Rainbow tours' Senior Africa travel expert, Derek Schuurman, shares his recent experience of a Hamar Bull jumping ceremony in South Ethiopia.
For many years, tourism to the South Omo region in Ethiopia has been a subject that has sparked intense debate. Having delved into literature about it, I felt a strong sense of trepidation before venturing there. The only reassuring input came from a book written by a long-time friend, Philip Briggs. Among the passages that stood out in the 7th edition of his ‘Ethiopia: the Bradt Travel Guide’, was this: ‘There is still much that is genuinely uplifting about the sheer tenacity that has allowed the South Omo’s incredible cultural and ethnolinguistic mosaic to survive into the 21st Century largely intact. Romanticise it or condemn it, South Omo is what it is, and frankly, it couldn’t give a damn what outsiders think’.
When I arrived in Southern Ethiopia for my first visit to the region, I wanted to find out for myself. I asked highlands guides from Addis Ababa, local guides from the Omo, lodge managers and people working for NGOs active there what the tribespeople really think of ‘faranji’ (tourists) descending on them with cameras.
It seems the villagers who are familiar with tourists do not mind being visited as it brings much-needed income. Some villagers asked, ‘Why do faranji only stay for a few minutes to take photos and then leave? Why don’t they stay with us a bit longer and get to know us?’.
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