A Journey to Remember

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Bahraini Sawsan Taher first picked up a camera seriously just four years ago, but following her passion recently took her to Ethiopia’s remote Omo River Valley from where she shares with us this series of stunning images.

September-2015_People1_001Since I was in school I have loved watching documentary programmes,” says Sawsan. “I’ve always had a curiosity about different nations and their people. Information about tribes around the world fascinates me, especially remote peoples, how they manage and their societies.”

That curiosity came to the fore when Sawsan got her first professional camera in 2011. She says: “I had been taking pictures almost all my life but when I got my first professional camera, that really opened things up for me and I started focussing on different kinds of photography.”

Specialising in macro-subjects, such as tiny insects, Sawsan took part in the Bahrain Wildlife Exhibition and she is also keen on capturing street life and landscapes. She joined various camera clubs and soon discovered one in the GCC that had recently visited with the Masai in Kenya but when she asked to go on the next trip she was told it was men only.

September-2015_People1_002“They said they did not accept women because of the places they go to but I wasn’t willing to give up and the guy suggested another group. There was an advertisement for a trip to Ethiopia that was open to females so I signed up to get some more information.
“This is a trend for people getting together over Instagram, usually photographers, to visit less accessible places. The guy putting together to the group had previously been to the area so was able to organise guides and hotels etc.
“There were another three ladies in the group, one from Qatar and two from Bahrain and, I believe, we’re the first GCC women ever to visit the Lower Omo Valley.

“It was honestly a great challenge. We were there for 11 days and visited five different tribes and we spent a lot of time driving and travelling between them which was pretty tough going over rough terrain.

“Guides make a payment to the village elders to allow travellers access and in one village we had to run away after the people got angry over a payment misunderstanding.

“Visiting the Mursi tribe we were escorted by an armed member of the Ethiopian National Guard because we were warned they can be aggressive.

“To visit the Dassanech tribe I crossed the Omo River in a hollowed out tree trunk and on a trip to Chamo Lake there was lots of bird life, huge crocodiles and several hippos.

“I was sad to see the ‘mingi’ children, who are considered to be bad luck and are usually killed if they are not taken in by the Omo Child organisation which provides schooling and accommodation for them.

“But overall it was a brilliant experience, one I will never forget and I would love to go back, perhaps to camp next time and spend longer getting to know the people and really experiencing their lifestyles.”

One of Sawsan’s pictures from the trip, showing a family of the Hamar tribe, has since won a gold medal from the American Photographic Society. You can follow her on Instagram at Finish_Last.

Mursi Tribe
September-2015_People1_003Perhaps the most famous of the tribes thanks to the tradition among the women of inserting a plate into their bottom lips, the Mursi have featured in a television programme for the UK’s BBC and are very popular with visitors, despite being armed the hilt, often unfriendly and having a reputation for aggression and even, it’s claimed, going so far as to kill and eat their enemies – hence the need for an armed guard!

Fascinating to look at the Mursi adorn themselves with bright paints and elaborate headdresses made of bone and woven leather.

Before the lip plates, young women start by putting small and then progressively larger plates in their ears to stretch their earlobes. As they reach their mid-teens, the lip plate is inserted and, though it is seen as a status symbol, the wearers have no bottom teeth and must live on a diet of mushy food.

The Mursi are a traditionally pastoral people for whom their livestock are extremely important to the point that calves will often be kept inside the family hut to protect them. Cattle are not just valuable possessions but are also commonly used to pay the bride price in a tribal marriage.

Hamar Tribe
This is one of the best-known tribes in the region as both women and men use oil and ochre mud to paint their hair and bodies giving them a bronze-like cast to their skin. The women twist their hair into locks, a style distinctive to the tribe. The men, as in all the tribes, adorn themselves with white body paint, giving a leopard-like effect alongside the bronzed skin. Mothers use white paint on their babies to ward off evil spirits and small boys paint each other since there are no mirrors.

Married Hamar women wear two heavy iron rings around their necks. However, the tribe practises polygamy (men can marry as often as they wish) and the first wife sports an additional torque with a phallic protrusion signifying her status.

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Women decorate themselves with cowrie shells, glass, seeds and metal beads and wear beaded goat-skin dresses while courageous men, who have killed an enemy or dangerous animal, wear a style of mud cap decorated with feathers. The may also have their chests marked with rows of hero scars to show the number of enemies slain.

Dassenach Tribe
This tribe is quite isolated, reached by crossing the Omo River in hollowed out tree trunk canoes. Women wear pleated cow skin skirts and many necklaces and bracelets. And all sorts of recycled objects are used for adornment such as bottle tops attached to caps and rows and rows of brightly coloured beads used as necklaces and bracelets. Shells are also widely worn since the tribe is so close to the river and arm bangles each have a meaning. Girls in the tribe are usually married at the age of 17 and boys at 20.

Konso Tribe
Unlike their tribal counterparts, the Konso frequently wear Western clothes as well as their more traditional dress. Their village is hard to get to situated on a series of hard rocky slopes and is reached through a gate and a system of winding maze-like alleys which form a security system. Though friendly, the Konso are the tribe Sawsan and her fellow travellers had to flee thanks to a payment mistake which saw some of the group surrounded by villagers loudly demanding cash!

Kara Tribe
The Kara live in a unique location on the banks of the Omo River and, again, white paint is used from childhood to ward off evil spirits. Colourful beads and cloths are used to designate position and family association and to attract the opposite sex. Women scar their chests, believing it makes them look beautiful. Men’s scars represent foes or dangerous animals killed. On the outskirts of the village they had built huts for food storage, the only one of the tribes to do so.

Sawsan says: “I found the Kara to be the friendliest of the tribes we visited, perhaps they are more used to visitors. But I was sad, when we were leaving to see a school building but when I asked our guide he explained that many

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of the children don’t go to school as they are needed to fetch water, watch the animals or other tasks. Those that do go to school often run out when they hear a vehicle coming as they know the visitors will give them gifts and, sometimes, money.”

Mingi Children
Many of the river tribes are still extremely superstitious believing evil spirits or a curse will bring bad fortune such as drought, famine, disease or death if they do not kill, so called “Mingi” children who are born in the village.

Children can be considered Mingi for various reasons such as being born out of wedlock or from a marriage or pregnancy that has not been sanctioned by the village elders, children whose top teeth come through before their bottom ones and twins. Traditionally, all these children should be killed.

However, Sawsan visited the organisation Omo Child which saves, educates and rehabilitates these children, giving them a chance at a normal life.

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