Mursi have a lot of imagination to decorate themselves! They loved the
magazine, but i think my driver loved it much more!
The Mursi (also called Murzu tribe) is the most popular tribe in the
southwestern Ethiopia's lower Omo Valley, 100 km north of the Kenyan
border. They are estimated to 10 000 people and live in the Mago
National Park. Due to the climate, they move twice a year between the
winter and summer months. 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 are Christians, most still practice Animism, believing that plants, animals and some inanimate objects possess spirits.
Mursi women wear giant lip plate, a sign of beauty, like in Surma
one, and also a prime attraction for tourists which help to sustain a
view of them, in guidebooks and travel articles, as 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 lip with a
wood stick.
It will be kept for one night, and is removed to put a bigger one.
This is very painful at this time... Few months after, the lip plate
has its full size, and the girl is seen as beautiful by the men. The
lip plate is made of wood or terracotta. They have to remove the lower
incisors to let some space for the disc.
Sometimes the lip is broken by the pressure of the lip plate. This is
a big problem for the girl because men will consider her as ugly, she
won't be able to marry anyone in the tribe apart the old men or the
sick people...Women and men are shaved because they hate hairiness.
Both like to make scarifications on their bodies. Women as a beauty
sign, men after killing animals or ennemies as competition for
agricultural and grazing land has led to inter-group-conflicts.
The Mursi have a reputation for being aggressive and are famous for their stick fighting ceremony called “donga”, fought by the men. The winner of the “donga” will be able to select the girl of his choice to have relations with, even though she may marry someone else. Similar to the Hamer tribe, the Mursi tribe commonly drink a mixture of blood and milk.
Over the past few decades they and their neighbours have faced growing threats to their livelihoods cause the Ethiopian government officials have been actively evicting Mursi people from the Omo National Park, their traditional lands, without any compensation. 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 ressources.
© Eric Lafforgue
www.ericlafforgue.com
Aruna's world_2013, Sergio Di Pasquale Luci, The Million Dollar Project, roselità, and 196 other people added this photo to their favorites.
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Robert Lio 14 months ago | reply
As always great work.
Alejandro Castro de la Iglesia 14 months ago | reply
Spellbinding and ravishing!
This Wild Ride 14 months ago | reply
Thank you, once again, for a beautiful/unexpected image and insightful/helpful commentary.
The Lady of Shalot [mostly offline these days] 14 months ago | reply
She does not need Vogues, she's perfect in her beauty!