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Nyangatom Woman
On the west banks of the southern Omo River, the Nyangatom tribal people continue to guard their traditions and eke out a living. Nyangatom women can wear up to 8 kg (17 lb) of beads, which they don’t remove. A young girl gets her first strand of beads from her father, and adds more every year.
Life isn’t easy in the lower reaches of Ethiopia’s South Omo Zone.
This is a harsh environment: an arid region with low annual rainfall, where indigenous groups have mastered flood-retreat agriculture on the banks of the Omo River. For generations, a number of distinct ethnic groups have managed to hold onto their languages and cultures, engaging in a semi-nomadic, predominantly pastoral lifestyle on their traditional grazing and agricultural lands.
Roads are poor, infrastructure is virtually non-existent, and towns are few and far between. This very remoteness has allowed sixteen discrete tribal groups from three different language-families to maintain their traditions. One of these groups, the Nilo-Saharan Nyangatom, arrived in the Omo Valley from northern Uganda about 150 years ago.
Thought to number about 30,000 people across South Sudan and Ethiopia, the Nyangatom have a reputation for being aggressive, and conflicts between themselves and neighbouring tribes are not uncommon. The village I visited on the west bank of the Omo River was on contested lands that were reputedly taken from the Kara people in bloody battle (see: Goats and Guns at Sunset).
I was travelling with photographer Ben McRae on a Piper Mackay tour. We were staying in a mobile campsite in Kara territory, organised and set up Grand Holidays Ethiopia. To reach this site, we had driven some distance off the last bitumen road, bouncing across what looked like jungle-clad walking trails. Even in our four-wheel drives, we had to stop periodically to negotiate with fallen trees.
From our campsite, we set off in the relative cool of an equatorial pre-dawn to travel up the river in an outboard boat. After about 40 minutes, we pulled up onto a muddy shore, and then walked about half an hour across a cracked and barren landscape, with little growing except thorn trees.
That is where we found the Nyangatom village.
As I said: these tribes are remote!
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Boat Driver on the Omo River
The sun is barely sneaking over the horizon as we make our way up the Omo River from Dus Village.
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On the River
Once our noisy motor is turned off, the river falls back into stillness and silence.
Nyangatom side of the River
This is territory the Kara people still believe is theirs; picturing their lush green river-side crops (see: Environmental Portraits), I think the Kara got the better end of the deal!
Nyangatom Donkey Herd
As we approach the village, the herdsmen are taking animals out to pasture. This was the first time in the Omo that I saw a herd of donkeys. The Nyangatom use them for haulage and transport – especially when they are moving camp.
Zebu Cattle
Further south along the river, large livestock are at extreme risk from sleeping sickness carried by tse tse flies, so large herds of cows there are rare. The Nyangatom are higher up here, and had a great number of humped zebu cattle – well adapted to withstand the local climate.
Nyangatom Youth
In the cool morning air, most people carry a blanket for warmth – …
Nyangatom Boy
… or at the very least, a length of woven cloth to act as a scarf.
Nyangatom Boy-Child
The children love posing …
Nyangatom Boy in a Blanket
… for the various cameras …
Showing the Kids their Pictures
… and they love seeing the results. The tribal groups in the Omo Valley know that their appearance is of marketable value: in many places, you ‘Pay per Click’. In this village, however, our guide had negotiated a fixed price for the whole village. This gave us much more freedom to wander, and to interact with people more naturally.
Nyangatom Kraal
The homes in the settlement are surrounded by a thorn-bush fence. The cattle have their own section of kraal – as do the other animals. Children are everywhere!
Nyangatom Woman
Nyangatom men are polygamous, with each wife having her own woven beehive hut.
Nyangatom Woman and her House
The flat earth between the beehive huts is neatly swept.
Bangles and Beads
Bracelets seem as popular as beads. You can see an example of scarring for beautification on this woman’s arms …
Woman in a Headband
… and this woman’s forehead. Some of the beaded necklaces are quite chunky!
Young Nyangatom Man
The oldest married Nyangatom man is the uncontested head of his family group. He does not have his own home: he stays with one of his wives. Younger men tend to marry in order of seniority, but even once they are married, the eldest is still the ‘owner’ of all the livestock and children. Other family members have ‘rights of use’, according to their place in the extended family.
Village Goats
A Stool and a Calabash
All across the Omo Valley, calabash gourds are hollowed out and dried, and used for drinking and for carrying water. I think this one was filled with fermented sorghum mash.
Woman in a Sheet
In a community with a subsistence lifestyle, every purchased product is at a premium: blankets, sheets, and shop-bought clothing around the village are all well-worn.
Outside Nyangatom Homes
Men in each tribal group have a slightly different style of wooden stool, which doubles as a head-rest. They carry these around wherever they go. Women squat or sit on the ground.
Woman in Red White and Blue
Houses are dark, and the doorways are small and low. Like many other Nyangatom, this woman has facial scars and a small lower-lip plug.
Man in Green
Of course, you never quite escape the outside world! Mobile phones are an essential – …
Men with Kalashnikovas
… as are the AK-47s that are needed to protect/raid livestock and territory. The Nyangatom people were the first to be armed with modern weaponry, which they brought into the region from neighbouring South Sudan.
Old Man with Ritual Scars
Not all scarring is decorative. When a Nyangatom man kills an enemy, his upper body is cut to release any bad blood. This elder took great pride in his badges of honour.
It wasn’t long after meeting this elder that – as we were in the process of leaving the village – we visitors were all corralled by a young herder with his automatic rifle over a misunderstanding about money.
It was very surreal, and, at first I didn’t have the sense to be particularly worried. Fortunately, although the young man was quite serious, our guide was able to persuade him that we had duly paid all requisite fees (quite publicly) to the village elders for distribution.
The people here are under increasing pressure. Like the other tribes in the Lower Omo Valley, the Nyangatom have had to wrestle with the changing environment, and to fight against their neighbours, to carve out and maintain a place.
Encroaching ‘civilisation’ – especially in the form of a giant dam up-stream that is changing the way the river behaves – is putting their whole lifestyle at risk.
This is a different world to the one I live in!
Who knows how much longer their world can survive.
Until next time!
[…] penultimate group we spent time with. I’ve described some of their customs previously (see: Dark Eyes and Layers of Beads). Let’s revisit them before their ways disappear – along with the receding […]