The Suri Tribe

A posting from Poetry Café

Mario Gerth, photographer and modern-day-explorer, travelled more than 65 countries of the world. At the moment he is working part-time in a German bank and part-time as a photographer and journalist in Africa. For his wonderful pictures he travelled Africa by foot, boat or by Jeep – sometimes alone, sometimes with friends. We stumbled upon one of his photo projects and are mesmerized: photos of the Suri tribe.

Wikipedia on Surma: “Surma or Suri (as they call themselves) are sedentary pastoral people living in south west of Ethiopia, on the western bank of the Omo river. These breeders tribal groups have a cattle-centred culture. They breed their cattle, mostly cows, on their traditional lands, located in the Omo Valley. The Suri pride themselves on their scars and how many they carry. The men scar their bodies after they kill someone from an enemy tribe. These rituals which are extremely painful are said by some anthropologists are a type of controlled violence; a way of getting the younger tribe members used to seeing blood and feeling pain. It is also a way of adapting these young children to their violent environment. The Suri also paint their bodies white for some occasions.”

The photo series is extremely inspiring because of the lively colours and beautiful details – we strongly recommend that you have a look at all the other pictures as well! (Hint: scroll down in the flickr-stream to have a look at the colourful pictures).

via cfye

Link
More photos from the Suri series