January 25, 2020: A Visit With the Famed Mursi Tribe.
When we checked in last night we were warned there might be music from a local venue and church chanting that might interrupt our sleeping. The staff offered us ear plugs to use if necessary. As it turned out the music quit by 9 PM and the church chanting did not begin until 3 AM. Neither proved to be a problem for my sleeping. Because of the mosquito netting around the bed I was concerned they might be a problem. I have been taking malaria pills but did not want to take chances so I was very careful about sealing the edges of the netting. Again, it turned out to be a non-issue. Most think that because it is the dry season mosquitoes are really not a problem. We survived our night in tents; some people really enjoyed it.
Breakfast was not served until 7 AM so several of us early risers sat on the steps by the locked dining room checking our e-mails. Surprisingly for such a remote camp the internet was fairly decent, but not decent enough to work on my blog.
Our group met with Chris at 8 AM for a brief talk about what we will be seeing today. The highlight is expected to be a visit with the famous Mursi tribe, the tribe noted for women who wear the large lip disks. The lower lips of women are slit when they are about 15-16 years old and disks made of wood or clay are inserted. As the skin expands larger sized disks are introduced. No one knows the real reason why this tradition began. Some claim it was a beautification measure.
The Mursi tribe peoples are nomads and cattle is their currency. They are considered to be the wealthiest of the tribes, with ~11,500 people living in 7 different villages. They do practice agriculture, relying on “reverse flood agriculture”. The flooding rivers, when they recede, leave rich soil, which the tribe uses to plant and harvest crops before the next flood season. Dams being built on the rivers (for electricity) are now affecting this flood cycle. Their food source is mainly sorghum oatmeal; they drink blood mixed with milk. They do eat meat, especially during famine times. The tribes move three times a year to find grazing area and water for their cattle.
Most other tribes want sons; this tribe wants girls as the dowry for marriage is typically 40 cows given by the male in the marriage. As a right of passage to manhood men participate in fairly vicious form of stick fighting. The winners get first choice of women to marry. Supposedly you can see examples on YouTube.
It was a long two hour drive on a bumpy unpaved road to get to one of the villages where the Mursi people lived. Surprisingly there were no people walking the roadway and no animals sharing the road with us. This village is in the middle of nowhere.
A local guide at the village gave us more information about the tribe and its culture, including the fact that the marriage dowry is now up to 60 cows and an AK47 rifle (I kid you not). Men tend to marry when they are 25-26; women are younger. We had been told earlier that the people expected to be paid if you took their picture; the going rate was 5 birr per person. Our local guide said they have recently changed the system. If you take pictures you are expected to pay him 200 birr ($6) and you can take as many pictures as you want. That sounded like an easier system to us. He walked us through the village, pointing out things about their way of life. There were mostly women and children present who, unfortunately were more interested in selling us something than posing for pictures. The most popular item being sold was the lip disk the women wore. These were new decorated disks made of clay with painted designs on them. Most of the designs were similar. We were told a fair price for the smaller disk was 50 birr and 100 birr for the larger one. We were constantly pestered to buy one and even after I bought one they wanted me to buy another. We finally had to ask the village chief to rein in his tribe members, which he did – for awhile.
I was disappointed to find that only a few women were actually wearing their disk. Most walked around with the lower, stretched lip hanging down. Older women, who wore larger disks had to pull some of their lower teeth because the teeth eventually got in the way of the disk. It was not an attractive sight. The government is now trying to dissuade younger people from carrying on the practice, which I would totally agree with.
There were also some evidence of body scarring on some of the women, again for beautification reasons. There were only a few men in the village and when I asked why, I was told the men know people are there to see the women, not them, so they were probably out somewhere getting drunk on their homemade beer.
We were pretty exhausted after one hour and left the village, enduring the long two hour ride back to Jinka where we had a pleasant late (1:30) lunch at a resort hotel. Chris wanted us to see the local museum that had exhibits on all the major tribes that occupy the Omo Valley. On display were tools, clothing, jewelry, weapons, etc. that the tribes used in daily life. We also watched a short BBC movie that showed us an actual cattle jumping ceremony, which is practiced by one of the tribes we will visit later.
Our trip to our hotel for the night required another three hour car ride, but at least it was on a paved (most of the time) road to Konso where we had lunch yesterday. As we drove we encountered a heavy rain for a short period of time, the first we have seen since we arrived in Ethiopia. It settled the dust where it rained but it was only in a limited area. We arrived at our hotel by 6 PM; dinner was to be served at 7. Tonight it was a plated dinner rather than another buffet. We had a choice of 6-7 entrees; everyone was pleased.
It was a very long day but unfortunately it was necessary to see the isolated tribes in the Omo Valley. Tomorrow we will visit a few more; each is expected to be diverse in clothing, culture and life style. By the way, the tribes living here in Southern Ethiopia did not know Ethiopia existed until after WWII; they were/are that isolated from the rest of the country.