Ethiopia - The Karo Tribe

[Manfred M]

The Karo are another pastoral tribe found in the Omo Valley of Ethiopia.

Just a few words about this part of Ethiopia, the travel and photography conditions...

The region is located in the extreme south-western part of Ethiopa, several hundred kilometers / miles drive from the capital, Addis Ababa, near the border with South Sudan and Kenya. It takes several days of driving along extremely dusty roads that are in rather poor condition. Not only are the roads full of pot-holes, one spends a lot of times dodging people, cows, goats and other animals that wander down the middle of the road. Progresss can be painfully slow and tricky; there are river crossings; we got stuck in the mud once and had to work with shovels and a tow cable to out of a riverbed.

You can't drive by yourself as Ethiopia has not signed any of the UN conventions of the road, so your local driver's licence is not recognized (even if you have an International Driver's Permit). This means you either have to travel as part of an organized tour or hire a guide and driver, as well as a vehicle. A 4x4 (Toyota Landcruiser) is the vehicle of choice. You will run into other travellers, so while it is isolated, there are others who want to see this part of the world.

The south Omo area is not particularly well equipped for traveller's from developed countries; very basic facilities (camping and possibly some other very basic accomdation) are the only places you can stay. No running water (bring your own in), no toilets (if there are some, they are quite basic), bring your own toilet paper... Showers are available in some places, but hot water is not. Bring along your own food and a cook.

You are in the Yellow fever and malarial area of Africa as well. It's easy to get some kinds of digestive problems - I was the only one in our group of six that did not get sick as some point on the trip.

You will want a guide from the Region who speaks some of the local dialects. A guide from Addis Ababa is not going to cut it, but rather one from Jinka or that general area will be what you want to take along.

One you get into the villages, expect to be hassled by the locals. "Photo" and "money" are words you will hear a lot. A local guide will be of some help and can help you negotiate with the villagers for the "right" to take pictures. Costs - 5 Birr (about $0.25 US for four to six shots of an adult) and 2 or 3 Birr ($0.10 US - $0.15 US) per child were the going rate. Don't point your camera at anyone -they will assume you have taken their picture and will want to get paid. The Mursi and Dasanach tribes were particularly aggressive especially the children and some of the adults. Expect to be touched pushed, shoved and pinched. People will try to get into your pictures. If you are traveling as part of an organized tour, like we were, expect other members of your tour group to get into your pictures as they step in front of you to get a shot.

As the village are far apart on poor roads, shooting conditions (lighting) tend to be poor as you really can't chose the time of day to get there to shoot. Expect to spend a few hours to get to a village and then the same amount to get out again. I had some light modifiers with me, be other than on-camera flash, I dd not have a chance to use most of the stuff I had along, given the situation. If I had arranged for doing this as a photo tour (planning to do this next time), I think the conditions would have been better for shooting.

Public places (markets) you don't have to pay to shoot people, but normal street photography techniques don't work. A lot of the people don't want you to take their picture and will signal "no", so you do have to be a bit more sneaky. Again, the children in the market will follow you around and make shooting difficult. They will ask for money, pens, etc. Don't give them any as if you do, even more will show up demanding "bribes".


Just a few more comments to keep things in context. The "values" of these people are completely different to anything we would tend to recognize in developed Western countries. If you ask a person how old he or she is, she doesn't know, they don't measure age in years.

Marriages are arranged marriages, so young girls can be "engaged" to someone while they are still pre-pubescent. The societies are polygamous, so a man can have several wives. Once he is married he must keep to his wife / wives, but prior to that, "fooling around" with one's girlfriends is quite acceptable. Marriage is related to "coming of age", and we attended a coming of age ceremony held by one family of the Hamer (pronounced "Hummer") tribe, called bull jumping.

Some of these tribes are traditional enemies or allies. AK-47's are a common sight. Tribal wars (generally over property or water rights) used to be more frequent than they are now. We understand that killings over things we Westerners would find quite petty are still fairly common.

[Manfred M]

That all being said; here are some shots from the Karo village.

[Otavio]

Very nice, Manfred. I especially like the guy holding the russian "toy". Very nice background information. Thanks for sharing. Cheers.

[Andrew76]

Fantastic commentary, and photos! What an experience, that's something on my bucket list,for sure.

Thanks for sharing, Manfred!

[rpcrowe]

Great captures and narrative. I enjoy it when photographers bring back images of the people who live in the places that they visit instead of just pictures of trees, buildings and UGGGH, those darned sunsets!

[harmon1]

Excellent pictures. Loved the info. I wanna go there too. Brave travel.

[JPS]

Hi Manfred,
I'm really enjoying your pictures and the information you give us about the trip is the 'Icing on the cake'.
Fantastic.
Cheers
John

[GrahamS]

Bravo, Manfred. Thanks for posting.

[FootLoose]

Manfred, do you know if these people were decorated for some particular occasion, or to try to attract tourists' attention, or just normal everyday dress?

[Manfred M]

Manfred, do you know if these people were decorated for some particular occasion, or to try to attract tourists' attention, or just normal everyday dress?

Greg - think of it as the local version of makeup. Yes, they do it for tourists, but it is their tradition. I suspect it's a bit like a Scotsman wearing a kilt; yes, they do wear them, but send in some visitors and they'll put it on even if they normally wouldn't wear one.

The Kara are the smallest of the tribes (there are only three villages in total in all of Ethiopia), so I suspect they keep the tradition all the more strongly.

[Mike Buckley]

Great narrative and photos, especially the first time. Special thanks for taking the time to write the lengthy narrative.