We are at Turmi, in Southern Ethiopia; this small town is a convenient base for exploring the surroundings and visiting the various tribes who live inthe Omo Valley.

This morning, after breakfast, we leave with our car and drive along a 55 km dirt road; to venture around here it is necessary to have a car with a high bottom, better if it is a 4x4 because the road is not the best, even if they are working to enlarge it.

It takes us an hour to reach the Kolcho village of the Kara, or Karo,that directly overlooks the Omo River; we park our car in the shade of a large tree and descend.

We take some pictures of the river just below us and, in the meantime, a village boy arrives who will be our guide.

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He tells us many things about his tribe and stresses the fact that they are called "Kara", although most travel guides write that they are called "Karo"; "Kara", in their language, means "fish" and they are so called because, living near the river, they fish and eat fish.

The village is very large, around 80 people from different families live here; every family has his own house, or hut, and if a man has more than one wife, but he can have at most 3, he must build a house for each wife, while he takes turns sleeping in the houses of his wives.

The houses, or huts, are built with a structure made of wooden poles while the roof is made of straw; stones are not used while we do not understand if they use mud for the walls since the huts we see have only wooden poles but the guide tells us that they also use mud.

As it often happens in the villages of many other tribes, the kitchen is located outside the house, and consists of a kind of brazier built on the ground where the fire is lit for cooking.

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The Kara are similar, from the ethnic point of view, to the Hamer; their language is similar so much that they manage to communicate with each other, moreover also some rituals are similar, as for example the jump of the bull.

The bull jump is a passing ceremony that the children have to face in order to pass to adulthood and be able to marry, until they pass it they are forced to remain single.

The Hamer bull jumping ceremony is celebrated whenever a boy intends to marry; while the Kara bull jumping ceremonyis celebrated only once a year, usually in the month of January, and all the boys who have reached the age to marry participate.

An aspect that differentiates the Kara from the Hamer is the practice of painting the body and the face with elaborate designs, mostly white, but sometimes yellow or black; everyone can paint himself both children and adults.

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The Kara also practice body modifications: they make a hole under the lower lip where they insert a feather or a stick; they also perform scarifications on the chest, abdomen and back, even if not all have them.

We meet some women and our guide shows us how to distinguish a married woman from a single: the married woman carries 2 large bracelets on the arm just above the elbow, while all the women can wear bracelets on the wrist, since they are only for beauty.

Women also wear many colorful necklaces, they have no special meaning, they are simply for beauty.

It was nice to visit this village, we were alone, the guy who was our guide was very kind and proud of his tribe, he answered all our questions and was very happy with our curiosity and interest.

The Kara are a quiet tribe who willingly accepts visitors in the village; they love contact with foreigners and are proud of their traditions.

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Data di inserimento: 
Thursday, September 19, 2019