Life & Style | Travel
Meeting tribals in Ethiopia
Ethiopian tribals turn exhibits for foreigners even as the visitors are hounded for freebies.
- By Robin Esrock
- Published: 00:04 August 2, 2008
Ethiopian tribals turn exhibits for foreigners even as the visitors are hounded for freebies
It's the traveller's dilemma. You want to explore and interact with exotic people from exotic lands but the very fact that you're interacting changes the dynamics of the encounter.
This unfortunate reality is perfectly illustrated in southern Ethiopia, one of the most culturally diverse regions on the planet.
There are 53 tribes inhabiting the area, most with unique traditions that range from incredible art to self-inflicted mutilation.
As one of only two countries in Africa to have never been colonised, Ethiopia has long attracted adventurous travellers looking for the unusual from its stunning ancient rock churches in Lalibela to wildlife in the Rift Valley.
Meeting the tribals
Tour operators offer the chance to meet several of the 53 tribes found in or around the southern Omo Valley and tourists are increasingly braving bad roads to go tribe-touring.
But the experience, as I discovered, comes with a few challenging surprises.
At the root of the problem are mobs surrounding tourists wherever they go, which is popularly known as “ferengi (Aramaic for foreigner) frenzy''.
Maybe because of a proliferation of NGOs, aid workers or irresponsible tourists, rural people have come to associate ferengi with handouts.
While it is a tradition in Ethiopia to refuse gifts and be generous with what you have, anyone booking a “tribal'' tour will find these traditions hard to come by.
Instead, ferengis are often mobbed for just about anything — money, pens or empty water bottles especially, and sadly, by poorly clothed children.
Our Land Cruiser stopped off the side of the highway to visit a band of Alaba people, a tribe living in dark mud huts with thatched roofs.
I am immediately surrounded by children with their hands out, our guide negotiating a price with the leader of the family.
A price is settled, the atmosphere is as welcoming as a doctor's waiting room.
They see me as money and I really don't want to be there. The band of several dozen people stand around looking through me, admiring my cheap watch, pulling my shirt with the request of “1 birr (Dh0.4)''.
Like zoo exhibits
In Ethiopia, it is customary to pay anyone you take a picture of. While it is fair that they expect compensation, I struggled to find moments when people are their natural selves.
Instead, they are doing whatever will get foreigners to pull out their cameras and wallets.
After entering a dark, smoky hut and asking some casual questions, it was time to leave.
Most tourists spend about 15 minutes with the tribe, longer than most exhibits in a zoo, but not by much.
As uncomfortable as I felt, it was about to get worse.
The Mursi Tribe, numbering between 6000 to 10,000, are nomads in one of the country's most remote regions.
Famous for the clay lip-plates worn as a sign of beauty by their women, ritual scarification and stick-fighting, the Mursi are embroiled in a dispute with the Africa Parks Board, which is creating national parks in their roaming areas.
It's a three-day drive to the town of Jinko and takes over three hours to drive just 27km on a bulldozed dirt road into the Mago National Park.
Deep in the bush, the 4x4 pulled up to a small village of a dozen thatch huts.
Scarily exotic
Immediately, we were mobbed by a tribe both frightening and thrillingly exotic.
With painted faces, it was impossible not to stare at the women with lips extended many inches below their chins.
“Take picture, take picture, take picture!'' I was pushed and poked by half-naked men, women and children, several of whom held AK-47s used during wars between tribes.
The tribe swept itself into a frenzy while the tourists took photos, peeling off notes violently grabbed by the Mursi subject, as others in the tribe did their best to be in the photo.
It was sickening, yet the photographs are incredible. It is nothing less than an unfortunate human zoo.
Avoid giving money
Aid organisations and charities repeatedly advise against giving money, clothes or the coveted empty water bottles there.
A nutritionist for a local NGO tells me that due to good rains and a strong community spirit, nobody is starving in the country, and often, children just want things as a sign of prestige.
“I want tourists to see we are human, not a zoo,'' a Mursi man tells me.
So do we.
Robin Esrock is co-host of the new OLN travel series Word Travels. You can watch his experiences with the tribes in southern Ethiopia on Wednesday and Sunday night (10pm ET/ 7pm PT)
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