While modernisation is inevitable, in the Omo Valley it appears to have come at the expensive of the local tribes and their way of life.
The fate of the Omo Valley tribes was sealed in 2006 when the Ethiopian government began the construction of the controversial Gibe III hydroelectric dam. The dam allows for large-scale commercial farming through irrigated agriculture and has been described as a potential humanitarian disaster for the estimated 500,000 people who live along the Omo River, and around Lake Turkana.
The damage is clearly visible; hundreds of thousands of acres of bare earth waiting to be planted by multinational corporations, as subsistence agriculture is replaced by large-scale industrial farming.
To clear traditional grazing grounds for farming, the government embarked on a policy of moving people into new model villages. This process is non-negotiable, and has come with many reports of human rights abuses.
Without the cultural identity that land and livestock provides, the fabric of their pastoral society is being destroyed.
We visited the three mayor tribes, the Mursi, Hamer and the Daasanach, all of whom have their very unique traditions such as wearing lip plates, and women being whipped by single men during the “jumping of the bulls” ceremony to ensure their young male relative succeeds in manhood.

All have suffered expropriation of land and livestock and have been relocated to areas easily accessible by hundreds of people a day. After probing our young guide, we were told that much of the tourist dollar goes to the chief of the tribe who buys guns to protect the limited land and livestock they have left. The tribe members are often left to beg for money, soap or food from the visiting tourists.
Whilst the tribes continue to try and carry on their many traditions, unfortunately the tourist dollar has become a way of life and it is not uncommon for convoys of 4x4s to snake into villages, gate crashing ceremonies and bribing the participants. There is no pretence at social interaction.
The access to alcohol provided by the chief at night times has only deteriorated the living conditions of these people
While Ethiopia’s industrialising government is by far the biggest threat to life in the region, as tourists we are partly responsible for what is fast becoming a human zoo.