Omo Valley Rituals: Dassanech Dimi Initiation (2024)

The DASSANECH (name meaning people of the delta) are a cushitic agropastoralist ethnic group inhabiting the southernmost region of the valley, where the Omo River delta enters Lake Turkana. The Dassanech, who share common origins with the Pokot, have adapted to survive in an unforgiving and inhospitable arid environment. Dassanech live in flimsy dome-shaped huts made almost entirely out of branches, rusty metal and corrugated iron resembling more of a scrapyard than a village.
Women are masters of body decoration with elaborately-braided hairstyles, colourful beaded necklaces across their bare chests and multiple bracelets and anklets. During special events men are often adorned with colourful clay buns on the back of the skull.

The most important ceremony in a man's life is called Dimi. Its purpose is to celebrate and bless his daughter for fertility as he prepares for her circumcision, a prerequisite to marriage. Contrary to Arbore girls who get circumcised when they marry, Dassanech girls are circumcised young, at around 10 to 12 years of age just before they reach puberty. If they are not circumcised, a girl can't marry and her father won't receive her dowry normally in the form of cows. The Dimi is a collective ceremony during which Dassanech families with daughters of similar age gather near the banks of the Omo River during the dry season. The tiny village of Kanem near Omorate, normally home to less than 500 people, will host about five thousand participants over the course of a two-month period. Makeshift huts have mushroomed in the temporary settlement. New families join everyday and they are welcomed with boisterous dances. A wooden structure called Nass, placed in front of the hut indicates the home of a girl who will be honoured in the Dimi. The Nass holds the ceremonial regalia. The scale of the event is massive this year as there are several hundreds Marte girls (initiates-to-be).

Each man taking part in the Dimi ritual paints himself with a yellow mud supposed to hold magical power and wears an outfit comprising a black ostrich feather headgear, a leopard skin cape, and a giraffe tail armband. He carries a small rectangular ritual shield painted in orange and white and a very long wooden stick, the tip wrapped in a leather strap. The women, similarly painted, dress in a colobus monkey skin over a leather skirt and carry a wooden spoon called Daté as well as a zebu cow horn called Ylo. The men march from house to house stopping to chant and jump-dance at each hut where there is a Marte. The women join in as the men arrive at their house and they all dance in a circle the two groups facing one another. After 20 minutes a full procession makes its way around the village. The climax of the Dimi is when the village elders bless the girls' family huts for fertility and happiness. The Dimi ritual is crucial for men. At the same time as the daughter's blessing and her passage into adulthood, the father may join an elite group of elders known as buls. This enviable status allows him to participate in the village's and clan's key decisions. During Dimi the initiates-to-be remain secluded in a hut. They should not be seen by any stranger to the family, let alone a tourist. In a few days the Marte girls will go through the barbaric female mutilation with older women in charge of cutting the clitoris of the Marte.
A Dimi does not happen every year and chances of witnessing such a ritual are rather slim unless you can tap into a very good intelligence network and have ample time within a flexible programme.
JUNE 2024