Search Results for: mursi

If I had to choose one word to describe the Mursi people of Ethiopia’s Omo Valley, I’d have to say “proud”. There are roughly 7,500 pastoralist Nilo-Saharan Mursi living across approximately 1900 square kilometres of semi-arid land in an isolated corner of southwestern Ethiopia, close to the border with South Sudan. A tall, good-looking people, […]

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The Mursi people of Ethiopia’s Omo Valley have been called “one of the most fascinating tribes in Africa.” A pastoralist group originating in the Nile Valley, the roughly 7,500 Nilo-Saharan Mursi live in an isolated corner of southwestern Ethiopia, close to the border with South Sudan. Even today with improved roadways, their villages are remote: I was on […]

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According to the guide books, the Mursi people have “an aggressive reputation”. This fierce reputation is probably what helps them maintain their cultural traditions and their animist practices in the face of the “artificial” geographic boundaries enforced by the Ethiopian state, the tensions between themselves and other tribes, and the onslaught of modern tourism. That reputation, […]

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Some trips produce such a maelstrom of impressions and images that, when reviewing the photos, it makes sense to start at the end. So it was with Ethiopia! The first photo-stories I posted about this landlocked country, split by the Great Rift Valley, were from the last tribe I visited, the Mursi people, whose villages […]

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Life in for the semi-nomadic Kara (Karo) people in Ethiopia’s Omo Valley is simple – simple, but not easy. There is no electricity and no running water. The people live in dark, circular huts made from sticks and grass. Tradition dictates one’s place and ritual determines one’s behaviour. Every day, the women grind sorghum on […]

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