The Indigenous Groups of Ethiopia

You left the small village of Hamed Ela early to avoid the hottest part of the day. Still the sun beats down, and there is no shade to be found in this arid landscape. 

Your guide has driven you as far as possible, as the land underfoot now is too soft for your heavy vehicle to go any further. Now on foot, you’re walking on the world’s largest salt marsh, more than 300 feet below sea level. 

Surrounding you are teams of traders with their camels, mules, and donkeys laden with salt, moving goods from village to town, just as their people have done for over 1,000 years.

The word salary means “to be paid for a regular or specific service,” and, if you look at its root, you’ll find the word salt. This is because, in the past, people used salt as money. 

Although paper and coins may be today’s currency, the salt trade is still a profitable way of life for the Afar people. There are about three million Afar people, living in Ethiopia and its northern neighbors, Eritrea and Djibouti, and not all of them trade in salt. 

But those that do run every aspect of the enterprise: from collecting caravan fees to mining the salt and ferrying it to market in other parts of Ethiopia or Sudan. The majority of Afar people follow the Muslim faith.

Some of the salt traders are Tigrayan nomads. Originally from Tigray, a province of five million people in Northern Ethiopia, now they travel from place to place without a permanent home. 

Tigray’s eastern lowland plains are too dry to support year-round farming. In contrast, people do farm in the cooler more fertile Western Highlands. The majority of the population of Tigray practices Christianity, as do two-fifths of all Ethiopians.

The Mursi standing proudly before you were willing to have their picture taken—for a fee. This fee was not the first you paid when you set out to meet these nomadic cattle herders who live near the Sudan and Kenya borders, and it probably won’t be the last.

Your guide (who also requires a fee) explains that the Mursi people now live within and between Ethiopia’s national park system, and the entrance to each park... requires a fee. 

As you ride the newly paved roads into the heart of the park, your guide further explains that the Mursi people, like most nomadic groups in the Omo Valley, have always moved freely with their herds, taking it upon themselves to settle any disputes with other groups over territory. 

But Ethiopia has undergone major government upheavals in recent times, and the fate of Mursiland, the traditional territory of the Mursi people, has reflected those changes. At the end of the nineteenth century, Mursiland was officially folded into the borders of Ethiopia. 

This was under the leadership of the Abyssinian king Menelik II. Today Ethiopia’s government is a republic, or a state in which the people have the power to elect representatives, including a president rather than a king or queen. 

Those elected officials have been playing an increasingly active role in defining and reshaping the land.

The Omo National Park was formed in 1966, and the Mago National Park was created in 1978. The Mursi people, who number about 10,000, are not the only ones using and living in the parks. 

For example, in Omo Park, you also might find members of the ethnic groups Chai, Nyangatom, Dizi, Me'en, Bodi and Kwegu hunting, herding and farming the land. In Mago Park, you might find members of the Aari tribe tending their beehives.

It’s important to note, that these groups do not agree with the national government’s boundaries of the parks. 

Nationalization of Mursiland has affected the way the Mursi people live. Road improvements bring outside goods and tourists, whose money the Mursi people can use to buy everyday necessities, such as medicine and agricultural tools. 

On the other hand, some people believe that the group, once famous for its wild and warrior culture, are relying too much on tourism. At any rate, most Mursi people continue to dress and act in a traditional manner. 

For example, it is considered beautiful for a Mursi woman to wear a clay plate in her lower lip and to wear elaborate headdresses made of natural objects like dried fruit and animal horns. 

The Mursi people continue to speak their own language (also known as Mursi) and to practice their own religion, which is a form of Animism. Animism is the belief that plants, animals, and other inanimate objects possess spirit.

Priests hold places of honor within Mursi communities, as do certain elders who have demonstrated their knowledge of tradition and skills at debating and storytelling.