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When the Surma shepherds leave their village, they paint their bodies like for a camouflage;
Like their neighbours, the Surma, living in Omo valley, Ethiopia, paint their bodies; They create a variety of designs on their naked bodies using their fingertips, which helps exposing their dark skins and aims at beautifying themselves and frightenning their opponents; Surma men, generally believed to be expert artists, also paint the girls;
Surma or Suri is a sedentary pastoral tribe living in south west Ethiopia, in Omo Valley on the western bank of the Omo River, in Kibish and Tulgit areas;
Itâs quite common to see men and women carrying Kalashnikovs, which are part of the daily life; Their land has always been a place of traditional rivalries amoung neighbouring tribes such as the Bume (Nyangatom) or the Toposa from Sudan who regularly team up to raid on their cattle; These fights have become quite bloody since automatic firearms have become available during in the Sudanese Civil War;
Only few Surma are familiar with Amharic, Ethiopiaâs official language, and the literacy level is very low; Lip plate and Donga stick fights are the two typical distinctive features of these people, shared with the neighbouring Mursi people;
The land of the Suri, in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia, is being stolen by the Ethiopian government to be rented to foreign companies; They are then rented out for 1 euro per hectare and per year
© Eric Lafforgue
Surma or suri is a sedentary pastoral tribe living in south west ethiopia, in omo valley on the western bank of the omo river, in kibish and tulgit areas;
only few surma are familiar with amharic, ethiopiaâs official language, and the literacy level is very low; lip plate and donga stick fights are the two typical distinctive features of these people, shared with the neighbouring mursi people;
Suri women wear giant lip plates as a sign of beauty, like in mursi tribe, and also an attraction for tourists; maintaining their image of an untouched people, living in one of the last wildernesses of africa; when they are ready to marry, teenagers start to make a hole in the lower lip with a wooden stick; it is to be removed the day after to put a bigger one; and then by a lip plate; few months after, it reaches its final size, and girls are seen as beautiful; the lip plate is made of wood or terracotta; the pressure of the plate breaks the lip, the girl will be considered as ugly and won't be able to marry anyone apart from old men or sick people;
© Eric Lafforgue
In the Hamar tribe in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia, the final test before passing into adulthood and getting married is the bull-jumping ceremony; These ceremonies are run by the maze, the whipper; Mazes are single men who have already performed bull jumping; They are hired to whip the women during the ceremony and earn goats and money as a salary; Mazes survive on payments received for these ceremonies; They only feed themselves with milk, honey and meat; Once they get married, they get a dowry and some land if they are lucky; The Mazes take part to the eldersâ meeting before the ceremony;
Before the jump, the women of the jumperâs family are whipped to blood to prove their courage and accompany him during the test;
© Eric Lafforgue
The Bodi (or Meen) tribe lives close to the Omo River in southern Ethiopia (Omo Valley) and has the Mursi tribe as south neighbor and Konso at north; It is a pastoral and agricultural tribe, thus livestock plays a large role in the tribe; Along the banks of the river, they cultivate sorghum, maize and coffee;
For their new year in June, called Kael, Bodi men consume large amounts of blood and milk to become overweight;Â This tradition measures the body fat of a contestant; Each family or clan is allowed to present an unmarried contestant;Â The winner of this contest is awarded great fame by the tribe;Â The women in the tribe wear goatskin skirts and have a plug inserted into their chin; Most of them are now Christians;
In Hana Mursi, the main town of the Bodis, the government plans to settle 300 000 people from all over Ethiopia over the next few years; Along with the workers and soldiers, AIDS and Hepatitis B are coming too; The Bodi tribespeople do not want to give up their traditions and their land to allow the new sugar cane plantations irrigated by the water of Gibe 3 dam, and live in the settlements planned by the government; If the Konso tribe attempts to set foot on their land with the support of the government, clashes will erupt as the Bodi elders predict
© Eric Lafforgue
Bana people (also spelled Banna or Benna) are an indigenous tribe of 50 000 people, of the lower Omo Valley in Ethiopia; Their neighbors are the Hamer tribe;Â They are really similar to them and are for that reason often called Hammer-Bena;
The Banna People are a friendly people and they look fantastic; women wear many decorations and men wear the clay or braided hair style they get when they honour the slain of an enemy or of a wild animal; They live mostly of agriculture in upland areas to the east of the Omo Valley, adjacent to the area of Ari and Tsemai; You can meet them in the markets of Key Afer where they trade;
Just like most of the tribes the Bena practice ritual dancing and singing;Â The men often have their hair dressed up with a colorful clay cap that is decorated with feathers;Â Women of the tribe wear beads in their hair held together with butter;
The bull-jumping is the most significant ceremony in the social life of the Bana, the final test before passing into adulthood and in order to get married;
© Eric Lafforgue
Bana people (also spelled Banna or Benna) are an indigenous tribe of 50 000 people, of the lower Omo Valley in Ethiopia; Their neighbors are the Hamer tribe;Â They are really similar to them and are for that reason often called Hammer-Bena;
The Banna People are a friendly people and they look fantastic; women wear many decorations and men wear the clay or braided hair style they get when they honour the slain of an enemy or of a wild animal; They live mostly of agriculture in upland areas to the east of the Omo Valley, adjacent to the area of Ari and Tsemai; You can meet them in the markets of Key Afer where they trade;
Just like most of the tribes the Bena practice ritual dancing and singing;Â The men often have their hair dressed up with a colorful clay cap that is decorated with feathers;Â Women of the tribe wear beads in their hair held together with butter;
The bull-jumping is the most significant ceremony in the social life of the Bana, the final test before passing into adulthood and in order to get married;
Surma or suri is a sedentary pastoral tribe living in south west ethiopia, in omo valley on the western bank of the omo river, in kibish and tulgit areas;
only few surma are familiar with amharic, ethiopiaâs official language, and the literacy level is very low; lip plate and donga stick fights are the two typical distinctive features of these people, shared with the neighbouring mursi people;
© Eric Lafforgue
The Bodi (or Meen) tribe lives close to the Omo River in southern Ethiopia (Omo Valley) and has the Mursi tribe as south neighbor and Konso at north; It is a pastoral and agricultural tribe, thus livestock plays a large role in the tribe; Along the banks of the river, they cultivate sorghum, maize and coffee;
For their new year in June, called Kael, Bodi men consume large amounts of blood and milk to become overweight; This tradition measures the body fat of a contestant; Each family or clan is allowed to present an unmarried contestant; The winner of this contest is awarded great fame by the tribe; The women in the tribe wear goatskin skirts and have a plug inserted into their chin; Most of them are now Christians;
In Hana Mursi, the main town of the Bodis, the government plans to settle 300 000 people from all over Ethiopia over the next few years; Along with the workers and soldiers, AIDS and Hepatitis B are coming too; The Bodi tribespeople do not want to give up their traditions and their land to allow the new sugar cane plantations irrigated by the water of Gibe 3 dam, and live in the settlements planned by the government
© Eric Lafforgue
The Bodi (or Meen) tribe lives close to the Omo River in southern Ethiopia (Omo Valley) and has the Mursi tribe as south neighbor and Konso at north; It is a pastoral and agricultural tribe, thus livestock plays a large role in the tribe; Along the banks of the river, they cultivate sorghum, maize and coffee;
For their new year in June, called Kael, Bodi men consume large amounts of blood and milk to become overweight;Â This tradition measures the body fat of a contestant; Each family or clan is allowed to present an unmarried contestant;Â The winner of this contest is awarded great fame by the tribe;Â The women in the tribe wear goatskin skirts and have a plug inserted into their chin; Most of them are now Christians;
In Hana Mursi, the main town of the Bodis, the government plans to settle 300 000 people from all over Ethiopia over the next few years; Along with the workers and soldiers, AIDS and Hepatitis B are coming too; The Bodi tribespeople do not want to give up their traditions and their land to allow the new sugar cane plantations irrigated by the water of Gibe 3 dam, and live in the settlements planned by the government; If the Konso tribe attempts to set foot on their land with the support of the government, clashes will erupt as the Bodi elders predict;
© Eric Lafforgue
The Hamar (Hamer, Hammer) tribe is about 35,000 people, living in Hamer Bena woreda, a fertile part of the Omo River valley, in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region (SNNPR) in Ethiopia; It's a pastoral tribe, placing a high value on cattle; At least 27 words are used to qualify the variations of colours and textures of cattle! Each man has a human, a goat and a cow name;
Honey collection is their major activity; They are also semi nomadic and migrate every few months to find pastures; They share a common language and culture with the Bana-Bashada; The society consists in a complex system of age groups with complicated rituals to pass from one to the other; The bull-jumping is the final test before passing into adulthood and getting married;
© Eric Lafforgue
The society of the Hamar tribe of the Omo Valley (Ethiopia) consists in a complex system of age groups with complicated rituals to pass from one to the other; The bull-jumping is the final test before passing into adulthood and getting married;
Before the jump, the women of the jumperâs family are whipped to blood to prove their courage and accompany him during the test;
The whipper running the bull jumping is called maze; Mazes are single men who have already performed bull jumping; They are hired to whip the women during the ceremony and earn goats and money as a salary; Mazes survive on payments received for these ceremonies; They only feed themselves with milk, honey and meat; Once they get married, they get a dowry and some land if they are lucky; The Mazes take part to the eldersâ meeting before the ceremony;
The cow jumping or bull leaping consists in walking naked over bulls without falling; Once this is done, the boy becomes a man and is able to get married; Any boy who fails will be publicly humiliated, whipped by his female relatives and teased, insulted and beaten by both men and women for the rest of his life;
© Eric Lafforgue
The Hamar (Hamer, Hammer) tribe is about 35,000 people, living in Hamer Bena woreda, a fertile part of the Omo River valley, in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region (SNNPR) in Ethiopia; Itâs a pastoral tribe, placing a high value on cattle; At least 27 words are used to qualify the variations of colours and textures of cattle! Each man has a human, a goat and a cow name;
Honey collection is their major activity; They are also semi nomadic and migrate every few months to find pastures; They share a common language and culture with the Bana-Bashada; The society consists in a complex system of age groups with complicated rituals to pass from one to the other; The bull-jumping is the final test before passing into adulthood and getting married;
The Hamar have spectacular wooden headrests used to prevent the hair from touching the ground and to protect the clay wig that some wear; It is also used as a seat; Women dress their hair in short tufts rolled in ochre and fat or in long twisted strands; These strands, called "goscha" are a sign of health and welfare;â¨They also wear bead necklaces, iron bracelets, and decorate their breast with cowry shells; Married women wear "esente" around their necks, torques made of iron wrapped in leather; These are engagement presents, worn for life and indicating their husband's wealth; One of the necklaces is called the "bignere"; It has a phallic-shaped end; A manâs first wife only can wear this jewellery; Her status is the higher one in Hamer society; The second wifes are more slaves than wives;
The young unmarried girls wear a kind of oval metal plate used like a sunshield; It tends to be rare in the tribe
© Eric Lafforgue
The society of the Hamar tribe of the Omo Valley (Ethiopia) consists in a complex system of age groups with complicated rituals to pass from one to the other; The bull-jumping is the final test before passing into adulthood and getting married;
Before the jump, the women of the jumper’s family are whipped to blood to prove their courage and accompany him during the test;
The whipper running the bull jumping is called maze; Mazes are single men who have already performed bull jumping; They are hired to whip the women during the ceremony and earn goats and money as a salary; Mazes survive on payments received for these ceremonies; They only feed themselves with milk, honey and meat; Once they get married, they get a dowry and some land if they are lucky; The Mazes take part to the elders’ meeting before the ceremony;
The cow jumping or bull leaping consists in walking naked over bulls without falling; Once this is done, the boy becomes a man and is able to get married; Any boy who fails will be publicly humiliated, whipped by his female relatives and teased, insulted and beaten by both men and women for the rest of his life;
© Eric Lafforgue
Ceremony organized by the government to try to pacify the situation in the region; The land of the Suri, in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia, is being stolen by the Ethiopian government to be rented to foreign companies; They are then rented out for 1 euro per hectare and per year;
Surma or Suri is a sedentary pastoral tribe living in south west Ethiopia, in Omo Valley on the western bank of the Omo River, in Kibish and Tulgit areas;
Only few Surma are familiar with Amharic, Ethiopiaâs official language, and the literacy level is very low; Lip plate and Donga stick fights are the two typical distinctive features of these people, shared with the neighbouring Mursi people;
© Eric Lafforgue
Thousands of Football shirts of Arsenal,Manchester, Chelsea, Olympique de Marseille, etc end up their carreer in... Ethiopia. Sold in the deep south, in the Omo Valley, those second hand clothes are bought by the local tribes. Most of them ignore the meaning of those shirts, and just buy them for the color, the logo, or the shape. No warrior will go out without his little pillow/seat. Some, like in Hamer tribe wear at the top of the head a clay helmet where they can put some ostrich feathers when they make a special action, like killing a wild animal, or...a man. Those tribes won’t exist in few years as the ethiopian governement has launched a huge plan to develop the area.
Soon, a highway coming from Mombassa - Nairobi will pass thru the villages to reach
Addis Ababa.
© Eric Lafforgue
The Bodi (or Meen) tribe lives close to the Omo River in southern Ethiopia (Omo Valley) and has the Mursi tribe as south neighbor and Konso at north; It is a pastoral and agricultural tribe, thus livestock plays a large role in the tribe; Along the banks of the river, they cultivate sorghum, maize and coffee;
For their new year in June, called Kael, Bodi men consume large amounts of blood and milk to become overweight;Â This tradition measures the body fat of a contestant; Each family or clan is allowed to present an unmarried contestant;Â The winner of this contest is awarded great fame by the tribe;Â The women in the tribe wear goatskin skirts and have a plug inserted into their chin; Most of them are now Christians;
In Hana Mursi, the main town of the Bodis, the government plans to settle 300 000 people from all over Ethiopia over the next few years; Along with the workers and soldiers, AIDS and Hepatitis B are coming too; The Bodi tribespeople do not want to give up their traditions and their land to allow the new sugar cane plantations irrigated by the water of Gibe 3 dam, and live in the settlements planned by the government; If the Konso tribe attempts to set foot on their land with the support of the government, clashes will erupt as the Bodi elders predict;
© Eric Lafforgue
Surma or Suri is a sedentary pastoral tribe living in south west Ethiopia, in Omo Valley on the western bank of the Omo River, in Kibish and Tulgit areas;
Only few Surma are familiar with Amharic, Ethiopiaâs official language, and the literacy level is very low; Lip plate and Donga stick fights are the two typical distinctive features of these people, shared with the neighbouring Mursi people;
© Eric Lafforgue
The Hamar (Hamer, Hammer) tribe is about 35,000 people, living in Hamer Bena woreda, a fertile part of the Omo River valley, in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region (SNNPR) in Ethiopia; Itâs a pastoral tribe, placing a high value on cattle; At least 27 words are used to qualify the variations of colours and textures of cattle! Each man has a human, a goat and a cow name;
Honey collection is their major activity; They are also semi nomadic and migrate every few months to find pastures; They share a common language and culture with the Bana-Bashada; The society consists in a complex system of age groups with complicated rituals to pass from one to the other; The bull-jumping is the final test before passing into adulthood and getting married;© Eric Lafforgue
Ethiopia is an East-African country bordered by Djibouti, Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan and South Sudan and Kenya ; It is the second most populous nation on the African continent with 84,3 billion people ; The country is a multilingual and multiethnic society of around 80 groups, with the two largest being the Oromo and the Amhara, both of which speak Afro-Asiatic languages ;
© Eric Lafforgue
The society of the Hamar tribe of the Omo Valley (Ethiopia) consists in a complex system of age groups with complicated rituals to pass from one to the other; The bull-jumping is the final test before passing into adulthood and getting married;
Before the jump, the women of the jumperâs family are introducing themselves standing still with one arm up in the air to be whipped to blood to prove their courage and accompany him during the test;
The whipper, or maze, is the one running the bull jumping iceremony; Mazes are single men who have already performed bull jumping; They are hired to whip the women during the ceremony and earn goats and money as a salary; Mazes survive on payments received for these ceremonies; They only feed themselves with milk, honey and meat; Once they get married, they get a dowry and some land if they are lucky; The Mazes take part to the eldersâ meeting before the ceremony;
The cow jumping or bull leaping consists in walking naked over bulls without falling; Once this is done, the boy becomes a man and is able to get married; Any boy who fails will be publicly humiliated, whipped by his female relatives and teased, insulted and beaten by both men and women for the rest of his life;
© Eric Lafforgue
The society of the Hamar tribe of the Omo Valley (Ethiopia) consists in a complex system of age groups with complicated rituals to pass from one to the other; The bull-jumping is the final test before passing into adulthood and getting married;
Before the jump, the women of the jumperâs family are whipped to blood to prove their courage and accompany him during the test;
The whipper running the bull jumping is called maze; Mazes are single men who have already performed bull jumping; They are hired to whip the women during the ceremony and earn goats and money as a salary; Mazes survive on payments received for these ceremonies; They only feed themselves with milk, honey and meat; Once they get married, they get a dowry and some land if they are lucky; The Mazes take part to the eldersâ meeting before the ceremony;
The cow jumping or bull leaping consists in walking naked over bulls without falling; Once this is done, the boy becomes a man and is able to get married; Any boy who fails will be publicly humiliated, whipped by his female relatives and teased, insulted and beaten by both men and women for the rest of his life;
© Eric Lafforgue
When the Surma shepherds leave their village, they paint their bodies like for a camouflage;
Like their neighbours, the Surma, living in Omo valley, Ethiopia, paint their bodies; They create a variety of designs on their naked bodies using their fingertips, which helps exposing their dark skins and aims at beautifying themselves and frightenning their opponents; Surma men, generally believed to be expert artists, also paint the girls;
Surma or Suri is a sedentary pastoral tribe living in south west Ethiopia, in Omo Valley on the western bank of the Omo River, in Kibish and Tulgit areas;
Itâs quite common to see men and women carrying Kalashnikovs, which are part of the daily life; Their land has always been a place of traditional rivalries amoung neighbouring tribes such as the Bume (Nyangatom) or the Toposa from Sudan who regularly team up to raid on their cattle; These fights have become quite bloody since automatic firearms have become available during in the Sudanese Civil War;
Only few Surma are familiar with Amharic, Ethiopiaâs official language, and the literacy level is very low; Lip plate and Donga stick fights are the two typical distinctive features of these people, shared with the neighbouring Mursi people;
The land of the Suri, in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia, is being stolen by the Ethiopian government to be rented to foreign companies; They are then rented out for 1 euro per hectare and per year;
© Eric Lafforgue
The Mursi tribe (also called Murzu) is the most popular tribe in the southwestern Ethiopia, in the lower Omo Valley, 100 km north of Kenyan; The Mursi are around 10 000 people and live in the Mago National Park, established in 1979;Â Due to the climate, they move twice a year between the winter and summer months;Â They herd cattle and grow crops along the banks of the Omo River; The Mursi are sedentary rather than nomadic; Their language belongs to the Nilo-Saharan linguistic family; Very few Mursi people speak Amharic, the official Ethiopian language; Although a small percentage of the Mursi tribe is Christian, most of them still practice animism; Women and men are shaved because they hate hairiness; Both like to make scarification on their bodies; Women as a beauty sign, men after killing animals or enemies as competition for grazing land has led to tribal conflicts;
The Mursi men have a reputation for being aggressive and are famous for their stick fighting ceremony called donga; The winner of the donga will be able to select the girl of his choice to have relations with her if she agrees; Similar to the Surma tribe, the Mursi tribe people commonly drink a mixture of blood and milk; Over the past few decades they and their neighbours have faced growing threats to their livelihoods because the Ethiopian government officials have been actively evicting Mursi people from the Omo National Park, without any compensation, to rent their land to foreign investors; Drought has made it difficult for many families to feed themselves by means of their traditional mix of subsistence activities; The establishment of hunting concessions has added to the pressure on scarce resources;
© Eric Lafforgue
The Hamar (Hamer, Hammer) tribe is about 35,000 people, living in Hamer Bena woreda, a fertile part of the Omo River valley, in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region (SNNPR) in Ethiopia; Itâs a pastoral tribe, placing a high value on cattle; At least 27 words are used to qualify the variations of colours and textures of cattle! Each man has a human, a goat and a cow name;
Here, the cattle is being put in line for the bull jumping ceremony, the final test before passing into adulthood and getting married;
Before the jump, the women of the jumperâs family are whipped to blood to prove their courage and accompany him during the test;
The whipper running the bull jumping is called maze; Mazes are single men who have already performed bull jumping; They are hired to whip the women during the ceremony and earn goats and money as a salary; Mazes survive on payments received for these ceremonies; They only feed themselves with milk, honey and meat; Once they get married, they get a dowry and some land if they are lucky; The Mazes take part to the eldersâ meeting before the ceremony;
The cow jumping or bull leaping consists in walking naked over bulls without falling; Once this is done, the boy becomes a man and is able to get married; Any boy who fails will be publicly humiliated, whipped by his female relatives and teased, insulted and beaten by both men and women for the rest of his life;
© Eric Lafforgue
The Hamar (Hamer, Hammer) tribe is about 35,000 people, living in Hamer Bena woreda, a fertile part of the Omo River valley, in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region (SNNPR) in Ethiopia; Its a pastoral tribe, placing a high value on cattle; At least 27 words are used to qualify the variations of colours and textures of cattle! Each man has a human, a goat and a cow name;
Honey collection is their major activity; They are also semi nomadic and migrate every few months to find pastures; They share a common language and culture with the Bana-Bashada; The society consists in a complex system of age groups with complicated rituals to pass from one to the other; The bull-jumping is the final test before passing into adulthood and getting married
© Eric Lafforgue
Bodi tribe woman with impressive scarifications on the arm, Omo valley, Hana mursi, Ethiopia , Camera: ILCE-7RM2 , f3.2 , 1/1000 , 85.0 mm , ISO 125 , © Eric Lafforgue www.ericlafforgue.com
Honing my photography skills.
Sometimes someone ask me how it is to be a Night Manager when there is no one around, here is a glimpse of it, alone calm.
Location: at work at the desk of the Perla Verde Hotel (Milano Marittima)
Shot with: my xiaomi Mi A3
Settings: 48 MP f/1.8 1/15 4.71mm ISO 200
Gorilla POD, Bluetooth remote, bar stool
And some time on Adobe lightroom with a lot of tips from my bro Denis De Iacovo.
Have a wonderful day
The Bodi (or Meen) tribe lives close to the Omo River in southern Ethiopia (Omo Valley) and has the Mursi tribe as south neighbor and Konso at north; It is a pastoral and agricultural tribe, thus livestock plays a large role in the tribe; Along the banks of the river, they cultivate sorghum, maize and coffee;
For their new year in June, called Kael, Bodi men consume large amounts of blood and milk to become overweight; This tradition measures the body fat of a contestant; Each family or clan is allowed to present an unmarried contestant; The winner of this contest is awarded great fame by the tribe; The women in the tribe wear goatskin skirts and have a plug inserted into their chin; Most of them are now Christians;
In Hana Mursi, the main town of the Bodis, the government plans to settle 300 000 people from all over Ethiopia over the next few years; Along with the workers and soldiers, AIDS and Hepatitis B are coming too; The Bodi tribespeople do not want to give up their traditions and their land to allow the new sugar cane plantations irrigated by the water of Gibe 3 dam, and live in the settlements planned by the government
© Eric Lafforgue
In the Hamar tribe in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia, the final test before passing into adulthood and getting married is the bull-jumping ceremony; These ceremonies are run by the maze, the whipper; Mazes are single men who have already performed bull jumping; They are hired to whip the women during the ceremony and earn goats and money as a salary; Mazes survive on payments received for these ceremonies; They only feed themselves with milk, honey and meat; Once they get married, they get a dowry and some land if they are lucky; The Mazes take part to the elders’ meeting before the ceremony;
Before the jump, the women of the jumper’s family are whipped to blood to prove their courage and accompany him during the test;
© Eric Lafforgue
In Hana Mursi, the main town of the Bodis and Dime, the government plans to settle 300 000 people from all over Ethiopia over the next few years; Along with the workers and soldiers, AIDS and Hepatitis B are coming too; The Bodi tribespeople do not want to give up their traditions and their land to allow the new sugar cane plantations irrigated by the water of Gibe 3 dam, and live in the settlements planned by the government; If the Konso tribe attempts to set foot on their land with the support of the government, clashes will erupt as the Bodi elders predict;
© Eric Lafforgue
Ceremony organized by the government to try to pacify the situation in the region; The land of the Suri, in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia, is being stolen by the Ethiopian government to be rented to foreign companies; They are then rented out for 1 euro per hectare and per year;
Surma or Suri is a sedentary pastoral tribe living in south west Ethiopia, in Omo Valley on the western bank of the Omo River, in Kibish and Tulgit areas;
Only few Surma are familiar with Amharic, Ethiopiaâs official language, and the literacy level is very low; Lip plate and Donga stick fights are the two typical distinctive features of these people, shared with the neighbouring Mursi people
© Eric Lafforgue
The society of the Hamar tribe of the Omo Valley (Ethiopia) consists in a complex system of age groups with complicated rituals to pass from one to the other; The bull-jumping is the final test before passing into adulthood and getting married;
Before the jump, the women of the jumper’s family are whipped to blood to prove their courage and accompany him during the test;
The whipper running the bull jumping is called maze; Mazes are single men who have already performed bull jumping; They are hired to whip the women during the ceremony and earn goats and money as a salary; Mazes survive on payments received for these ceremonies; They only feed themselves with milk, honey and meat; Once they get married, they get a dowry and some land if they are lucky; The Mazes take part to the elders’ meeting before the ceremony;
The cow jumping or bull leaping consists in walking naked over bulls without falling; Once this is done, the boy becomes a man and is able to get married; Any boy who fails will be publicly humiliated, whipped by his female relatives and teased, insulted and beaten by both men and women for the rest of his life
© Eric Lafforgue