Hamar parents have a lot of control over their children, who herd the cattle and goats for the family. It’s the parents who give permission for the men to marry, and many don’t get married until their mid-thirties. Girls, on the other hand, tend to marry at about 17. Marriage requires ‘bride wealth’, a payment made to the woman’s family and generally made up of goats, cattle and guns. Omo Valley, Southern Ethiopia, 2013.
This is Nataere a young women from the Mursi tribe. Surrounded by mountains between the Omo River and its tributary the Mago, the home of the Mursi is one of the most isolated regions of the country. Their neighbours include the Aari, the Banna, the Bodi, the Kara, the Kwegu, the Nyangatom and the Suri. They are grouped together with the Me'en and Suri by the Ethiopian government under the name Surma. Omo Valley, Southern Ethiopia, 2013.
The supposed historical link between lip-plates and the activities of slave traders is an idea that goes back to colonial times. In an article in the September 1938 issue of National Geographic Magazine, C & M Thaw report meeting women with large plates in both their upper and lower lips near Fort Archambault, on the River Chari, about 400 miles south-east of Lake Chad, in what was then French Equatorial Africa. Omo Valley, Southern Ethiopia, 2013.
