Omo Valley: The Hamer People

Another fascinating ethnic group that we met in the Omo Valley was the Hamer people.  We saw them at two large outdoor markets and we also visited a Hamer village.

The Hamer are known for several distinctive characteristics and traditions. Among them are the remarkable hairstyles of the women. The women mix together ochre, water and a binding resin which they rub into their hair. They then twist strands of hair again and again to create coppery colored tresses. 

The Hamer are also masters of body decoration. The women wear iron coils around their arms and bead necklaces. The iron torques worn around the necks of married women indicate the wealth and prestige of their husband. 

 

The Hamer also have a unique ritual known  as "bull jumping" which doesn't occur regularly and most tourists don't get an opportunity to observe. Our guide, however, learned that a bull jumping ceremony was to take place at a nearby village the next day so we raced over to watch it. We were very lucky!

After driving through Hamer territory for over 45 minutes searching for where the ceremony was to be held (driving across dusty, bumpy open plains with no real roads or landmarks), then walking for 30 minutes through the brush because our 4-wheel drive car could go no further, we finally reached the location of the ceremony.

 

The bull jumping ceremony is one which young Hamer men, 16 to 18 years of age, must go through in order to reach adulthood. It's a rite of passage. The ceremony actually has a few different phases. (We were there watching it all and taking photographs for over three hours.)

First, there is a lot of jubilant jumping, dancing and chanting by women, mainly girls and young women, before the bull jumping takes place. The women are relatives of the boy who is about to do the bull jumping.  Through their jumping, dancing and chanting, the women are extolling the great characteristics of the young man who is about to jump the bulls, so unmarried girls would be interested in marrying him.

The next part of the ceremony was difficult to watch as it so conflicted with our own values and cultural norms, but it has been part of the Hamer culture for countless years. It consisted of the young girls being whipped. The young women get whipped, we were told, to prove their love for their relative who is about to jump the bulls.

The handsome young men who do the whipping have already achieved adulthood by successfully jumping the bulls in the past. Before doing the whipping the young men have their faces painted (it seemed like the designs were simply whimsical and for decoration) and they are bedecked in their traditional jewelry. 

 

The young women who are about to be whipped carry the reeds with which the whipping is done and rush to the men pleading to be whipped first, singing and dancing to get attention. They want to be whipped. They don't cry or complain about the pain, because they are showing their strength. They want to pass along that confidence to the jumper so he will be successful.

When the whipping is performed the reed slashes the young woman's lower back. Some of the gashes we saw were over 2 inches long and all of the women who had been whipped were bleeding.  The wounds eventually heal, then join the other scars on the women's backs from prior whipping ceremonies. Amazingly, the women did not cry or complain. It seemed, however, that their singing and dancing afterwards was less energetic.

Prior to the bull jumping itself, a number of Hamer men struggled for several minutes to get enough bulls standing in a row, shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, so that the jumping could proceed. While this was going on, everyone else watched the entertainment of getting the bulls lined up with great amusement, while the young man who was about to jump the bulls stood by completely naked with a very serious look on his face. (Yes, he ran across the bulls completely naked.) When about 8 or 10 bulls were finally in line, the young man, in front of the cheering crowd, leaped onto the first bull then ran across the backs of the others. He did this successfully, without falling, about four times, running back and forth across the backs of the bulls, first in one direction then the other, as the crowd cheered his achievement. 

 

We were told that after this successful bull jumping the most exciting part for the community would be the huge celebration that was to follow with lots of eating, drinking and dancing through the night. We quickly left after the bull jumping was completed, however, as it was early evening and we wanted to find our way back to our jeep then drive across the open plains and find the road back to town before it was completely dark.