A Karo elder surveys the settlement's sorghum fields along the banks of the Omo River, having just returned from a morning's work in the gardens. Sorghum is a tropical drought-resistant millet-like cereal grain that can be processed in a variety of ways, including fermentation into a juice or type of sorghum beer.
This Kara (Karo) settlement is set high on the east bank of the river in a remote corner of southwestern Ethiopia. The Nyangatom (past enemies, current allies) are established on other side of river. The river curls south and carves a course through the volcanic-rock floor of the Great Rift Valley for another 50-60 kilometres before pouring into Lake Turkana at the Kenyan border.
The clay hairbun with ostrich feathers signifies bravery and the killing of an enemy or a dangerous wild animal. This Kara elder earned high status in the community, in part, for having killed a lion many years ago.
Spears and other traditional weapons in the region were replaced with automatic rifles in the 1980s when they became more readily accessible during the decades-long civil war in neighbouring Sudan. Automatic weapons in circulation in the Horn today are also accessible through other channels, including the flow of small arms and ammunition from the longstanding wars across the border in Somalia and nearby northern Uganda. SKS and AK-47 assault rifles were easily available, relatively cheap and easy to use. Large numbers of automatic weapons were also imported from the USSR to Communist allies around the world during the Cold War, including Ethiopia.
SKS semi-automatic Russian-made rifles like the one in this photograph was a precursor to the AK-47 and were widely available after the fall of the Derg, the Communist military junta that ruled Ethiopia under Mengistu Haile Mariam from 1974 to 1987. The consequent disbanding of the army and police force likely produced a flood of automatic weapons on the market. They became accessible in part through established tribal links with arms dealers in the Ethiopian highlands further to the east of the Omo Basin and elsewhere.
Peoples of the Lower Omo Valley on Flickriver
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Returning the photographer's gaze - sometimes with a proud and knowing smile, an indignant look of resistance and mimicry, or a long studied stare as the observer becomes the observed. The gaze is returned, the observer othered. Subject owns the gaze for a frozen moment.
A graceful gait, an elegant long-limbed stance, or this spontaneous pose under the photographer's gaze - all exude poise and dignity the amid the commotion and bustle of a weekly market in Ethiopia's lower Omo Valley. Omalle, a young married Hamar woman, vogued this pose against a painted wall at the marketplace in Turmi, a small multi-ethnic frontier town in the remote Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region of southwestern Ethiopia. Shot directly under the midday sun near the end of a long dry season regularly exceeding 40°C in the shade.
Elegantly adorned with a traditional cowrie-shell collar, seeded necklaces, copper bracelets, glass-beaded goatskin clothing and iron marital torques. The upper torque with phallic protrusion is wrapped in leather, signifying first-wife status. The torques are worn for life. The hairstyle consists of long, tightly twisted strands rubbed in a mixture of fresh cow butterfat, ground red ochre and tree resin gathered from the lower Omo River Basin. The ubiquitous chewing stick favoured by peoples of the lower Omo Valley serves as a natural toothbrush and dental floss all in one.
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Street Portraiture | Social Documentary | BodyArt
Peoples of the Omo Valley
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An elderly Hamar woman with cane at the weekly market in Turmi, a small multi-ethnic frontier town in the remote Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region of Ethiopia, East Africa. Adorned with seeded necklaces, brass bracelets, and goatskin clothing.
The Hamar are semi-nomadic herders and farmers who live in small settlements or hamlets scattered across the hills, plains, wooded riverines, and dry thorny bush terrain in Ethiopia's lower Omo Valley, near the border with northern Kenya and South Sudan. explore#133
© National Geographic Yourshot (Editor's Favourite, August 2018). Story and assignment: “Rethinking Portraiture.”
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Peoples of the Omo Valley
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Returning the photographer's gaze - sometimes with an indignant look of resistance or a long studied stare as the observer becomes the observed. The gaze is returned, the observer othered. Subject owns the gaze for a frozen moment.
A Hamar elder begrudgingly offered this stance against a painted wall at the marketplace in Turmi, a small multi-ethnic frontier town in the remote Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region of southwestern Ethiopia. Adorned with finger-painted chalk, glass-beaded collar, and clay hair bun with black ostrich feather.
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Dressed for market with calabash honey pot, stool/headrest, bullet belt and finger-painted chalk legs against mud wall in small Hamar market town, South Omo, Ethiopia.
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