Looking at each other -Dizzi girl - Tum market Ethiopia
Tum (or Toum) is a little village only 20 km from Turgit Surma village, but you won't find any Surma people there. The market is full of Menit and Dizzi tribe people.
I insisted to come early in the morning and had to wait until 12 to see the first people coming!
I was the only white man around, and it was a big event for them to see me trying to hang a black background on the trees!
Dizi (or Dizzi) people are an ethnic group from southern Ethiopia. They are about 35,000 people. Unlike the Suri they speak an omotic language. Most Dizi are subsistence farmers who grow, corn, barley, teff, and other crops. They raise cattle, sheep and chickens, and they also are beekeepers for the honey.
Dizi were independent until 1898, when they were conquered by the Emperor Menelik the 2nd when he built the Ethiopian Empire. Since that conquest Dizi people were exploited and enslaved by all the neighbouring ethnic group as well as the Amhara from the north. Enslavement was promoted by the integration of the Dizi in the so called gabbar system of the ethiopian Empire, which was similar to the European and Asian feudal systems of the late Middle Ages. This tragedy reduced their numbers by 70% within two generations.
They live in the area named after them. Maji is the largest town in the Dizi area.
© Eric Lafforgue
Looking at each other -Dizzi girl - Tum market Ethiopia
Tum (or Toum) is a little village only 20 km from Turgit Surma village, but you won't find any Surma people there. The market is full of Menit and Dizzi tribe people.
I insisted to come early in the morning and had to wait until 12 to see the first people coming!
I was the only white man around, and it was a big event for them to see me trying to hang a black background on the trees!
Dizi (or Dizzi) people are an ethnic group from southern Ethiopia. They are about 35,000 people. Unlike the Suri they speak an omotic language. Most Dizi are subsistence farmers who grow, corn, barley, teff, and other crops. They raise cattle, sheep and chickens, and they also are beekeepers for the honey.
Dizi were independent until 1898, when they were conquered by the Emperor Menelik the 2nd when he built the Ethiopian Empire. Since that conquest Dizi people were exploited and enslaved by all the neighbouring ethnic group as well as the Amhara from the north. Enslavement was promoted by the integration of the Dizi in the so called gabbar system of the ethiopian Empire, which was similar to the European and Asian feudal systems of the late Middle Ages. This tragedy reduced their numbers by 70% within two generations.
They live in the area named after them. Maji is the largest town in the Dizi area.
© Eric Lafforgue