OMO VALLEY: THE EXTRAORDINARY TRIBAL PEOPLE OF SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA

OMO VALLEY PHOTOGRAPHY TOURS WITH WILD IMAGES

The extraordinarily diverse country of Ethiopia is home to some of the last true tribal peoples in Africa and has become famous for its exceptional tribal photography potential. In southwest Ethiopia lies the Omo Valley, a living anthropological treasure of spectacular people, including the Hamer, Suri, Dassanech, Karo, Nyangatom, and Mursi tribes. In the face of an ever-changing world, each of these tribes struggles to maintain their traditions of dress, dance, decoration, and way of life. A visit to Ethiopia’s Omo Valley is to visit a world that is fast disappearing. A world of beauty, diversity, and strength that has vanished from large parts of Africa.

Collectively, the Omo Valley people draw inspiration from the surrounding wilderness, and this is reflected in their varied styles of traditional dress.

Why travel to the Omo Valley with Wild Images?

Currently, many photographers and photography tour companies offer trips to the Omo Valley.  We have decided to offer a unique alternative to the more standard itineraries offered by so many.  By joining a Wild Images tour, we work with an unrivalled level of ground expertise and local trackers who are well connected to the various tribal people in the Omo and Central Rift Valleys.  Our leader has almost thirty years of travel experience in Africa and knows Ethiopia extremely well.  We travel to remote villages and arrive when the light is best for photography. We also believe the best images come from photographing people in a two-way exchange.  We encourage our guests to chat to local people through our interpreters, laugh with them, engage with them and simply enjoy the experience of being immersed in their world.  As our tour shows, we don’t just pass through villages for less than an hour to take photos. We stroll around, enjoy the places, sit in the shade with local people, drink coffee with them, or enjoy banter at lively, colourful local markets.  Join us on a journey where you make friends alongside beautiful images in one of the most spectacular tribal regions of the African continent.

Peoples of the Omo we will visit

Suri

The Suri are the largest of three similar tribes collectively called the Surma. This group is effectively divided by altitude, modernisation, and dialect. While the two smaller Surma groups, the Deze and Mele of the uplands, have modernised and stopped wearing traditional clothes, the more numerous Suri, or people of the lowlands, have retained much of their historical appearance and lifestyle.

Over the years, increased tourism and photography have created an industry that supports the people of the Omo Valley, or the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR), in their ever-diminishing ways to earn money. It has also given rise to some rather beautiful, yet unusual practices.

The spectacular Suri tribe, for example, has two very distinct personalities. The first is a newer tradition of body painting and decoration with wildflowers, skins, metal, and ceramic pots. While this traditionally formed a very small part of Suri culture (they have always decorated themselves extensively for special events like weddings and initiations), they now regularly dress up like this for photographers, even though this act has very little anthropological merit. On our tour, we will definitely spend a small amount of time around decorated Suri people, as it is a very beautiful experience photographically. The strength of the Suri, and the focus of our photography with them, however, lies in their ability to retain traditional body adornment in the form of scarring, piercing and shaving. Piercing lips and lobes and inserting lip plates are a strong part of the Suri culture. At puberty, most young women have their lower teeth removed in order to get their lower lip pierced. Once the lip is pierced, it is stretched, and lip plates of increasing size are placed in the piercing. Having a lip plate is a sign of female beauty and appropriateness; a common belief is that the bigger the plate, the more cattle the woman is ‘worth’ for her bride price, though anthropologists question this.

The Suri pride themselves on their scars and how many they carry. Women perform decorative scarification by slicing their skin with a razor blade after lifting it with a thorn. After the skin is sliced, the leftover piece is left to scar. On the other hand, the men traditionally scarred their bodies after they killed someone from an enemy group.

A sport and ritual the Suri take very seriously is stick fighting, or Donga. In most cases, young men do this stick fighting so they can find wives. It lets young men prove themselves to young women. To the Suri, the ideal time to stick fight is just after it rains, but if we are lucky, we may chance upon a fight on our tour. The fights are held between Suri clans, and they begin with 20 to 30 people on each side. Of these 20 to 30 people, all get a chance to fight one-on-one against someone from the other side. Referees are present during these fights to make sure the rules are followed. Many stick fights end after a couple of decisive hits.

We will spend time with the Suri in order to enjoy both their touristic and traditional sides, while hoping to see a much-anticipated donga during our trip.

Nyangatom and Toposa

The Nyangatom and Toposa inhabit a starkly beautiful region of Africa’s Ilu-Mien Triangle, which is both remote and incredibly photogenic. This hot, dry, arid region of southern Ethiopia features dusty plains and waxy-leaved Calotropis bushes. Exploring this remote part of Ethiopia, we may encounter a myriad of different ethnic groups, most notably the elaborately decorated Nyangatom and the spectacularly scarred Toposa. Nyangatom women are known for wearing copious amounts of brightly coloured necklaces, and their more subtle scars are sometimes glimpsed between layers of coloured fabric. The Nyangatom engage in inter-tribal conflict with virtually every neighbouring tribe, except the Toposa, who may live with and intermarry with Nyangatom people.

We will seek out the Toposa living amongst the Nyangatom so we can photograph their beautiful scarification. Toposa women often carry a series of horizontal scars across their bellies. Men adorn their shoulder blades with concentric, arched lines of dotted scars.

Karo

To the east of the Rift Valley are the lands of the elaborately painted and scarred Karo People. The Karo excel in face and body painting practised daily in preparation for their dances and ceremonies. They pulverise locally found white chalk, yellow mineral rock, red iron ore, and black charcoal to decorate their bodies, often mimicking the spotted plumage of a guinea fowl. The men create highly decorated clay hair buns, which can take up to three days to complete. Their ornate body scarring, where they cut a design with a knife and rub ash into the wound to create a raised welt, is also a known characteristic of the Karo.

We will visit a beautiful Karo village that is perched high on an embankment overlooking the spectacular Omo River.  Naturally, we will visit to photograph people, but we will also explore the village and enjoy the intricate, well-constructed Karo huts.  Many of these, including their livestock enclosures and a spectacular public building called a Marmar (effectively the ‘parliament house’ of the Karo), are fashioned from local hardwoods harvested from the nearby riverine forests.  The Karo live gently in this region, sharing their world with beautiful wildlife, including black-and-white colobus monkeys, Olive Baboons, and birdlife such as gonoleks, African Fish Eagles, and Hadeda Ibises.

Dassanech

A highlight among the tribes we will visit is the Dassanech people, who originate from the spectacular Lake Turkana region in northern Kenya.  They were traditionally known for wearing elaborate headdresses and jewellery fashioned from traded goods and bottle tops. However, in early 2018, they collectively took a stand against this practice as it was being done strictly for photographers and tourists and wasn’t representative of their true culture. Worried that the build-up of tourism was altering their culture in a negative way, the Dassanech returned to their traditional dress of a red-coloured ‘Mure’ or strings of necklaces, and now live as they always have, in beautiful huts made from sticks and skins, with the recent addition of corrugated iron. We will visit a remote village of Dassanech people that lies around 25 kilometres from the border of Kenya and Ethiopia.  Our donation to the village elders will help Dassanech children attend school and support the village through food purchases.

Hamer

The women of the friendly Hamer tribe are often considered to be some of the most beautiful in the entire Omo Valley region. They use a beautiful combination of ochre and animal fat to cover their skin, while dressing in a goat skin decorated with thousands of beads. First wives of Hamer men wear a ‘Binyari ’, or heavy metal necklace fixed by a ‘lock’ of metal that indicates their status. Every Monday, the Hamer people walk from the surrounding villages to trade their wares at a bustling local market. This market, and indeed the entire village with its colourful, ramshackle buildings, allow for beautiful street photography, so we will make two excursions here.

If we are lucky during our stay, we may encounter a traditional Hamer Bull Jumping Ceremony. The Hamer are known for their unique custom of “bull jumping,” which initiates a boy into manhood. In the week leading up to the ceremony, a group of male friends surrounds the initiate, feeding him, preparing him, and helping him practice for the big event. The ceremony usually takes place on a Monday, after the market has finished. First, female relatives dance and invite whipping from men who have recently been initiated; this shows their support of the initiated, and their scars give them a right to demand his help in time of need. The men who supported the chosen boy then paint their faces so the boy can recognise them during the ceremony. Eventually, the bulls are brought to the assembled Hamer people, where they are blessed on a walking circuit before being taken to the arena. Guests are greeted with coffee or local araki (or beer) and wait for the jumping ceremony in the shade. Eventually the bulls are brought to the arena and held together by the boy’s assistants. The initiate boy must then run back and forth twice across the backs of a row of bulls or castrated steers, and he is ridiculed if he fails. Although these events have drawn many tourists in recent years, they remain a fascinating afternoon and ceremony to witness, so we will join the throngs if we discover one is taking place during our tour.

Hamer Besheda and Banna

During our tour, we will visit one of the Omo Valley’s bustling local markets, where we may encounter a sub-culture of Hamer people: the Hamer Besheda.  Most noticeable in women’s dress, Hamer Besheda often wear adorned goatskin skirts and a headdress made from a gourd. Anthropologically, they are closely related to the Banna people, and although their physical appearances differ in subtle ways, we will explore their use of skins, body paint and beaded decorations during our time on the road and in the markets.

The well-known ‘Stilt Boys’ near Jinka belong to the Banna people, and we will visit these athletic young men to take curious images of them wandering around on high stilts.

Arbore

The Arbore, also known as the Ulde, are an ethnic group living in southern Ethiopia, near Lake Chew Bahir. With a total population of around 7000, the Arbore are divided into four villages: Gandareb, Kulaama, Murale, and Eegude. They live in hot and flat areas and are mainly cattlemen. Like most other tribes of the Omo Valley, cows, goats, and sheep are the main source of livelihood and value for the Arbore people. Their name literally means: Land of the Bulls (Ar means bull and bore means land). The main feature differentiating the Arbore tribe from other tribes of the Omo Valley is their high spiritual status. Local legend says the devil once attacked the Arbore, but the tribe managed to win and survive. Since then, Arbore priests are believed to have special strength and power, and if another tribe’s priests can’t solve their problems, a delegation of elders with gifts is sent to Arbore to ask for help. Thanks to this, the Arbore lead a very quiet existence, and no other Omo Valley tribe is brave enough to attack them or their cattle.

The Arbore live in large huts, often nestled against piles of tall Papyrus reeds collected from the lakeshore to feed their livestock. Immaculately clean and beautiful in architecture, we will enjoy spending time with a group of Arbore at both sunset and sunrise as Arbore herders deliver their livestock to the fields and then home to rest. We will also see the stunningly intricate jewellery and black cloth attire of Arbore women, who, along with the Hamer women, are considered some of the most beautiful women in the region.

Mursi

The second group of people who adorn themselves with elaborate ‘lip disks’, the Mursi are a Nilotic, pastoralist tribe that undergoes various rites of passage, educational, or disciplinary processes. Lip plates are a well known aspect of the Mursi and Surma, who are probably the last groups in Africa amongst whom it is still the norm for women to wear large pottery, wooden discs, or ‘plates,’ in their lower lips. Girls’ lips are pierced at the age of 15 or 16. Occasionally, unmarried women wear lip plates to a dance.

Ceremonial duelling (thagine), a form of ritualised male violence, is a highly valued and popular activity of Mursi men, especially unmarried men, and a key marker of Mursi identity. Age sets are an important political feature, where men are formed into named “age sets” and pass through a number of “age grades” during the course of their lives; married women have the same age grade status as their husbands.

While visiting the Mursi and their close relatives, the Suri, we will try to search for a cattle camp for our group to visit.  Both the Suri and the Mursi rely heavily upon their herds of cattle for meat, milk and blood.  The latter is bled from cows to drink at breakfast, in a similar way to the cattle bloodletting of the Maasai people of Kenya.  We cannot guarantee a cattle camp visit, as the shepherds are nomadic and move often to graze their cattle and protect them from rustling by neighbouring tribes.  If we find one, however, visiting a cattle camp is one of the highlights of travel in the Omo Valley, providing a unique insight into the nomadic way of life of the Suri and Mursi people.

Important: Occasionally, security issues on the road through Mago National Park, which leads to the only accessible villages of the Mursi people, can affect travel.  If this happens before our tour begins, we will visit the Dorze people of the Konso region instead.

Dorze

The fascinating Dorze people belong to the larger agro-pastoralist community of the Gamo people in the terraced hills of Konso.  They are best known for their strong, large huts that resemble beehives. Although these huts look fragile, they can last up to 60 years. The huts can also be transported to other locations, thanks to the structure made of vertical poles. While we explore villages of Dorze people we will learn and photograph them making ‘Kotcho’ or a leavened bread made from enset, or false banana.

The Dorze are prominent weavers of colourful, hand-woven cotton garments called Shamma. They also hand-weave heavy blankets called Bulluko. A much thinner cotton cloth, in high demand countrywide, is used to tailor dresses for women.

Gamo

After a spectacular drive out of the Omo Valley and through the beautiful terraced fields of the Konso people, we will enjoy a final night at the beautiful Paradise Lodge in Arba Minch, where we will recap on our encounters with these magnificent people. On our final morning, we will take a quiet, gentle boat trip on Lake Chamo, where fishermen from the Gamo tribe ply the waters searching for Nile Perch and Tilapia on the same papyrus reed boats they have used for centuries.

The Tribal Markets of the Omo Valley

During our time in this region, we will visit two significant markets, ideal for street and portrait photography.  One is the central market of Key Afara, and the other is the local market of the Hamer people in Turmi. If you hope to purchase some beautiful African art or jewellery during our trip, these markets offer some wonderful pieces handcrafted by tribal artisans.

Accommodation & Road Transport

In Addis Ababa and for five nights in the Omo, we will stay in comfortable lodges with private bathrooms in every room. For seven nights, we will stay in outfitted camps erected by our camp crew, who also cook wonderful food. The tents are two-man-sized tents, but each person gets their own tent. (Couples can opt to sleep in one and put their luggage in the other should they so wish.)  Tents have a camp bed with mattress, linen and pillow with pillowcase. Breakfasts at camp consist of omelettes with fresh bread or pancakes and hot coffee/tea. For lunch, there are salads and bread with fruit, and dinner is a three-course meal starting with soup, followed by a selection of main courses and fresh fruit for dessert. Each camp has a shower tent and also male and female toilet tents. Road transport is by 4×4 vehicles as roads in southern Ethiopia can sometimes be quite rough.

Walking

The walking effort is easy throughout.

Climate

Generally warm or hot, dry and sunny.

VIEW OUR GUESTS’ PHOTOGRAPHS

Having recently returned from my second Wild Images trip to the OMO Valley in Ethiopia, I wanted to express my thoughts and thanks for these two great trips. These two extremely well organized trips were truly amazing experiences. I have traveled extensively having been to Africa many times mostly for wildlife photography. These trips were my first and second real experiences with cultural photography photo tours. For the first trip, I decided to go after seeing some of the photos taken by Inger Vandyke on the website. With these two trips, I can highly recommend Wild Images and specifically our tour leader for both trips, Inger Vandyke. I can not imagine a better trip or leader when it comes to this kind of experience. This trip really depends on the tour leader much more then most other trips I have been on for photography. Inger has been to the area many times and has made many important contacts with many of the villagers. Her disarming way with the tribal people and genuine love and respect for their way of life opens many doors for the trip participants. We had some explicit opportunities that depended on her personal connection with the head men of the tribes. I came home from each trip with many wonderful photos and experiences. In fact, there were so many great photos that when asked to pick a small group of favorites, I found it an impossible task. There were just to many too choose from. So, I can highly recommend Wild Images and specifically their leaders and local guides for organizing such a fantastic photographic experience. – Stuart Hahn (guest on our 2020 and 2023 Omo Valley tours).  To view a gallery of Stuart’s beautiful images from our tours, please click here.