The Mursi are perhaps the archetypical South Omo tribe. A warlike tribe of semi-pastoralists who regularly go on cattle raids against neighbouring tribes, the Mursi are both feared and reviled in the region. Kalashnikov-toting men and women (and sometimes children) swagger around the village with a mixture of arrogance and disdain for the few tourists who make it to their remote strongholds (we take an armed police escort when we visit).
The Mursi women’s distinguising characteristic is the large lip plate which they start wearing from puberty to demonstrate their womanhood. Over a process of one year the young girl, after cutting her lower lip, will insert increasingly large lip plates into the cut (up to 15cm in diameter).
Young Mursi men, before they are allowed to marry need to win a duel carried out with 2m long sticks. The duel occasionally goes to the death, though these days one of the fighters will often concede before that happens.
