© Gavin Hellier

On the right you will notice a beautiful woman from the eastern side of the Omo Valley in Southern Ethiopia. They are called Hamer, and they have wonderful looking locks that are usually coated with ochre mud and animal fat. It is not unusual to see a man braiding another man's hair. These people are well known for they colored tresses known as "goscha", which is a sign of health and welfare in their tribe.

They cultivate wild honey, sorghum, vegetables, millet, tobacco and cotton as well as rearing cattle and goats. They will stay for a few months wherever there is enough grass for grazing, putting up their round huts. Their huts are constructed with flexible poles set in the ground in a circular pattern. The structures are then covered with thatch during the dry season and canvas mats during the rainy season. When the land is exhausted or overwhelmed by weeds, they will move on to new pasture grounds.

Before a man can be declared a man or get married, he must pass a test the westerner called "the bull jumping ceremony" which is basically the man running over the back of castrated male cattle four times. These cattle are always held by young men, and since these cattle are castrated, the risks are very minimal. Even when the men do pass the test of manhood, they don't automatically get married, since the price to get married is very high. So usually you see many woman married to men that are quite older than them.

Though these tribe used to be isolated form the world, these pastoral warrior tribe are being increasing open to tourists, which can prove fetal to their ago-old traditions by bringing to much exposed to the westerner way of life.


© Marcello Scotti - All rights reserved


© Marcello Scotti - All rights reserved

 ©Michael Poliza







If sisterlocks weren't around, I would have been very tempted to get something very similar to this style minus the mud and animal fat ^_-. This post is leading to a super helpful post in the future, so please keep a look out.