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Home > Editorial Photography Portfolio > Randy Olson > Ethiopia’s Omo Valley | Africa’s Last Frontier, National Geographic Magazine

Ethiopia’s Omo Valley | Africa’s Last Frontier, National Geographic Magazine

October 31, 2011 By

This is a fairly simple and sad story—a snapshot of cultures in southern Ethiopia that will disappear. The north-south axis of the story is the region’s life-sustaining Omo River, which will be choked by a dam in 2013. And the east-west axis of the story is the arms trade traveling across this area between Sudan and Somalia.  So in 2013 when the Gibe III dam goes online this culturally distinct area will be starving and heavily armed.

 The Omo River tribes are only 200,000 people standing in Ethiopia’s way of having steady electric power for 11 million.  Steady electric power equates directly to GDP growth and surprisingly often decreases population. When there is electricity, there is something else to do at …

Ethiopia’s Omo Valley | Africa’s Last Frontier, National Geographic Magazine

By Randy Olson

This is a fairly simple and sad story—a snapshot of cultures in southern Ethiopia that will disappear. The north-south axis of the story is the region’s life-sustaining Omo River, which will be choked by a dam in 2013. And the east-west axis of the story is the arms trade traveling across this area between Sudan and Somalia.  So in 2013 when the Gibe III dam goes online this culturally distinct area will be starving and heavily armed.

 The Omo River tribes are only 200,000 people standing in Ethiopia’s way of having steady electric power for 11 million.  Steady electric power equates directly to GDP growth and surprisingly often decreases population. When there is electricity, there is something else to do at night.  The dam that will provide electric power for Ethiopia will also choke off the food supply for these tribes that rely on flood recession agriculture. Because the arms trade between Sudan and Somalia goes directly across their territory, every grown man in this area owns an AK-47.  These cultures that include the last of stick fighting, bull jumping and lip plates, have always been ruled by ritual and revenge. These tribes were already killing each other across the river over cropland before their food source was stressed. 

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Kara Tribal Elder and Flood Recession Agriculture Gibe III Dam | Omo River Valley, Ethiopia Omo River Valley Village Duss “is Dust” Mursi woman licks beer off lip plate First Bras Come to the Omo Valley in Ethiopia Tribal Donga (stick fight) | Omo Valley, Ethiopia Mursi child holding leaf frond on the banks of the Omo River Kuchuru Riverbank, Lower Omo River Valley, Ethiopia Crocodile Dies on the Bank of the Omo River, Ethiopia Cows are Money in Omo River Area of Ethiopia Saving a Drowning Cow – Cows are Money in Ethiopia Drinking Cow’s Blood in Ethiopia’s Omo River Valley Arms Trade Crosses Omo Borders – Every Grown Man has an AK-47 Nyangatom and Karo Peace Ceremony | Omo River Valley, Ethiopia Nyangatom and Karo Peace Ceremony in Lokulan | Omo Valley, Ethiopia Karo village called Duss on the Banks of the Omo, Ethiopia Harvesting sorghum in the Karo village called Labuk Hand Labor Sorghum Harvesting with Children | Omo River, Ethiopia Periods of Drought on The Omo River, Ethiopia Periods of Drought in The Omo River Valley, Ethiopia Water Pumps Don’t Work Well in the Omo River Valley, Ethiopia Food aid hand out in the Nyangatom town called Kangaten, Ethiopia Korcho Village in Ethiopia Gets Drunk on Sorghum Food Aid Children and Adults in Korcho Get Drunk on Sorghum Food Aid Women With Lip Plates in Tulgit, Ethiopia Women Scarify Themselves to be Pretty | Omo River Valley, Ethiopia Hair Treatment, Hamar Tribe, Logira Village, Ethiopia Karo Tribal Men Paint Clay on Their Bodies for Evening Dance | Ethiopia Women Dance in Duss Village | Omo River Valley, Ethiopia Karo Tribe Applies Clay Paint and Dances All Night | Ethiopia Men Have Time for Leisure in Tulgit, Ethiopia – Women Work Dispute Over Woman Leads to Donga – Stick Fight | Ethiopia Dongas: Stick Fighting in the Lower Omo River Valley, Ethiopia Dongas (Stick Fighting) Often Leads to Injury | Omo Valley, Ethiopia After the Donga (Stick) Fight – Men Lean on Penis-Shaped Sticks Tourists Drawn to Lip Plates Wear Cheetah Costumes in Jinka, Ethiopia Tribal Mursi Boy Paints His Baboon for Tourist Money | Omo Valley, Ethiopia Mursi Kids Line Up to Beg on Unfinished Highway into the Omo Valley Change in Omo Valley – The First Bridge on Lower Omo, Ethiopia One Small Bit of Aid in a Harsh Landscape | Omo Valley, Ethiopia Nails Meant for a School, Used as Adornment | Omo Valley, Ethiopia Aid Goes Wrong Rubber Sheets for Irrigation Used as Party Tent | Ethiopia Beer Hall Made From Sheets of Rubber Donated by NGO’s for Agriculture | Ethiopia Ethiopian Bride Ritual Involves Entire Body Covered in Butter and Clay Ethiopian Funeral Ritual Fills Grave with Heavy Rocks Ethiopian Funeral Ritual – The String of Life Once a Generation – A Mass Bull-Jumping in Ethiopia’s Karo Tribe Hamar and Karo Tribes Bull-Jumping Manhood Ceremony | Ethiopia Mingi Killing – Children Out of Wedlock Left in Bush to Die | Ethiopia Karo Tribesman Prepares to Jump Bulls and Become a Man Benne Tribal Woman Prepares for her Brother’s Bull-Jumping Ritual Ethiopia’s Bull-Jumping, Manhood Ceremony Begins With Whipping Women Alcohol Issues in Tribal Ethiopia – Scarred Women Wait for Bull-Jumping Tourists at Hamar Tribe Bull-Jumping Manhood Ceremony | Ethiopia Hamar Village Gets Bulls for Manhood Ceremony | Ethiopia Bull-Jumping Manhood Ceremony for Hamar and Karo Tribes | Ethiopia Ethiopia’s Maze’s Responsible for Whipping Women at Manhood Ceremonies Bull-Jumping Manhood Ceremony | Dimeca, Ethiopia Mazes Tame Bulls in Bull-Jumping Manhood Ceremony | Dimeca, Ethiopia Hamar Tribe Member Becomes a Man After Jumping the Bulls | Ethiopia
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