Ethiopia’s
unique status, as the only African nation never
to have been colonized by the Europeans. In 1980,
UNESCO declared the Lower Omo Valley a World Heritage
Site, in recognition of its uniqueness, and from
then on few tourists begun travelling in the region.
Here live some 15 semi-nomadic tribes, the largest
comprising by some 70,000 people and the smallest
no more than 1,000, a total of about 200,000. Amazingly,
these small groups are interrelated in such a
way that over time, they underwent their own evolution
marked by a process of displacement, changes in
survival means, symbiotic relationships, conflicts and
acculturation under the influence of the dominant
groups. Their evolution, in one of the most isolated
regions of Africa, puzzles specialists. Undoubtedly,
the most striking difference lays in their languages
– despite the efforts of the Ethiopian government
to introduce Amharic, the official one. Neighboring
tribes may have languages of completely different
origins, some harking back to Nilotic cultures and
others rooted to the mountainous regions of Ethiopia.
To this day, the Omo Valley remains rich in traditional
culture and human history, and is considered
to be the cradle of mankind. It’s been said: “If Africa
was the mother of all humanity, the Omo River acted as
a main artery”. Remains of early humans dating back
to nearly four million years have been found here –
evidence of an almost continuous human presence.
DNA analysis suggests that every living person is
related to a single woman from the Omo Valley – the
famous “Lucy” skeleton, that was discovered during
excavations in southern Ethiopia in 1974.
Geographically, the tribes live along the banks
of the River Omo, whose silt-laden waters run into
Lake Turkana, in the Kenyan border, and whose
levels are changing greatly between the rainy and
dry seasons, enduring hardships caused either by
the cycles of nature, or the hand of man. Long dry
seasons, extreme temperatures and difficult terrains
make survival a monumental challenge. Young people
learn that endurance is an essential virtue and part
of the inheritance handed down from their ancestors.
The challenge of survival has forged the strength and
indomitable spirit of the tribes.
The nomadic ways of herdsmen do not allow for
the development of any material culture, either for
aesthetic or spiritual purposes. Continuous movement
requires few and easily portable possessions,
primarily those necessary to facilitate minimal daily
functions. Their small huts provide shelter from the
sun and the rain and are sparsely furnished. Simple
fires with a crude earthenware pot sit beside gourds of
different shapes and sizes, goat and cow skins and few
baskets and rudimentary utensils. The most exquisite
functional artisan work is the wooden neck support,
which also preserves their elaborately decorated
hairstyles. Their size, light weight and wide use make
them essential – objects that men carry all the time,
using them for sitting as well. Lack of material culture
is compensated by the exceptional ornamental and
symbolic wealth of their decorated bodies.
One of the most astonishing things about these
people is their beauty. Both boys and girls have
magnificent physiques, slender and unusually supple.
They adorn themselves to express status and tribal
identity, not only to enhance their physical appearance
but also to demonstrate messages and signals
through scarification, paintings and hair styles.
Cattle are an integral part of tribal life. Almost
everything depends on cows. Along with milk and
meat, the blood – which the tribesmen regularly take
from a vein in the neck of each animal – is a staple
food. Cows also act as local currency; everything is
calculated in terms of cattle heads. But they represent
a lot more than food and currency. They are the
cultural heritage that stands at the very heart of the
tribe and its survival.
Fighting the enemy is also an inherent part of
their culture and tradition. The intertribal conflicts go
on from generation to generation. They are fighting
over the diminishing resources they need to run their
herds: water, and land. The only piece of modern
technology widespread among the tribes is the automatic
weapon.
The ongoing conflict in Sudan and Somalia, have
created trade in Russian Kalashnikovs and European
G-3 rifles. These weapons have been entering from
neighboring Sudan for about 15 years and are sold
according to a well established price list: an old model
is worth eight cows, which is relatively affordable,
whereas the latest Kalashnikov costs between 30 and
50 cows – exactly the same price as a beautiful girl.
Africa is a continent of rituals; a land where the
process of “becoming” is celebrated at every stage
of life as an essential part of the journey of the individual
and their cultural identity. The place of every
man, woman and child is defined within the framework
of the extended family, age grade, ethnic group,
and nation. These roles in turn give individuals a sense
of belonging and purpose, and the sure knowledge
that they are valued. From childhood to manhood,
the different phases are marked by initiations,
Decorating their bodies with
paint, is a great source of fun
for small Surma children. In
this way they are learning
to decorate themselves for
courtship rituals later in life.
Mixing chalk with water to
form a thick paste, Surma
men, draw linear, intricate
designs on their bodies, using
their fingertips.
Surma women, perform scarification
by slicing their skin
with a razor blade after lifting
it with a thorn. The sliced skin
is left open to eventually scar.
They are proud of their scars.