Mursi Tribe By Vince Manna

Mursi Tribe , OMO Valley, Southern Ethiopia Photographed by Vince Manna

Artwork now available at The Natural Room

Framed 810 x 1120mm

Background:

The Mursi are a Nilotic pastoralist ethnic group that inhabits southwestern Ethiopia. They principally reside in the Debub Omo Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s Region, close to the border with South Sudan.

Surrounded by mountains between the Omo River and its tributary the Mago, the home of the Mursi is one of the most isolated regions of the country.

The Mursi undergo various rites of passage, educational or disciplinary processes. Lip plates are a well known aspect of the Mursi and Surma, who are probably the last groups in Africa amongst whom it is still the norm for women to wear large pottery or wooden discs, or ‘plates,’ in their lower lips. Girls’ lips are pierced at the age of 15 or 16.