Tribes of Ethiopia’s Omo Valley

Over the last five days we have visited a number of tribes in the Omo Valley, each with own culture but there are also many aspects that they share. The valley is home to some 600,000 people spread over roughly 25,000 sq kilometres at altitudes between 360 to 3,300 metres. There are at least 16 distinct tribes living in the valley speaking at least three different languages across the region. 

Each of the groups has their own distinct language and most have people within the clan that also speak Amharic. The groups can be split into their linguistic derivation: Nilo-Saharan, Omotic or Cushitic. 

The majority of groups participate in practices that we shun, and rightly so, and many of those practices have been used since time immemorial. In our terms their way of life is primitive. In their terms its ‘normal’ and although they work had physically they must surely be happier without the material rubbish we accumulate. Their mudbrick houses have no ‘rooms’, floor boards, windows or appliances. They sleep on the bare ground, they cook over an open fire in the the same room as they sleep and wash wherever they find water. Their homes and surroundings were generally spotless. The little kids were generally snotty nosed and some of the adults not the cleanest but they smelt cleaner than many of the city folk. In one of the villages the girls kept asking us for soap but noticed they all had beautiful skin so whatever they wash with seems to work. Some of their practices we consider totally barbaric; scarring, beating, marriage by abduction and female circumcision to name a few. Moves are in place to abolish the female circumcision across Africa but it is so deeply entrenched here in the remote regions that it will take a lot of education and many years for it to make a difference. 
The Omo Valley tribes are some of the few remaining tribes worldwide who still live the way they have always done without adopting western ways. 

Here is a summary of some of the groups:

The Ari people boast the largest population in the valley with around 300,000 people across an area of about 2,500sq km. They are predominantly agriculturalists and live in permanent villages. Animal husbandry is their second form of income. 

As mentioned in previous blogs Ari land is separated into 9 groups, each with their own chief and often with variations of culture amongst them. 

Ari men are allowed to marry as many wives as they want as long as they can afford the bride wealth (dowry) and other expenses of married life.  Ari do not allow marriage by abduction like some of the other tribes. 

Compared with other tribes the Ari people consume a more varied diet than other tribes due to the fact that they are permanently based in the same place. They speak variations of the Omotic language. 

The Hamar people predominantly live off livestock but the girls and women also raise sorghum, maize and pumpkin. The women also maintain the house, collect water and cook. The men mind the animals, plough the fields and raise bees. 

The land is not owned by the individuals but is free for use by any members of the tribe. Once the land is exhausted they move on. 

Their diet is predominantly vegetarian supplemented by milk and honey. 

The Hamar are the tribe that participate in bull jumping, where the ‘of age’ boys run naked over the backs of a between 8 and 20 cows and castrated male cattle to prove that they are worthy of marriage.  As part of the ritual the boys female relatives join the festivities by demanding to be whipped and encouraging the men to keep going. Its not a gentle whipping either as demonstrated by some of the scars we saw on some of the young girls.   Like many of the tribes the Hamar have different ways of marriage including consensual marriage, marriage by inheritance, replacement marriage and marriage through abduction!!!!The women sport elaborate hairstyles created by curling the hair into narrow coils and smothering it with butter and clay. They also wear necklaces to indicate their marital status. Married women wear two metal bands round their neck. The first wife also wears a necklace with a protruding metal section out the front. Unmarried women wear colourful beads and elaborately decroated goatskins cover the lower part of their bodies. As with the Ari people their language fits into the Omotic group but is quite different to what the Ari people speak. 

The Dassanach people are the most southerly ethnic group living in the valley and live where the Omo river reaches the delta. The word Dassanach means ‘People of the Delta’ and the ethnic group has now absorbed peoples from other ethnic clans and each clan has its own responsibilities. 

They live primarily from the proceeds of cattle; meat, leather, milk all provide them with income. 

We did not visit the Mursi or the Suri ethnic groups but we did see some of them at the markets.  The people are quite similar in appearance; tall and slim and their distinctive bottom lip plates for women are common to both groups. 

Both peoples rely on cattle for income and in both cases the cattle are tended by the young boys and men. Women tend to the house and the land. 

The exchange of cattle features in almost all relationships particularly marriage where around 30-40 cattle are givento the brides father by the grooms family. 

Their diet consists largely of a kind of porridge made from sorghum or maize and supplements by milk and blood taken directly from the neck of the cattle. 

The Mursi practice scarification where cuts are made in the skin and then dirt is rubbed into the cuts. The Suri practice the art of body painting where they use different coloured clays to paint the faces and bodies with intricate designs. 

Both Mursi and Suri speak variations of the Nilo-Saharan language. 

If you are interested to know more about the tribes the booklet “A guide to the ethnic groups Omo Valley Southern Ethiopia”, by Minalu Adem is great.