Down South - The Mursi Tribe

 

As we return from Northern Ethiopia we discover that the whole area is now closed for travel. Tragically,  two Catholic aid workers have been killed in Kobo - a stone's throw from Lalibela - in a gun battle between Amhara and Federal troops. Disappointingly, ethnic tensions are again rising as the federal government attempts to pass a law disbanding regional militia. 

A quick glance at the two British Foreign and Commonwealth travel advisory maps below show just how quickly the security situation changes here.

11th April

12th April

Undeterred and determined to continue with our adventure, we head South to a small corner of Ethiopia near the South Sudan and Kenyan borders. The region is known for its remote tribes, each living almost untouched by modernity. 

Before committing to this long and arduous road journey we had contemplated the ethics of visiting these nomadic peoples: Are we about to enter human zoos? What will be the impact of our visit on the tribes' ways of life? Will we disturb the balance of their eco-systems? The response of the appropriate authorities is abrupt and robust: our visit will bring in much needed hard currency and the tribes need it. We rely on these experts to be speaking for the tribes not for themselves and so we proceeded. Interestingly, after our visit, we note that the lives of these clans are slowly changing largely due to the very few sons who are educated in regional schools - who then bring basic literacy, mobile phones and new ideas from the world outside of Omo Valley - and the NGOs and churches that are now beginning to set up outside of their nomadic camps. 

And so we board the ubiquitous Bombardier twin-engined prop-plane for the two hour flight to Jinka - the nearest village with an airfield. The view of the lowlands from 10,000 feet-up is starkly different from the highlands of Ethiopia. The land is lush green with abundant vegetation, criss-crossed with torrents of brown muddy water flows from the recent rains. It is the 'short rain' season after all, and it certainly can rain!

Crude but effective: hand-drawn mural showing the locations of many of the Omo Valley tribes

We hook up with our guide and our driver of the Toyota Land Cruiser, essential for what pass as roads. Our intent is to visit up to seven tribes where all four language groups of the African continent are represented.

Mursi woman with traditional lip plate

Although the tribes each have different cultural heritage and traditions, some things are common to this way of life. Polygamy is normal, violence against women is not uncommon, pre-pubescent female genital mutilation is expected, schooling is non-existent for girls and most boys. The tribes are pastoral, tending much-valued herds of cattle and goats. Any tilling of the soil by local villagers is achieved with a tree branch and an ox - no different to Biblical times.

We set-off on a first three-hour road trip into the hinterland to find the Mursi tribe, stopping occasionally to check tyres, suspension and to reattach parts of the Land Cruiser as they drop off. We meet an aggressive and unpredictable clan - probably not the best introduction to the tour - who mob us and throw each other aside (including toddlers) in their quest to possess our gifts.  The guide's stories about random violent outbursts against tourists is not reassuring!

The Mursi are predominantly animistic yet we see some evidence of Ethiopian Christianity as well. The Mursi women are identifiable, as a symbol of beauty and identity, by the large plate inserted into their lower lip. They are a Nilotic people, meaning they, or at least the language group, originated in the Nile Basin some 200 miles to the south; and now around 7,000 Mursi live dotted around this region. The men practice Thagine, a ceremony of ritual male violence, so that all males are covered with intricate scarring including some with scarring that signifies the killing of another human being. 

You may ask, when do the men get an opportunity to kill another person? The answer, sadly, is all too often! Inter-tribal violence is far more common - usually triggered by grazing rights' disputes - than we'd like to accept. We meet an old man who proudly shows us his 7 scars for the 7 lives he has taken... he - like the other men measure their wealth in cattle and guns, with an AK47 costing around 10 heads of cattle - use those old AK47s to administer tribal law as they unilaterally see fit.

As I reflect on the day I am reminded of the 18th century philosopher, Thomas Hobbs, when he describes human life in a state of nature as being "Nasty, Brutish and Short". This comment may be judgemental - against a backdrop  of privileged living and defined Western values and norms - it's not meant to be. It just a knee-jerk observation.

We bed down for the night in a village lodge, wrapping ourselves tightly in the mosquito net unconvincingly saying that it will keep out our uninvited but ensconced room mates made up of Gecko lizards, frogs, birds and bats. Before we know it the night sounds have turned to a tropical dawn chorus, and after a breakfast of, well something, we head off in search of the next tribe in this wonderfully remote corner of Africa.