Turmi is in the heart of the Omo region dominated by the Hamar tribe, an exceptionally picturesque and attractive people who remain true to their tribal customs of dress and lifestyle. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Hamar culture is the Bull-jumping/Woman-beating ritual. This occurs in Hamar villages when, each year, the young men and women of a village come of age. In order to pass the ritual of manhood a boy of 12 or so must jump over as many as 9 or 10 bulls at once. This takes the form of leaping from the ground onto the first bull’s back then jumping from back to back until all of the assembled bulls have been leapt. Exceptionally manly boys will often go back and perform this feat two or three times. Afterwards, a boy is welcomed into the world of men and begins his warrior phase in which he will be allowed one sexual relationship prior to marriage.

The next stage of the ritual involves woman-beating. All Hamar women over 13 years old have severe scarring all over their backs. When I say severe, I mean that the scars will often rise as much as half of inch off the body and cover the entire back from neck to lumbar. Hamar women court this beating as an attempt to marry well and show that they are strong. They approach the men, who wait with sticks, and tease them outrageously, often hitting them and insulting their manhood, until finally the men get angry and begin the beating. The beating is severe and some of the women appear to have been beaten half to death before their brothers and fathers (the beaters) finally stop. Perhaps there is some signal that the woman can give to stop the beatings, but if so I could not tell. Unfortunately, as the Ethiopian government is cracking down on this tradition, the tribesmen were unwilling to let me carry a camera to the ritual and so the best I can do is show you the scars I was able to surreptitiously photograph.

Aside from this severe ritual beating and scarification, the Hamar are a kind and compelling people. I visited several villages and eventually managed to get beyond the one-birr-per-photo stage and befriend a number of Hamar people - no mean feat. One girl in particular, a devilish minx of 11 years, still in the pre-beating phase, followed me around everywhere. Once, when she caught me washing my own clothing she bit my hand in her insistent rage that men should and could not wash clothes. Gender roles are extremely defined in Hamar culture. Men do nothing, women do lots of work, women get beat, men jump bulls, etc. I finally let her do my laundry, and she did a good job for which I paid her six birr.

Hamar women - as well as Karo - cover themselves in a combination of butter and red mud. They do this both to enhance their natural beauty and as sun protection. The substance has a particular odor and, although not totally unpleasant, is strong enough that you know when a Hamar has entered the room, or in most cases, the grass hut.

For the past 10 years, the Hamar have been in a nearly perpetual war with the Galeb tribe. The Galeb traditionally live on the Omo River near Kenya, about 50 kilometers south of Hamar territory. Just before I arrived in the area, a number of terrible battles had taken place in which several people died including a local police officer (Amharan) that attempted to stand in the way of the angry warriors. The Galeb seem to be the primary aggressors, and the biggest issue is cattle theft. Naturally, after visiting the Hamar, it seemed right to visit the Galeb.

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