MURSI MOTHER AND CHILD
Ethiopia 2013: In the Omo Valley
Our group leaders saved the Mursi tribe for last. I had the idea that it was because their village was the most remote of all the tribes we visited. And because the Mursi women wear the lip-plate, something the other tribes do not do. The Mursi were our photographic piece de resistance.
I’m not sure if the Mursi knew we were going to visit their village that day, but they were ready. They had painted their body with a white ash. The women had their large lip plates in place or else they sat stretching their lip to show how they enlarged the lip to accommodate larger and larger lip plates. They wore imaginative, clever head dresses fashioned from whatever came to hand. The Mursi knew how to play the photography game.
My friend, Elizabeth, and I had an Ethiopian man with us who would pay the “model” for each click of the shutter. And the Mursi were counting! They needed cash to buy salt, grain, and other necessities.
Despite rumors to the contrary, the Mursi were cooperative. I felt sorry for one woman whom we posed kneeling on hard, pebble covered ground. She sat stoically for the duration although it must have hurt.
The Mursi are a handsome people, tall and muscular. They look well fed and healthy. They live in huts made of brush. Their main source of income, we were told, is from tourists like us. It’s not an income they can rely on and the Ethiopia government has begun projects in co-operation with the Turkish government to build dams and plantations where they hope the Mursi will work to better support themselves.
BEAUTIFUL DESPITE THE LIP PLATE
Here is a close-up of the woman with her child. You can see she is beautiful. High cheekbones, almond-shaped eyes and a perfect nose. Some suggest that the idea of using a lip plate was to discourage slavers from choosing women who were disfigured. I’ve never believed that theory. Women want to be pretty and to the Mursi this is pretty.
One more thing: I wish I had bought the bead decorated basket by the woman’s side…why didn’t I notice it?