Tribes
Trip Start
Oct 05, 2009
1
5
11
Trip End
Oct 04, 2010
Jinka,
Gamo Gofa,
Ethiopia
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Mursi women
. The fee goes towards something needed for the whole village and we saw a couple of gleaming water tanks with "Norwegian Church Aid" stamped on the side. The huts are made of mud and straw and the way of life is exceeding primitive with very little evidence of modern life or amenities at all. The children all shout and point "You! You! You!" whenever they see a foreigner. It takes a little getting used to. We were allowed to visit the clan chief (there are nine clans in the area) who also permitted us to visit the grave site of his ancestors. This was hidden up a forest path and still has the "waka" symbols - wooden carvings representing the deceased, and his family, and his place in the line of chiefs. Many of them have apparently been stolen or taken to museums and so seeing one on site was quite special. After this we went to the chief's house which was in a compound surrounded by high mud walls. We sat on low stone seats under a straw roof and the chief, who was wearing a pale green suit with an open necked shirt and a very large bright blue scarf wrapped around his head, told us various things about the clan system. Most of his chat was about meting out justice to his tribe, which was of some interest to Sabine and me, as lawyers, although of course there were so many questions we could have asked. My questions were not as sharp as they might have been due to the pill taken previously and indeed my memory of the whole event is somewhat hazy
Key Afar market
.Jinka is a very long way from anywhere. After we found somewhere to stay, we were taken out to eat at Lalo's mother's place. This is a mud hut with a corrugated iron roof in a terrace of similar huts. There were posters of Bob Marley and Jesus and Mary on the walls (standard decor in Ethiopia). Lalo's mother and sisters seemed to be expecting us and soon we were seated at the table and served the usual communal dish of injera (foam rubber pancake) with a piece of chicken (surprise!), some cottage-type cheese (further surprise) and a boiled egg (amazing) all with lashings of the usual red-coloured chilli sauce which I think is called wat. This is Ethiopia's national dish: "doro wat". It was delicious; as was the drink which was authentic home-made "tej" or very powerful honey wine. I am not sure where Lalo's dad was, or indeed if he still is. Lalo had previously told us that his father had had a profitable and useful business smuggling ammunition into Ethiopia from across the nearby Sudanese border, but sadly he had been caught and had spent three years in jail.
It rained and there was constant thunder and lightning all night. Despite this we set off early for Mago National Park to visit the Mursi village. This is the famous tribe, where the women wear lip plates
Main street, Jinka
. The road was incredibly difficult, following the rain. Great ravines had opened up, and the mud was so terrible that we got stuck in a rut at one point and had to spend quite some time laying branches under the wheels. The mud was like I have never seen: almost pure clay. I noticed as I was waiting by the side of the road that there were ants the size of small mice. The temperature was soaring but the humidity was still very high. It was not the ideal place to be marooned. Eventually, we made it onto a slightly better piece of road. At several places along the road there were boys who had smeared their naked bodies with white paint so that they looked like skeletons. They danced around on enormously tall homemade wooden stilts whenever they saw a vehicle approaching. They would shout "Highland! Highland!" which was puzzling until I discovered that this is the name of the local brand of mineral water and they wanted empty (or full) plastic bottles (why?). The village was not an edifying experience. As soon as the vehicle stopped we were surrounded by Mursi in their full lack of kit and body decoration, all demanding "photo five birr!" and jostling us and each other in order that we would choose them to photograph. Lip plates are beginning to be not "in" any more: the young girls are not using them and this is just as well as they really are hideous. There were some women who were not wearing the plates but had taken them out and their lower lips hang down well below their mouths with a large empty space between lip and mouth. I did not buy a lip plate myself although these were eagerly offered for sale.
Lalo had told us something of the customs of the Mursi. When a girl marries her dowry is always 30 head of cattle and a Kalashnikov (this is clearly an ancient tradition, then). A Kalashnikov costs about 4,000 birr (200 pounds sterling). The only possessions in evidence that I could see were - cattle and Kalashnikovs.
The whole business of visiting a village and taking photographs raises all sorts of difficult ethical questions. We had to pay to get a permit for the village and apparently all these payments go towards buying something which the whole village wants (I think they may not be allowed to spend all the money on guns and ammunition but I'm not sure). Anyway, these Mursi were apparently planning to buy a communal car when they had enough money. This will have to be a Landcruiser or Jeep as no other car could ever cope with the conditions.
I certainly felt a lot more uncomfortable than the villagers did. They are used to the whole circus, of course. They may have been told that tourists want photos and so they are simply doing their best to ensure that we get what we have come for. We can only guess at what they must think of us.
I must make this shorter. Every entry from now on will be no more than five paragraphs. And please, dear reader, let me have your comments on the story so far. Is it too long and detailed? Would you like more anecdotes? Do you have any questions or suggestions? I need feedback! I would love to post more pictures but I fear I may have to wait until New Zealand where there may be a computer that works fast enough for photos to be feasible.
Comments
Brilliant blog- Bosse says very professional. We shall be regular readers
happy traveling and love from us both x