Suri Face Painting and Stick Fighting

Thursday September 22nd was a long day of travel. We left Arusha for the drive to Kilimanjaro airport for the flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. For many of the airports in Africa your luggage has to be put through the x-ray scanner before you can enter the terminal and check-in. This leads to a somewhat chaotic scene, with people throwing bags on the conveyer and then picking them off the floor on the other side as the bags get pushed through. Our flight and arrival in Addis was fairly uneventful until we tried to leave the airport. All luggage had to once again be scanned and Sara's carry-on caused some consternation with customs. Barry's binoculars were given a lot of scrutiny and we were informed they were not allowed in Ethiopia due to national security rules - likely related to the civil war that has been simmering off and on since November 2020. After passing over my passport to a number of people and getting a bunch of paperwork filled out we were allowed to enter, but with Barry's binoculars taken into custody!

Friday we were back at the airport at 7am for our domestic flight to Jimma - a small town in south western Ethiopia and the starting point for our cultural tour of the Omo valley tribes. We met Fitsum of Omo Valley Tours at the airport. Fitsum was born and raised in a small Omo valley tribe and has developed excellent relationships with local tribal leaders, critical to providing a tour in this remote and wild part of Africa. We met the rest of the team at the Jimma airport, Israel our driver and Tuko the cook. After loading everything and everyone into the Toyota 4x4 land cruiser we set off. The afternoon drive was on crazy roads, dodging potholes that looked like mortar strikes, cattle, people, donkeys and occasionally motorbikes and cars. There were also many police/army checkpoints, typically a rope across the road that required us to stop and Fitsum to produce the official forms preventing a full security search of the vehicle - important since we were fully loaded with 5 people, luggage, fuel, food, water and camping equipment. We stopped for an amazing lunch of Ethiopian food, a lentil stew eaten with a teff flour pancake using our hand, followed with some exceptionally good coffee. Ethiopia is the birthplace of both humanity and the coffee bean! 

The following morning (Saturday 24th) we left the hotel at 5:30am, it was dark and raining. After a few hours we stopped for coffee and breakfast of boiled eggs and bread.  By 9:30am we hit the end of the road and spent the rest of the day driving on hard packed dirt single track trails. The scenery was beautiful, we were in the heart of the Rift valley, surrounded by mountains, lush valleys and bird song. We were stopped in the middle of nowhere by a police group and the car was surrounded by eight men all carrying Kalashnikov rifles and very interested in the tourists in the back. A challenge of traveling and not understanding the language is you never know if you in danger or people are just curious. In reality it was a novelty to see white people in the area, and the fully loaded Toyota was also eye catching - so we were the entertainment most days. Fitsum got out and talked to the senior officer and after a lot of discussion we had an armed guard in the front of the car and Fitsum sitting in the back with us. Apparently it was Donga stick fighting month (more about that later) and the police chief was concerned it wasn't safe for us. There may also have been a bit of a need to provide employment for the local guards, we were not totally sure!

After a few more hours of driving on very rough up and down mountain trails we arrived at the Suri tribe where we would stay for the next three days. The Suri are an agro-pastoral ethnic group known for their decorative painting, natural foliage head dressings, scarifications and lip plates. We were lucky enough to camp right in their small village which provided unique access to the lovely people. 

After a late lunch Fitsum hurriedly told us to pack up and get back in the car. The Chief had told him there was a Donga stick fighting event happening very close. Donga is a yearly fighting tournament where each local village sends their top male fighters to fight each other for honor, showing their strength and masculinity. What followed was one of the craziest events we have ever witnessed. 

Each village also sends supporters for the fighters, and everyone forms a big circle and two or three groups of two men each will go to the center and try to beat the other guy into submission. It is considered a badge of honor for a man to have multiple scars on their head from stick fighting, and we saw a number of nasty injuries. The fighting goes on for about an hour and then they take a short break and do it again. Winners of each round are given a loop of beads, and the person with the most loops at the end are the overall winner. 

During the second half, all of the sudden everybody starting running away and getting down on the ground. This happened without any warning so we didn't have a clue why everybody was running away and were slowly trying to work out why we were the only ones still standing. With two knee and one hip replacements John doesn't run very well and finally was either run over or pulled down on the ground. Sara was also pulled down and was between two armed guards shielding her. Fitsum and the Chief hurried over and told us it was time to leave. Turns out there actually are some rules and a referee to keep some order. One of the fighters had broken the rules and tempers were getting hot. The men in the tribes no longer have spears for hunting or protection, about 10% of them are carrying AK 47s or SKS rifles. So the big stampede was because everyone feared there might be gunfire. Fortunately that didn't happen but apparently there have been cases in the past. In our evening discussion we decided our emergency response had been poor and resolved to do better in the future if needed - what an afternoon !!!

We had just crawled into our tent for the night (this was a backpacking tent, not the Tanzania glamping tents) when we heard some singing. We lay there for a while and then became so intrigued we crawled back out and in the pitch dark went to investigate. We found a group of young children dancing and singing and spent a delightful hour with them dancing and clapping. Sara's phone fell out of her pocket early on and some of the kids found it and started recording video, check out the album for the result.

Sunday 25th September was the start of the face painting photography. We were amazed how creative the young people were with their painting and head adornments of flowers. They had painted themselves that morning, and made the flower arrangements from what they found in the forest.  Everyone was keen to be photographed and they were natural models. John had many hours of work to ensure everyone had their picture taken. He also took time to show people the photos on his camera which everyone enjoyed. John spent some time afterwards playing with the children with some balsa wood airplanes he bought for them. 

Our last day we went down to the river which is close to the tribe village. They do a lot of the painting there because the paints are made with ground up rocks and minerals mixed with water. One of the young girls wanted to paint Sara's face which of course she was delighted to have done. We returned to the village to share our gifts with the Chief who would distribute them to the people who needed things the most. With advice from Fitsum before we left home we had purchased pain killers (ibuprofen), razor blades (for shaving and hair trimming), beads and coloring books/pencils for the children and small mirrors to be shared during face painting. We had a similar package for each of the tribes we visited. We said a few final goodbyes - and received a necklace gift for Sara before we headed out for the next location.

 What a memorable time we had with the Suri - We will never forget them.

Click here to see the photos & videos