Tribes of the Omo Valley: Immersive Photographic and Cultural Expedition

Arrival at Addis Ababa airport. You’ll be met and transferred to your hotel by our local representative.

After breakfast, drive to visit the National Museum, home to the famous fossil ‘Lucy’, who is 3.2 million years old. Afterwards visit the Ethnographic Museum, Entoto St. Mary Museum, St.Trinity Cathedral church, and Merkato market, the largest open-air market in Africa.

Highlights today

• The National Museum of Ethiopia
• Holy Trinity Cathedral
• Ethnographic Museum of Ethiopia
• Merkato Open Air Market

Stay at Swiss Inn Nexus Hotel or Similar, Addis Ababa.

In the morning after breakfast, you will drive to Jimma via Woliso. There’s fabulous scenery en route as as you drive through the Gibe River Valley. You will stop for lunch at Wolkite.

Highlights today

Landscapes

Gibe River Valley

Overnight Stay at Central Jimma Hotel or Similar, Jimma

After a relaxed breakfast at Jimma, drive through scenic verdant landscapes to Tulgit, the first settlement for the Surma people; a clan of the Mursi, sharing the basic lip-plating and stick fighting cultures in common.

We will have a full day to spend with the Surma. Our base will be Kibish, and we’ll drive in a rough circle of 40-60 km to photograph and learn about the Surma, Suri, Menit, and other tribes of the area.

As we are staying in the heart of Surma land, many of them will be curious and hang out in our campground, which means plenty of quality time with the tribes and fantastic opportunities to create stunning and compelling imagery.

There are also some great sunset photography opportunities around camp and in Tulgit.

Highlights today

• Surma people

• Tulgit village

• Sunset photography

Overnight stay at Camp, Tulgit (note: camping is the only viable option in this remote area)

The Today we visit Suri to photograph the Surma people, who are fantastically adorned and the surroundings are stunning as well.

The Surma live out in the hills and are cattle herders whose cattle are highly prized. As this tour is a special photographic one you will visit places which have a unique appeal to photographers, landscapes, the heritage of cultural diversity and the bustle of street and marketplaces.

Highlights today

• Suri area

Overnight stay at Camp, Turgit.

Today, we will attend a Donga stick fighting ritual. Men take part in Donga. This is a stick fighting sport – a combination of martial art, ritual, and sport – traditionally a way to impress women and find a wife.

The men fight with little or no clothing, and violent clashes sometimes result in death. Battles usually take place between Suri villages, which can consist of between 40 and 2,500 people.

As well as providing an opportunity to attract a partner, the fights aim to get young men used to bloodshed – which leaders believe comes in handy if they clash with other tribes.

Highlights today

• Donga stick fighting

Overnight stay at Camp, Turgit.

A full day drive to Kangate which is the gateway to the Bume tribal lands east of the Omo River. The Bume peoples have a particular culture and way of life.

Highlights today

• Toposa people

• Nyangatom

Overnight stay at Camp, Kangate.

Morning shoot with Nyangatom also known as Donyaro and pejoratively as Bumé. They are Nilotic agro-pastoralists inhabiting the border of southwestern Ethiopia. Afterwards drive to Turmi.

Highlights today

• Nyangatom and Toposa people

Overnight at Paradise Lodge or similar, Turmi.

After having an early breakfast, you will drive to visit the people of Dassanech, speaking the Oriental Cushit language. They live in Ethiopia and Kenya on the north shore of Lake Turkana and further north along the river Omo. The name Dassanech means ‘People of the Delta’. The Dassanech tribe is not strictly defined by ethnic origin.

Anyone, man or woman, will be admitted as long as they decide to be circumcised. The Power is in the hands of a group of about 30 elders called ‘tori’, each clan has its own identity and responsibilities towards the rest of the tribe is linked to a particular territory. The Dassanech were originally nomads, but today they are predominantly agro-shepherds. They breed sheep, donkeys and in some areas, camels.

After spending time with the Dassanech, drive back to Turmi for rest and opportunities for street photography around the Turmi area.

Highlights today

• Dassanech people

Overnight at Paradise Lodge or similar, Turmi.

Today you will go to see the Hammer population to attend the bull jumping ceremony (if celebrated on this day, the rituals follow the calendar of the village and not that of tourists).

This ritual is a passing ceremony for young people entering adulthood. During the ceremony, we will see the true traditional dance of the Hammers called Evangadi.

The cattle are lined up with rattles hanging from the legs of the women. Accompanied by noisy dancing and singing, the young boys have to skip over this row of bulls naked. The ritual may seem a little violent to us – due to the danger to which the boys are exposed, and also endured by the women of the jumping boy’s family who are symbolically whipped by the others to show their love for their boy who is now ready for adulthood. However, this is their culture and heritage and we are honoured to be a part of their unique tradition.

Highlights today

• Hamar tribes

• Bull jumping

Overnight at Paradise Lodge or similar, Turmi

In the morning you will have an unforgettable excursion to Omo National park.

There you visit the village of the Mursi tribe. The Mursi are infamous for their general hostility to outsiders and for their women, who cut their lips in order that they can insert lip plates therein on special occasions.

After a relaxed lunch, walk to the Ari people, who are famous for pottery and blacksmith. They live in villages around the town of Jinka. They wear mostly western-style clothing. The women plait their hair and the men wear a short shaved haircut. Our guide will take you to one of their largest villages where you spent most of your watching as the villagers went about their daily lives and see food storage and watch injera being made.

Highllights today

• Bena Tribes

• Arbore People

Overnight stay at Eco Omo Lodge or Similar, Jinka

After breakfast in Jinka, drive to Mago National Park to visit the Mursi people in their village. The Mursi are well known for the large clay discs their women wear inserted in their lower split lip. The Mursi women start cutting their lips between the age of 12 and 16 and thereafter, they put small wooden plugs into the hole and change it every night with the bigger one to stretch the lips till it can hold a 6 inch (15cm) round clay disc.

The Mursi men wear very little, although a cotton wrap is becoming more common now.

This afternoon, you will have a village tour to the Ari villages. The Ari people, the largest population in the lower Omo valley, which is famous for its pottery and blacksmith. They live in villages around the town of Jinka.

They wear mostly western-style clothing. The women plait their hair and the men wear a short shaved haircut. Our guide will take you to one of their largest villages where you spent most of your time watching as the villagers went about their daily lives and see food storage and watch injera being made.

Highlights today

• Mursi Tribe

• Ari Villages

Overnight stay at Eco Omo Lodge or Similar, Jinka.

Drive to Konso to visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Konso Cultural Landscape. The site is named after its agricultural inhabitants, the Konso.

The Konso people maintain a unique tradition of erecting generation marking stones, called daga-hela, which are quarried and transported through a ritual process. In addition, they are known for their waga sculptures, statues that memorialize deceased members of the community..

These statues are often stylized and anthropomorphic, describing the community member, their families, and sometimes important events in their lives. The sacred forests near the paletas contain several important ritual locations, especially for initiations, and serve as the burial places for the ritual leaders.

The stones and statues are an exceptional living testimony to funerary traditions that are on the verge of disappearing.

Highlights today

• Konso Cultural Landscape

Overnight stay at Kanta Lodge or Similar, Konso.

In the morning drive to Arba Minch to taka a boat trip on Lake Chamo to see crocodiles, hippos and water birds.

Later, in the afternoon, drive to Chencha and visit Dorze Village to see the Dorze People with Their even more intricate huts and weavings and their way of living then drive back to Arba Minch for overnight.

Highlights today

• Lake Chamo

• Dorze Village

Overnight stay at Haile Resort or Similar, Arba Minch.

Drive back to Addis, in the afternoon shopping and a farewell evening dinner at a cultural restaurant. Your tour ends with a drop off at the airport after the meal. Final night accommodation can be booked on request, along with extensions to other parts of the country.