East Africa Journal | Jinka, Ethiopia | Dec 2023
The Ethics of the Omo Valley
Travelling through the lush green landscape of Omo Valley, southern Ethiopia, you come across the town of Jinka. It’s a town much like any other in the region, with a bustling markets and Ethiopians sat outside bar shacks drinking beer in the afternoon sun. One thing that stands out however is the sudden presents of white westerners within the town, staying in the hotels and wondering around. Jinka has become the capital for tribal tourism within the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region, or the SNNPR, one of Ethiopia’s nine states. The region is home to a diverse range of tribal and ethnic groups, many whose traditions and lifestyles have not changed for thousands of years. Jinka, like much of the region, is very remote and is a long and potentially dangerous journey overland from the capital Addis Ababa. In 2017 the Ethiopian government built Jinka airport just outside the town with regular connections to Bole airport in Addis, and in turn promoting tourism, specifically tours to meet the tribes in and around Jinka. Before the opening of Jinka airport, tourism still existed but in far fewer numbers, and although it is an avenue to bring money and development to the area, it has arguably turned the home of some of the most remote tribes in the country into a ‘human safari’.
I met a man called Abo, a member of the Aari people who live primarily in and around Jinka. He lives in the hills just outside of the town with his wife and kids and grows mostly corn and sorghum on his land. I met him in a coffee shack near the orthodox church in Jinka, and he tells me about life in the Omo and how it has changed over the years. Ever since the airport has been built to bring tourists in, the area has both prospered and suffered depending on who you are he explains. The money coming into the area has been the main cause of concern for him, with the government not regulating tourism in the area, many companies from not only Ethiopia but internationally have started offering expensive ‘tribal tours’ to visit the different groups, using Jinka as a hub. Abo tells me of how some tour guides sent from Addis are making hundreds of dollars a day whilst many locals in the town still make barely anything in comparison. Even the local guides who had been there before the airport opened struggle against bigger tour companies who can reach potential customers abroad.
Abo on the mountain outside Jinka.
Another, more worryingly, aspect of how money has changed the area is how it has changed the dynamic between some clans and groups within the region. Although money is no new concept in the region, many of the more remote tribes and clans would have no need for conventional money, relying on their own produce to trade with other groups. The introduction of money to their system has distorted things as such, as some clans and groups want money over produce, disrupting the movement of goods and food in the area and sometimes leading to inner-tribal conflicts. Abo tells me there are some tribes that refuse to accept any visitors and have warned against them coming onto their land.
(L) Abo's wife distilling alcohol (R) Abo's land.
Some tourists venture to the Omo to see specific tribal groups. One of the most known tribes in the Omo is the agro-pastoralist Mursi Tribe. Their women are known for their artistic crafts including the clay or wooden disk inserted in the stretched lower lip, one of the last tribal groups to retain such practice. The exact number of Mursi people in unknown but is thought to be over 11,000 in Ethiopia, they are known to inhabit the most remote parts of the SNNPR. Along with the lip disk, Mursi practices include various rituals to their animistic god ‘Tumwi’ with each clan having unique customs, and the ceremonial duelling of unmarried men. Mursi marriage is usually solicitated by the exchange of a certain number of cattle along with a single Kalashnikov rifle to the bride’s family, and is inter-clan within the tribe, with the bride relocating to her husband’s clan. Although some clans accept visitors, many Mursi keep away from tourists.
A Mursi woman.
Another well-known tribal group is the Hamer people, a pastoralist tribe inhabiting the fertile southern part of the Omo. Speaking the Hamer language, they are well documented for their customs and rite of passage boys must take to be considered men and to be able to marry a woman. This ceremony requires the boy to run over a row of bulls without failing. Another practice is the whipping of girls, young females of the tribe will dance to invite a man to whip their backs, the more whipping scars the more say the woman has on marriage. Clay is also put in females’ hair, mixing red clay and butter and applying it to their braids, it is considered a beauty practice. A few films and documentaries have been filmed since the 1970s documenting the culture and lives of the Hamer people, including a BBC documentary. In 2007, it was counted that there were 46,532 people of the Hamer tribe in Ethiopia.
Hamer men dancing, near Turmi.
Karo men cooking bush meat, near Turmi.
The Karo Tribe are the smallest Tribe in the SNNPR and one of the smallest in Ethiopia, with a population of around 2000. The Karo are semi-nomadic and cultivate crops in and around the Omo River. The body decorations of both men and women are what they are known for, using white and yellow paints made from chalk, rocks and plants to create ceremonial paintings on themselves. The Karo people traditionally rely on the silt from the Omo River to fertilize their crops, but the construction of a dam on the river by the Ethiopian government has put pressure on their way of life and food production. The Hamer and the Karo are closely related and share an almost identical language and religion, and trade between the two tribes is very common.
The Karo village next to the Omo River.
Other than the issue of money in the Omo, the problem of increased western tourists to the area creates a ‘human zoo’ dynamic, where tourists are driven around to look at tribes as if they are an exhibition. It is noticeable the large and intimidating looking cameras carried by some tourists in Jinka, with some tours I found on the internet afterwards emphasising photography opportunities of the tribes rather than learning about them. This has also led to some of the tribes’ ceremonies and practices becoming a show for foreign money and losing their often important and ancient meaning. Abo told me that some villages in the Omo have a ‘photography fee’ for tourists to let them take all the photos they want.
I met a man called Sam whilst in Turmi, about the same age as me in his early twenties who agreed to show me his village on his motorbike for some money and to which I accepted. In conversation he highlighted the benefits of tourism however, and that he was trying to become an independent tour guide for the Karo tribe based in and around Turmi. Sam explained that tourists would come often to the village with guides and that some people would dress up ready for their arrival, usually for them to take photographs. This in turn allowed the village to build a school and hire a teacher, meaning the children of the village could learn Amharic, the national language of Ethiopia, as well as English. This likely would have never happened without tourist money. Weather they needed this education however is debatable.
(L) Sam, (R) Crop storage in his village.
The school in Sam's village, showing the state flags of Ethiopia.
When asked, Sam did tell me about tourists who would just take photographs, with no desire to learn about the culture or lives of the Karo. His justification was that it brought them money so he, and the village does not mind too much. Whilst in the Karo village, a Toyota land cruiser, with a tour company’s name on the side, turned up with tourists with big cameras. They were from Germany and had been visiting the tribes on a package tour, but as Sam pointed out after, the cars that come carrying visitors also bring much needed supplies to the village, including materials for the school. Many villages around the Omo have become reliant on the 4x4s that tourists come in to also bring food, water and resources they would struggle to get otherwise.
Supplies being delivered to the village.
The Omo is one of the most fascinating places in Ethiopia, with a glimpse of how tribal life has been for millennia, it’s hardly surprising why the popularity of tourism has grown and why the Ethiopian government built the new Jinka airport. It has however become a ‘human zoo’ in some regards, with unregulated tour operators promoting it as a photography destination, it requires both input from the Ethiopian government and international travellers to protect areas as such to ensure local cultures are not ground down under the stress of mass tourism. In an increasingly interconnected world where travel has become accessible to many, consideration of the effects of visiting and trying to learn and understand not just the tribes but the area as a whole is ever more important.