Until recent years, the tribes of the Omo River basin in the remote south-west of Ethiopia had not even heard of the nation of which they were a part. For all they knew, Addis Ababa might have been the dark side of the moon.
Theirs is a traditional world. The men count their wealth in cattle, their wives in goats, and their status by the number of enemies they have murdered. They paint their bodies for war and celebration, and drink cow’s blood to revive their spirits. The women, among the most beautiful in Africa, scar their torsos in elaborate patterns for erotic effect, and in preparation for marriage, insert plates the size of frisbees into their lower lips.
“This is what one dreamt about as a child”, a seasoned African traveller told me once. “An Africa untouched by our own culture.”
Stanley Stewart (to be continued)
The Omo is oddly reminiscent of the American West in
the nineteenth century: life revolves around cattle, gunplay, and getting the
girl. Only the guns are different. In the Omo, AK47’s are de rigeur. Of all the
modern technologies that the world has to offer these peoples, the only one to
make an impact is the automatic rifle.
Ethiopia is a museum of peoples, a rich and varied mix
of ethnicities with 83 different languages and over 200 dialects. But even in
this crowded cultural mosaic, the tribal diversity of the Omo River Basin is
unparalleled: the Hamar, the Konso, the Borana, the Bumi, the Surma, the Anuak,
the Nuer and the Bodi all belong to the world of ‘primitive’ Africa. 
Theirs is a traditional world. The men count their wealth in cattle, their wives in goats, and their status by the number of enemies they have murdered. They paint their bodies for war and celebration, and drink cow’s blood to revive their spirits. The women, among the most beautiful in Africa, scar their torsos in elaborate patterns for erotic effect, and in preparation for marriage, insert plates the size of frisbees into their lower lips.
