Africa is perhaps the most contrasting and mysterious of the 5 continents of our planet. Researchers and tourists from all over the world are attracted not only by its natural and animal diversity, but also by numerous tribes and nationalities, of which there are about 3,000. The amazing tribes of Africa with their unconventional way of life for the Slavs arouse enthusiastic interest, and incomprehensible traditions are often frightening, and not surprising.

Mursi

Men often engage in fierce fights among themselves for leadership. If such a showdown ends with the death of one of the participants, the survivor has to give his wife to the family of the deceased in the form of compensation. It is customary for men to decorate themselves with fang earrings and horseshoe-shaped scars, which are inflicted in case of killing an enemy: first, the symbols are carved on the hands, and when there is no room left on them, other parts of the body are used.

Women of the Mursi tribe look very unusual. A stooped back, sagging belly and chest, and instead of hair on her head, a headdress made of dry branches, animal skin and dead insects is an amazing description of a typical representative of the fair half of the Mursi. Their image is complemented by a clay disk (debi) inserted into a cut on the lower lip. Girls have the right to decide for themselves whether to cut their lips or not, but for brides without such decoration they give a much smaller ransom.

Dinka

The entire Dinka people living in Sudan number about 4,000,000 representatives. Their main occupation is cattle breeding, so from childhood boys are taught to respect animals, and the number of heads of livestock measures the well-being of each family. For the same reason, girls are valued more than boys by the Dinka: in case of marriage, the bride's family receives a whole herd as a gift from the groom.

The appearance of the Dinka is no less amazing: men usually do not wear clothes and adorn themselves with bracelets and beads, and women wear robes only after marriage and are often limited to a goatskin skirt or a beaded corset. In addition, this people is considered one of the tallest in Africa: the average height of men is 185 cm, and for many it goes beyond 2 m. Another feature of the Dinka representatives is deliberate scarring, which is practiced even in children after reaching a certain age and according to local measures adds attractiveness.

Bantu

Central, Eastern and Southern Africa are home to numerous members of the Bantu people, whose number reaches 200 million people. They have a peculiar appearance: tall (180 cm and above), dark skin, hard, spirally curled curls.

The Bantu are one of the most amazing and most developed peoples in Africa, among whom there are political and cultural figures. But, despite this, the Bantu managed to preserve their traditional flavor, centuries-old traditions and rituals. Unlike most peoples inhabiting the hot continent, they are not afraid of civilization and often invite tourists to their excursions, which provide them with good income.

Maasai

Representatives of the Maasai are often found on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjdaro, which occupies a special place in the beliefs of this amazing tribe. Its representatives imagined themselves to be the highest people of Africa, true beauties and favorites of the gods. Due to this conceit, they often treat other nationalities with contempt and do not hesitate to steal animals from them, which sometimes leads to armed conflicts.

The Maasai live in a dwelling made of branches covered with dung, the construction of which is often done by women. They feed mainly on milk and blood of animals, and meat is a rare guest in their diet. In the absence of food, they pierce the cow’s carotid artery and drink the blood, and then cover this place with fresh manure in order to repeat the “meal” after a while.

A distinctive sign of the beauty of this amazing tribe is their drawn-out earlobes. At the age of 7-8, children have their earlobes pierced with a piece of horn and gradually widened using pieces of wood. Due to the use of heavy jewelry, earlobes sometimes droop to shoulder level, which is considered a sign of supreme beauty and respect for their owner.

Himba

In the north of Namibia lives the distinctive Himba tribe, whose representatives carefully protect their established way of life from strangers, practically do not wear modern clothes and do not enjoy the benefits of civilization. Despite this, many residents of the settlements can count, write their own names and speak some phrases in English. These skills come from government-run mobile primary schools where most Himba children attend.

Appearance is important in Himba culture. Women wear skirts made of soft leather and decorate their necks, waists, wrists and ankles with countless bracelets. Every day they apply an ointment made from oil, plant extracts and crushed volcanic pumice to the body, which gives the skin a reddish tint and protects the body from insect bites and sunburn. When they scrape off the ointment at the end of the day, the dirt comes off with it, which also helps maintain personal hygiene and cleanliness. Perhaps thanks to this amazing ointment, Himba women have perfect skin and are considered one of the most beautiful among the tribes of Africa. With the help of the same composition and someone else's hair (often the father of the family), women create their own hairstyle in the form of numerous “dreadlocks”.

Hamar

The Hamar are rightfully one of the most amazing tribes in Africa and one of the friendliest in Southern Ethiopia. One of the most famous Hamar customs is initiation into a man after reaching adulthood, for which a young man needs to run from side to side over the backs of bulls 4 times. If after three attempts he fails to do this, the next ceremony can be performed only a year later, and if successful, he receives his first property (a cow) from his father and can look for a wife. It is noteworthy that the young men undergo the ceremony naked, which symbolizes the childhood to which they are saying goodbye.

The Hamar have another, rather cruel ritual, in which all girls and women can take part: they perform a traditional dance in front of men and receive blows on their backs with thin rods in return. The number of scars remaining is the main source of pride, an indicator of a woman’s strength and endurance, which increases her value as a wife in the eyes of men. At the same time, Hamars are allowed to have as many wives as they are able to pay ransoms (dauri) for them in the form of 20-30 heads of cattle. But the highest status remains with the first wife, which is confirmed by wearing a collar with a handle made of metal and leather.

Nuba

On the border of Sudan and South Sudan lives the amazing Nuba tribe, which has family customs that are unusual even for Africa. At annual dances, girls choose their future husbands, but before receiving this status, a man is obliged to build a house for his future family. Until that time, young people can only meet secretly at night, and even the birth of a child does not give the right to the status of a legal spouse. When the housing is ready, the girl and the guy are allowed to sleep under the same roof, but under no circumstances eat. This right is given to them only after a year, when the marriage has passed the test of time and will be considered official.

A distinctive feature of the noob for a long time was the absence of any division into classes and monetary relations. But in the 70s of the XX century. The Sudanese government began sending local men to work in the city. They returned from there in clothes and with little money, so they felt like real rich people among their fellow tribesmen, which gave rise to envy among others and contributed to the prosperity of theft. Thus, the civilization that reached the Nuba brought them much more harm than good. But still, among them there are representatives who continue to ignore the benefits of civilization and adorn their bodies only with numerous scars, and not with clothes.

Caro

The Karo are one of the small African tribes, numbering no more than 1000 people. They are engaged primarily in cattle breeding, but men can spend long months hunting and even work in nearby towns. At this time, women will have to do household chores and another important craft - dressing skins.

Representatives of this tribe can top the list of the most amazing craftsmen in Africa when it comes to decorating their bodies. For this purpose, they cover themselves with ornaments applied with plant paints, chiseled chalk or ocher, and use feathers, beads, shells, and even beetle elytra and corn cobs as decorations. At the same time, the male half of the population wears much brighter makeup, since it is important for them to have the most intimidating appearance possible. Another remarkable detail among Karo men and women is the pierced lower lip, into which nails, flowers and simply dried twigs are inserted.

This is only a small part of the unusual peoples living on the African continent. Despite the global spread of the benefits of civilization, the lifestyle of most of them is radically different from the life of a modern person, not to mention their clothes, traditions and unique value system, so each of the peoples of Africa can be considered amazing in their own way.

There may be an opinion that in cultures other than ours, a person’s appearance and standards of “ideal beauty” are less important, but this is not the case. Even in cultures considered primitive, great importance is attached to the beauty and decoration of the body. The 40 countries of Africa are home to more than half a billion people belonging to countless ethnic groups, among whom there are great cultural differences, and the concept of beauty varies accordingly - although many ideals are shared.

In the African Fulani tribe, men had to endure a seven-day beauty contest. To do this, they generously covered their faces with natural cosmetics, decorated their heads with locks of ram's beard with jewelry made of rings and beads woven into it, rolled out their eyes and showed their teeth. All the contestants stood in a row and swayed their hips. The girls chose the most beautiful ones as their husbands.

Warrior of the Rendilli tribe. Ethiopia.

Rendilli girl, Ethiopia.

In southern Africa, among the Amandebele tribe, the most beautiful woman has the longest neck. From childhood, girls wear brass hoops, so the neck length can reach 50 centimeters. These hoops could not be removed, since the absence of neck muscles would lead to immediate death for the woman.

Women from the Amandebele tribe, South Africa.

Kikuyu man.

Asmati tribe, Papua.

Bushmen tribe, Namibia.

Bena tribe, Ethiopia.

Bodi tribe, Ethiopia.

Derasha tribe, Ethiopia.

Datoga tribe, Ethiopia.

Dorze tribe, Ethiopia.

Karo tribe, Ethiopia.

Maasai tribe, Kenya.

In Kenya, Maasai women pierce many holes throughout their ears into which sticks, oddly shaped wires and brightly colored beads are inserted. It seems that strange bushes are growing in their ears. Perhaps this artificial vegetation is intended to partly compensate for the complete lack of hair on the head - Kenyans shave their heads bald.

Maasai tribe, Tanzania.

Mursi tribe, Ethiopia

Let's give the floor to the Russian traveler Alexander Redko, who visited the Omo Valley with an expedition. This is how he describes his meeting with the Mursi tribe. “A ring of a dozen armed shadows slowly contracted around us, and soon we could fully see them.
These were completely naked black men, whose bodies were painted with circular stripes of white. It was as if a dimensionless sea vest covered their body from top to bottom. Even the impressive penis of each was carefully painted with white rings, being an exact copy of the traffic inspector's baton. Later, for this charm, we called the Mursi men “traffic cops,” but at that moment we were not laughing.

It was the tribe's forward barrier, a kind of border outpost on the edge of their domain. We were lucky again. Three of us, who once served in the navy, invariably wear our demobilization vests on expeditions. So at that tense moment we were in them. And you should have seen the surprised faces of the Mursi warriors, who unexpectedly discovered aliens in the same ritual coloring as theirs. Quickly realizing, we tried to explain that we were their “white brothers in faith,” and three more people were our servants. The answer satisfied them and we were invited to the village.

I cannot explain how we walked for several hours through the swamps of the swamp. But there was a feeling that the swell crunched strangely in those places where the Mursi’s feet stepped. All we had to do was follow the trail.
We came to this village, hidden from prying eyes, and lived for several days among the mystical tribe, learning many of its secrets.

But at first we had no idea that their incredible appearance was hiding a terrible inner world. A world of another life, completely incomprehensible to us. Terrible guesses began to appear in our heads already on the second day of our stay in the tribe, but further study of the life of the tribe made them quite definite. It all started with one of the teenagers taking a compass from our tent without asking, and one of the women noticed this. The guy was instantly caught and tied to one of the huge trees growing nearby. We thought that there was going to be a spanking, and therefore, satisfied, we sat down nearby. And then we saw her for the first time.

She had a special headdress on her head. It consisted of two dozen hollow cylinders - pieces of the trunk of some plant, strung on the hair, like large curlers. These cylinders were filled with strange lumps of some leaves.
The unusual woman silently approached the thief and took his hand. A knife suddenly flashed in her other hand: with an instant circular motion, the skin and tendons on the guy’s wrist were cut. With another sharp movement, the hand was curled and thrown to the side.
(Later we saw how it was welded and used to make another monista-nek. It was then that we understood why many men of the tribe were missing hands on one of their hands).

There is almost no hair on their heads, and therefore all Mursi women constantly wear intricate headdresses of complex design, made from branches, rough skins, swamp shellfish, dried fruits, dead insects, someone's tails and some kind of stinking carrion. The unique facial "decoration" they use is completely unusual, even for wild people. The fact is that even at a young age, their girls’ lower lips are cut, and wooden blocks of larger and larger diameters begin to be inserted there.Over several years, the hole in the lip gradually grows larger and larger. On the wedding day, a “plate” made of baked clay, called debi, is inserted into it. The size of the plate is a measure of beauty. The larger the plate, the more cattle they will give for the bride.

Mursi women also have other, no less strange and creepy jewelry, hanging on their flattened necks. These are monists, collected from the bones of the nail phalanges of human fingers, called - nek. Normally, an ordinary person has 28 such bones.
Judging by the size of the ominous monistas, each of them used at least four to six hands. In addition, some “ladies” have several of these, terrifying-looking necklaces.

In their cult, the Mursi worship the God of Death - Yamda. According to the traditions of this mystical tribe, all its women are Priestesses of Death. In the evenings, in their hut, they first prepare some kind of relatively light narcotic potion by grinding the dried fruits of a special bog nut into powder.

Having poured it onto a debi plate stuck into her lip, each woman brings the narcotic dish closer to her husband’s lips and they both begin to lick it off at the same time (while the wife sticks her tongue out through the hole between her teeth). This part of the ritual is called the "kiss of death." By the way, they don’t use the usual way of kissing for us at all.
Then, a bunch of some intoxicating grass is thrown into the smoldering hearth, which begins to emit upward streams of yellowish smoke. The man climbs onto the “mezzanine” poles and lies over the hearth so that the streams of sweet incense rise directly to his face.
He lies down not just like that, but by placing his head on the recess of a special pillow stand. This little thing
shaped like a coil, it is called brkuta and is made from the wood of a secret plant that was never shown to us.

About two dozen of these amazing sleeping devices are kept in the hut of the High Priestess of the tribe, called Srek (this is that special woman from everyone who cuts off the hands of men who have violated any of the laws of the tribe).
What she does with the brkuta pads is completely beyond the realm of reality. Srek rubs each of them with one of his many potions and casts a special individual spell. As a result, each brkuta becomes the bearer of some very specific dream! It could be a “film” about a successful hunt, or a night of love, about delicious gluttony, or a victorious battle with enemies, etc.
At the husband's request, his wife brings him a wooden headrest every evening with the vision he wants to see before his possible death. This part of the ritual is called the “sleep of death” and this name is not at all accidental. While the man dreams sweetly in the smoke of dope, his wife prepares to give him poison.

The High Priestess of the tribe prepares this deadly powder from the very lower teeth pulled out from women, infusing them with a complex potion of nine herbs growing on the hummocks of the dead swamps of Lotagipi.
After some time, the Mursi woman rises to her sleeping husband and blows deadly powder into his mouth from her lip plate. This part of the mystical rite is called the "bite of death."
But the passions don't end there. Having poisoned their husbands, all the Priestesses of Death gather in the Srek hut and perform some mysterious ritual there. We could only hear mournful muttering, interspersed with guttural cries of the Chief Witch, summoning the God of Death, and see from a distance flashes of black and white smoke, occasionally flying out of a hole in the roof.

The ominous ritual ended with an action that we called “roulette of death,” and the Mursi themselves call it “the gift of death.”
The High Priestess walked around all the huts of the village, went up to the poisoned men and put a life-saving antidote in their mouths, portions of which were in cylinders that adorned her complex “hairstyle.” And no one except her and the God of Death Yamda, whose will was carried out by the High Priestess, knew: all the men of the tribe were ordered to live on, or not all of them.
There were times when Srek did not give one of them the antidote. Then she, leaving the hut, drew a white cross on his wife’s death plate. Such a woman remained a widow for the rest of her life and had great respect in the tribe, as a priestess who had fulfilled her duty to the almighty Yamda.

Samburu tribe, Kenya.

Surma tribe, Ethiopia.

Himba tribe, Namibia.

Hadza tribe, Tanzania.

Hamer tribe, Ethiopia.

All Hamer men deserve the name Narcissus. They are superbly built, tall and broad-shouldered. Sculpted profile and arrogant appearance. Narcissism in every pose and primitive artistry in gestures.
They consider themselves rulers of everyone and everything, warriors and heroes, and therefore do not burden their dignity with any work.
All day long these beautiful males wander through the jungle in search of something to shoot at (formerly with a bow, now with a machine gun). They haven't killed white people for a long time, because... they do not see them as contenders for their lands. But black foreigners who violate the boundaries of their possessions will face inevitable death.

They visit their wives in their huts extremely rarely: only when they consider it necessary to have another child. That’s why these strange men sleep not in the arms of sweet women, but in pit-graves that are dug around the outskirts of the village. They cover their bodies with earth, squeezing their chests to make breathing difficult, and pass out in a high of hypoxia until the morning sun hits their eyes.

A girl is married when she develops secondary sexual characteristics (at about 12 years of age). Before marriage, she must, under pain of death, maintain her virginity. On the “first wedding night,” the clever husband performs artificial defloration on her with a wooden contraption called angebe mambi, which is reminiscent in shape of our potato masher or PRG-1 grenade. In the morning, he walks around the village and shows all his comrades a bloody crusher, confirming his wife’s former purity.
On the same day, the husband places a thick ring of a permanent metal collar, called a benyar, which has a special handle in front, around his wife’s neck. Every evening, the husband takes his wives one by one by these handles and, amid mutual groans, beats their backs, drawing blood, with a hard rod. Maybe out of love, maybe in accordance with our proverb (“if there was a reason, I would kill!”), or maybe for something else...

Every evening, when, after the groans of general flogging, the satisfied men go to sleep in their “grave”, the women, as if nothing had happened, gather around the fires, play the eight-stringed primitive harp-krar, sing, laugh playfully and dance captivatingly. The dances of hot, shiny, inviting, sweet bodies can attract any man, but not a Hamer warrior who stands above the pleasures of the body.

Probably because of such “love” and systematic evasion of their marital duties, the men of the tribe do not receive special attention from the opposite sex. Hamer women prefer to enjoy each other, giving themselves to men only for reproduction.

Only teenagers, men who are no longer able to hold weapons, and women who are unable to give birth work in the Hamer tribe. Young women do nothing except take care of babies and improve their own bodies. In the latest art, they can give odds to any spa.
In these places there grows a shanbia tree that produces fruits that exactly resemble cocoa beans. So, young hamerkas grind them, mix them with goat butter, sugar cane juice and get semi-liquid chocolate. They carefully coat each other's beautiful wavy hair with this chocolate, then braiding it into hundreds of small tight braids. They cover their faces and necks with the same mixture, turning their graceful heads into a delicacy that is difficult to resist.

But that's not all. Every day they rub each other’s entire bodies with honey from wild bees for a long time. You can imagine what the young, elastic, honey-massaged bodies of local beauties look like, especially since they don’t wear any clothes. (Only at the request of the photographer did they wear ritual aprons made of beaded leather for photographs).

Many people consider Africa to be a very beautiful continent, home to many tribes with interesting and sometimes quite strange traditions. Life in Africa for modern people who use mobile phones and know what medicines, nanotechnologies, etc. are, seems primitive and ridiculous. But these tribes honor the memory of their ancestors, follow their advice, instructions and teachings. Today we will talk about African women and their plight.

Dance while you're young

Many tribes have a tradition of gathering for so-called bridal gatherings. Girls who will soon be married off come to a general “bachelorette party”. During it, they prepare a dowry, share their plans for the future and undergo a virginity test. If a girl had sexual relations before marriage, she may be burned at the stake.

The girls are also tested for endurance. This makes sense considering that African women have to do hard physical work every day under the scorching sun. But the test takes place in a rather interesting form of disco. The girls are forced to dance and sing. The dance of African women undergoing testing lasts for 10 days. Of course, there are short breaks for sleep, but only for a couple of hours. You are given only a couple of bananas to eat, which you are allowed to wash down with a few sips of water. In the evening, a large fire is lit in the center of the dance floor.

If the girl does not pass this test, she is kicked out of her parents' house forever. No one will marry her anymore, and there will be no “retake” either.

Another test is for offspring. Women who have not become pregnant within 3 years after marriage are considered inferior. In the best case, such an unfortunate woman is returned to her parents, but some tribes prefer to kick them out of the village.

There is an explanation for such a strange tradition. It is believed that such African women pass on their infertility to the earth, gardens, men and animals. The consequences can even affect the neighbors of an infertile woman.

But there is one tribe that treats this tradition very softly. African women of the Rundu tribe can feign pregnancy, while carrying a child. After 9 months, childbirth is staged, then a newborn from a large family is adopted. At the same time, no one has the right to talk about the secret of a small child, since the leader prohibits it.

African beauty

Most likely, African women have not heard about the model parameters 90 × 60 × 90. Each tribe has its own ideals of beauty. For example, in the Bantu tribe, women with a narrow and long face are considered very beautiful, and in the Akan tribe, beauties with long and straight noses are especially popular.

Mendi women whiten their facial skin throughout their lives using special clay.

Those who have many scars on their bodies, earned not in battles, but at home, are considered very attractive. To do this, beauties specially cut their bodies, rub the wounds with ash or sand so that the scars remain as visible as possible.

African fashion

Even at school, every student probably thought about why African women needed rings on their necks. For representatives of the Ndebele tribe, this is a kind of decoration that indicates the wealth of the husband. Accordingly, the richer the husband, the more rings his wife has on her neck. These decorations are removed only in the event of the death of the spouse.

Tribal Mursi women strive to become fashionable from the age of 12. It is at this age that girls are allowed to insert a plate made of baked clay or a smooth disk from wood into their lip. To do this, a small incision is made in the lower lip. First, a small plate is inserted, which is changed over time. The desired disc size that girls strive for reaches 12 cm in diameter.

Kenyan women decorate their faces with designs that are fashionable among them. Residents of the Mwila tribe prefer to focus on a stylish hairstyle. To do this, a special oncula paste is applied to the hair. It is made from red stone by grinding it. Oil, manure, plants and tree bark are then added.

Female circumcision

If male circumcision is considered a tribute to religion and a way to prevent the development of many infections, then female circumcision is a rite that every representative of the fair sex must endure. It is considered humane by more than 30 For their residents, this ritual is a kind of cleansing. They believe that a woman is called to give birth to children, and there is no place for pleasure.

The circumcision procedure has not changed for hundreds of years. A ritual knife is used for this. There is no way to avoid the ritual. In addition, from early childhood, girls are told that this procedure will improve her life.

Although many activists have raised the issue of eradicating this tradition, the problem has not been resolved. If circumcision is introduced into the medical mainstream, the tradition will take root even more, but if nothing is done, unsanitary conditions during operations will continue to provoke the occurrence of sexually transmitted infections.

Weekdays

Women in Africa work constantly. They carry water themselves, cook food, work in the fields, clean, wash, trade in the market and still have time to look after their children. Therefore, when they see a woman with bales in her hands and a child on her back, only tourists are surprised. Men's responsibilities include only financing their family.

If the housewife has a surplus of any crops, she can freely dispose of them. For example, sell. At the same time, he can spend the finances at his own discretion.

African women who live in villages are tied to their plot of land because it is the only thing they have.

African city life

All village residents want to move to the city and work. But it is very difficult for illiterate people to find a job. In addition, although there are positive changes in legislation, it is still visible in all spheres of life. Active and purposeful ladies become entrepreneurs and try to develop their small businesses.

The financial injections that many countries provide practically do not change the overall picture of the continent’s economic and social development. Legislation is trying to make changes that will make life in Africa simpler and easier, but, unfortunately, these changes are happening too slowly.

AFRICAN BEAUTY

We are accustomed to modern Western culture, in which a person’s appearance is standardized, and television, cinema, and popular culture demonstrate and promote the standards of our civilized world. The indigenous peoples of Africa - especially those who do not yet have wide access to the achievements of Hollywood cinema - retain their traditional ideas about human appearance, about the criteria of beauty and ugliness, about how a person should look. These ideas vary greatly among different nations, but something new, fashionable, and unusual is often borrowed from neighbors. Sometimes African beauty seems like pure horror to our compatriots, but this only fuels interest in it. Let's try to satisfy it in this section: we will look here at different aspects of African aesthetics - from costume and cosmetics to the practice of modifying the face and body.

Everything an elephant has is not a burden for him.

Let's make a reservation right away: in Africa, aesthetic ideas are tightly linked to social and religious requirements. Not a single piece of jewelry, not a single piece of clothing exists just for beauty and pleasure. Every smallest accessory or touch of cosmetics is an element of a complex sign system that demonstrates a person’s social status to others. Both the costume, the jewelry, and the ornament on the body contain information about the origin of the wearer, his ethnic group, marital status, wealth - all this information is easily “read” by initiates. At the same time, with the help of the “correct” accessories and body decorations, the African achieves another goal: he tries to protect himself from malicious spirits, always trying to find a loophole and knock a person down. As a result, any household item that we are accustomed to consider as a trifle and trinket - hair clips, the shape of bracelets on arms and legs, shades of paint for decorating the face, tattoos - in Africa acquire a rich symbolic meaning both for people and for those living with them in one world of gods and spirits.

Today's Africans, contrary to established beliefs, very rarely go naked. In the north and south of the continent, such habits have never existed, because the weather here can be very cool. In the arid regions of the northern tropical zone, nudity is also not popular due to the merciless sun, forcing people, on the contrary, to cover not only their bodies, but also their faces. But even on the equator, where the weather is constantly warm and the sun is more friendly, you won’t see naked people today. Clothing became one of the first consequences of colonial cultural influence - with the arrival of the white man in Tropical Africa, local residents quickly began to adopt the various types of clothing that civilization brought with them. But even a century and a half ago, Vasily Juncker, a Russian traveler to Central Africa, reported about tribes that had practically no clothing except loincloths. The women of the tribes he observed wore aprons made of iron chains or grass belts around their hips. Everywhere among the peoples of Equatorial Africa one could find cases made of straw or wool to protect the male genital organ (for example, among the Somba in Benin), and women covered the most sensitive places with tape between the legs, tufts of grass, or even a plug in the shape of a penis, like the fali in Cameroon. Among the Hottentots of Namibia, rural girls also go without any clothes before initiation, but it is no longer possible to imagine a married woman naked in public.

Girls in Africa learn to appreciate the beauty of cosmetics from childhood

Nyangatom girl in traditional dress - beads, Ethiopia

The simplest types of clothing are characteristic of the pygmies of the equatorial forest, who make their clothes from pieces of bark softened in water, reminiscent of thin cloth in appearance and touch. This mbugu- “tropical forest suede”, fashionable among farmers of Central Africa. In the east of the continent, in the territory of Northern Kenya, South Sudan and Ethiopia, leather still dominates the costume of savannah herders. Everyday clothing continues to be cowhide and goatskin covering the front and back of the thighs, while from the waist up both men and women continue to be naked. The skins can be richly embroidered with beads and cowrie shells, and vary in style and finishing. The place of skins is sometimes taken by a skirt made of wool or raffia fibers, which, however, in the 21st century. are rapidly being replaced by imported linen clothing. But the upper body still remains free, which delights European male tourists. Well, residents of these areas only wear a pumpkin on their heads calabash, which at other times serves as a vessel for water, beer or millet porridge.

FROM THE MIDDLE AGES WE SOMETIMES ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC DETAILS OF AFRICAN FASHION REACH US. ONE OF THEM BELONGES TO THE YAKUT PERU (XIII C.): “THEY DO NOT KNOW DRESSING, BUT ONLY LUBRICATE THEIR BODIES WITH FAT. THE VESSEL WITH THIS FAT IS HIS FORESKIN: HE FILLS IT WITH FAT AND TIES IT WITH A THREAD. THE DICK BECOMES BIG, LIKE A BOTTLE. IF ANY OF THEM GETS BITED BY A FLY, HE TAKES A LITTLE FAT FROM THE FORESKIN AND LUBRICATES IT, AND THEN TIES UP THE MEMBER.”

Throughout Africa, clothing is an indicator of social status, but in West Africa this phenomenon has taken on exaggerated forms. Here, as a result of the spread of cotton growing and the Middle Eastern fashion for long, loose clothes, distinctive traditions of chic outfits made of cotton or wool arose. These fabrics can be of local origin (in Mali, for example, rich cotton fabric is produced bogolan), and imported - mainly from Western Europe. According to the style and material of the spacious dress bubu you can tell a lot about a person: about his condition, family and occupation, for example. For the sake of honor, the leaders of the Fulani and Kanuri peoples put on 8-10 bubu at a time, several pairs of pants, a huge turban, and on top of this entire structure they covered with a blanket and wrapped a towel at neck level.

And all because clothing, contrary to our northern idea, in Africa serves not only as protection from the weather, but as a demonstration of wealth and authority. Costume is the main social code by which one can judge ethnicity and the clear place occupied by a person in the social hierarchy of society. Elements of color and pattern alone will say more about a person than a detailed conversation with him. On weekdays, West African peasant women usually wear skirts of very boring colors, often remaining topless, but on holidays or market days they bring out long boubou and headscarves made of fabric of the most variegated and outlandish colors. Modest traditional motifs are a thing of the past: today on clothes you can see, for example, green trucks on a yellow background, images of the Eiffel or Leaning Tower of Pisa, sawfish, President Obama or other exotic things. The main thing is that the design on the fabric is bright, colorful and unusual. It is thanks to the love of colorfulness that the traditional costume continues to fiercely resist Islam with its desire to dress a woman in boring black abaya. Even in the most devout Muslim communities, ladies do not refuse multi-colored clothes, the cheerful shades of which, so suitable for the dark skin of African women, continue to delight the eye in the Berber villages of Morocco and on the streets of the cities of Senegal, Chad and Sudan.

The types of fabrics, their patterns and patterns vary greatly, and the cost sometimes reaches exorbitant levels. For example, the famous cotton fabrics kente in West African Ghana, which are worn unstitched, thrown over the shoulder, are available only to chiefs, priests and high-ranking officials, who wear them on the occasion of a holiday. Making just one multi-colored kente belt can take up to a month and cost several hundred dollars. After all, only the most skilled male weavers in the country-famous villages around the city of Kumasi are able to make “real” kente, with the addition of silk, with a bizarre geometric pattern.

Berber woman in traditional dress and with tattoos, Tunisia

Printed fabrics are also considered to be of great value in Ghana. adinkra. Once upon a time, the wax printing technique was brought here from Southeast Asia, then it spread throughout Western and Central Africa. Today, this technique has acquired special cultural, social and economic significance in Ghana, because the patterns on Adinkra fabrics are speaking. Proverbs, poems and even elements of epic are encrypted in them. Each symbol stands for a specific word, concept, saying. The signs together form a system, like symbolic writing, that preserves the cultural values ​​of the Akan people. Adinkra symbols are also used on dishes, household items, and architecture.

Adinkra printed fabrics drying in the sun, Ghana

The decoration, especially on men's clothing, is characteristic mainly of Islamic peoples such as the Hausa of Nigeria. This agricultural people has long supplied almost all of West Africa with its cotton products, and fabrics of various shades and patterns bore different names and could be intended specifically for bloomers or headscarves. Entire quarters of the city of Kano were occupied with dyeing fabrics with natural dyes, for the production of which the craftsmen showed amazing ingenuity. Lemon juice, plant fibers and roots, digested tree bark, resins and crushed minerals - all this went to the needs of the textile industry and African fashion long before African patterns appeared on the catwalks of European fashion houses.

In the forest zone south of the savannahs, fabrics mainly used are made from raffia palm fibers, ficus bark and other local plants, since cotton does not withstand the humid equatorial climate. Already in the 16th century, having discovered the fabrics of the Kongo people, Europeans marveled at their quality and compared them with the best varieties of velvet. The fact that in the 20th century, raffia fabrics gradually gave way to European cotton manufactory is explained primarily by the complexity of processing palm fibers, which had to be kept in a swamp for several days, and then subjected to a complex drying procedure. As elsewhere in Africa, weaving was exclusively the domain of men. Men's clothing began at the hips, women's capes were secured at the chest with a special knot under the arm.

In Central Africa, Luba women embroider patterns on raffia clothes that have a special magical meaning. Both men's and women's clothing are almost the same - the figure is heavily draped with fabric, and preference is given to wide panels of material. The longer the clothing, the higher the social status of its owner. And although the style of clothing and fabric patterns are gradually changing under the influence of trade and constant interaction with European culture, in many areas the costume is still the main indicator of social status and ritual status. For example, no one except a leader or ruler would dare to put on a leopard skin in Africa.

Most of the peoples of Africa historically did not know shoes - this curiosity comes here only with white settlers. Only in North-East Africa are sandals fastened to the big toe common, and in Morocco no self-respecting person can do without babushki - soft leather shoes without a back.

Hats are also not very common in Africa. The peoples of the north of the continent, who were early influenced by Arab culture and the Islamic religion, adopted styles characteristic of the Middle East - a turban or a round cap like this, and for women - a scarf hijab or veil. Under Turkish influence in the 18th century. here the fez spread, only to disappear again by the 21st century. The Tuaregs of the Sahara, like thousands of years ago, drape their face, head and shoulders with a huge scarf of blue, lilac or black - this is tagelmust, which a man wears constantly, leaving only his eyes open. But Tuareg wives do not cover their faces. Further south, in the West African savannas, a common headdress for men is a conical wide-brimmed leather hat. bambula worn by Fulani and Akan shepherds, Senufo farmers - each nation has its own name for it. This kind of thing has spread among Muslims here too, but women, apart from scarves and multi-colored turbans, do not wear any other headdresses. Things are completely different in South Africa, where distinctive types of hats decorate the heads of Zulu, Swazi and Ndebele women: for example, a huge pyramidal headdress isicholo among Zulu women, born from the custom of tying up a giant fluffy hairstyle with a wide ribbon. And East Africa displays numerous types of headbands made of metal and beads, most often worn on a short-cropped or clean-shaven head.

Horned headdress of a Ditammari woman, Togo

African hairstyles deserve special attention. Women of most East African nations shave their heads, leaving the tedious task of braiding to young warriors - Morans with plenty of free time. The Oromo-Borena is one of the few peoples in Kenya whose women adorn their heads with hundreds of thin black braids that fall to their shoulders and beautifully frame their long necks. Mwila women living in Angola are famous for their unusual hairstyles. They cover the hair with a special paste oncula, made from powdered red stone. Oil, tree bark, cow dung and plants are then added to the powder. This whole explosive mixture is applied to the hair and styled into braids, which are masterfully decorated with beads, shells, and feathers. There are usually four or six braids, and if there are only three, this is a sure sign that someone has died in the family. The hairstyles of Himba women (Namibia, Angola) are no less interesting - their styled hair resembles numerous long dreadlocks. To achieve this result, the hair is coated with a mixture of oil and ocher. Girls are allowed to have only two “sausages”, and adult girls are allowed to have as many as they wish.

European fashionistas will never surpass the jewelry of African women. First of all, this concerns the number of accessories that an African woman puts on herself even in the most everyday hours - for example, to work in a corn field. A Nyangatom woman in Ethiopia, for example, will wear only a couple of goat skins on her hips, but she will have several dozen strings of beads hung around her neck, telling the whole history of her family and her own biography; massive metal bracelets will flaunt on her ankles and wrists, explaining what kind of wife she is to her husband and how many cows he has; in the ears you can see earrings made from iron tags or keys from European locks, who knows how they got to these parts; and in the lower lip there will be a massive silver pin - the woman carries all the wealth of the family on herself.

True, African jewelry is rarely made of precious metals, like the gold pendants and earrings of wealthy Bambara and Fulbe women in Mali. More often these are less expensive, but symbolically significant necklaces and amulets made of hard stone, bone, leopard fangs, cowrie shells or even European buttons. In East Africa, beads and bracelets were not so long ago made from seeds and dried beans, but since the end of the 19th century. here beads began to reign supreme. In some areas of Ethiopia and Kenya, beaded strings of necklaces cover a woman's neck so much that neither her breasts nor her chin are visible underneath. But the most surprising thing is that most of these beads were produced not in Africa at all, but in the Czech Republic - by the Yablonex company, which for almost a century has been a monopolist in the import of this extremely popular product to East Africa.

However, can a beaded necklace decorate the body in the same way as its natural beauty? If the European peoples, in achieving absolute beauty, placed the main emphasis on clothing, cosmetics and jewelry, then in Africa to this day there are various and amazing customs of modifying the human body - mainly, of course, the female one.

Some of these customs may stun some of our readers with their cruelty, but this will only be a subjective reaction of a person of a different upbringing, a different culture. Take, for example, the tradition of subjecting girls to breast ironing. Most of our readers have never heard of this procedure, but in Cameroon it has a very long tradition, which they are not going to abandon yet. The breasts of young teenage girls are ironed, and its purpose is, oddly enough, to prevent unwanted pregnancies before leaving school. Many Cameroonians believe that the growth of their daughters' breasts contributes to puberty, and a physically developed girl attracts much more attention from men. To prevent dangerous early romances, mothers massage and crush their daughters' mammary glands. The most common tool for this is a wooden rolling pin, usually used for crushing tubers in the kitchen. Heated bananas and coconut shells are also used.

Hairstyle of a Hamar warrior, which is done after killing an enemy, Ethiopia

STUDENT GERALDINE SIRRI SHARES MEMORIES: “MY MOTHER WOULD TAKE A ROLLING ROLLING ROLL, WARM IT WELL ON THE FIRE, THEN I WOULD LAY ON MY BACK AND SHE WALKED THE ROLLING ROLLING ROLL OVER MY CHEST. AND SHE TOOK A COCONUT, WARMED IT ON THE FIRE AND ROCKED MY BREASTS WITH IT. I SCREAMED AND TRIED TO BREAK AWAY, BUT I COULD NOT.”

Rich pattern of scars on the body of Mursi youths, Ethiopia

According to statistics, up to a quarter of Cameroonian girls undergo breast ironing today, and their mothers are very pleased with the result of this procedure. Deformed breasts are considered here to be a unique attribute of female beauty.

Another one of the most painful customs in Africa is the deformation of the shape of a woman’s head. This happens with the help of various tricks, which boil down to limiting the development of the girl’s skull. For the Mangbetu people of Central Africa, the main criterion for a woman’s beauty is the length of her head. The longer the better. To achieve an ideal appearance, immediately after birth, the girl’s head is tightly wrapped in bandages. The elongated shape of the skull is achieved by pulling the cranium around the circumference with a special bandage; planks are applied to the sides to enhance the effect, which leads to a thickening of the frontal part of the head, followed by elongation of the occipital region. The resulting structure is called a “tower head”. Adult girls, in order to enhance the impression of a tower, wore hairstyles in the form of cylinders. It was believed that this would help attract male attention and protect the girl from witchcraft. Lengthening the skull and emphasizing the high forehead is a woman’s pride, the Fulbe in West Africa agree, but they do this using less radical methods: girls simply remove their eyelashes and eyebrows.

The tradition of decorating the body with scars has existed in Africa since time immemorial. Scarification, or scarification, is a phenomenon known throughout sub-Saharan Africa, although the methods of scarring and the meaning of the procedure vary widely. Scars here play about the same important role as tattoos among the peoples of Europe, Asia and America, because on the dark skin of Africans a tattoo is poorly visible, so it has to be replaced with a relief image. In the northern regions of Africa, among peoples with fair skin, tattoos, on the contrary, are very common, especially among the Berbers of Tunisia, where women like to decorate almost the entire face and hands with images.

In West Africa - in Ghana and Burkina Faso - notch scars on the forehead and cheeks are like a passport: they are applied to a boy in the first days of life and indicate a person’s ethnicity - sometimes scientists explain them by the need to recognize one’s own during a battle or skirmish with neighbors nationalities. Shilluk men from South Sudan decorate their foreheads with a chain of bead-like scars, while Tabwa warriors from Congo can be identified by rows of long scars running across their cheeks and forehead. Facial incisions are made as a person grows up - at birth, initiation, entering the circle of warriors. They also have religious significance - according to local beliefs, the notches break the connection of the newborn with the world of the dead and provide the protection of community spirits. And in East Africa, the scarification procedure plays an aesthetic role - in addition to information about the social status and origin of a person, it symbolizes the beauty of the body.

In many cultures, scars guarantee success with the opposite sex: a woman who is not decorated with scars is considered unattractive, and a man is considered a coward who avoids pain. The sequence of applying the ornament to the body and its design are regulated by tradition. Among the Gaandas in Nigeria, girls begin to have scars on their bodies from the age of five. First, the design is applied to the stomach, and at certain intervals, designs are added to the forehead, forearms, waist, and hips. After all the patterns are applied, the girl is considered ready for marriage. Men also often resort to scarring, because for them it is primarily a demonstration of courage. For example, among the peoples of South Sudan, by the number of scars on a warrior’s right hand, you can find out how many enemies he killed. So there is no need to look for any evidence of the crime: the killer always carries it with him.

The scarring procedure is very unpleasant: most often the skin is cut with a blade, lifted with an acacia thorn and a mixture of ash and plant juice is rubbed into the wound, causing irritation. As a result, the scar acquires the desired convex shape. Some fans of extreme scarification prefer to apply “concave” scars to the body. They are obtained by cutting off the top layer of skin with a scalpel, after which the pattern represents a depression on the body. The most popular places for scars on the body are the arms, shoulders, chest, stomach and back.

Tattooed Tsamai girl, Ethiopia

Maasai woman with traditional ear holes, Kenya

Another common body decoration in Africa is piercing. In modern society, the fashion for piercing appeared only a few decades ago, but in Africa they have been decorating themselves this way for thousands of years. Like other body decorations, piercing has both aesthetic and social significance: from the punctures on the head and body, a trained eye can determine the age of the wearer, his love and military exploits, and status in society. Piercing also plays a ritual role - wearing jewelry on the lips, nose, ears and genitals is guaranteed protection from evil spirits and negative energy. Thus, according to the beliefs of Central African women, a pierced tongue not only gives an unusual sensation when kissing, but also protects against evil forces. Girls from the peoples of South Sudan and the Central African Republic insert long and sometimes quite thick bone or wooden sticks into their lower lips, luring material well-being into the house. The more jewelry that is strung on the pierced lower lip, the more food there will be in the house. And in South Africa, Nyanja women until recently considered giant rings in the upper lip fashionable. Mursi and Surma girls (Ethiopia) went even further than their neighbors: they pull their lower lip down and forward with the help of a clay disk, which we already talked about in the chapter “Peoples and Languages.”

Women of the Maasai people, who live in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania, use a similar disc to lengthen not their lips, but their ears. Girls at an early age have their earlobes pierced with a piece of horn, and various wooden objects are inserted into the hole. Over time, the load is increased with the help of more bulky jewelry, until the lobe sag all the way to the shoulders. The longer the ears, the more respected and beautiful the woman looks in the eyes of her fellow tribesmen. The same logic is followed on the island of Madagascar and in Central Africa, where girls make a large hole in their earlobe and insert wooden buttons there. In some parts of Nigeria, women place a large silver hoop-shaped earring into the ear hole, pulling the earlobe tightly. And girls from Mozambique sometimes pierce as many as 15 holes along the edge of the ear: in order not to injure such beauty during work, the lobe is secured to the upper edge of the ear. Holes in the ears in Africa are also used for practical purposes: necessary objects can be inserted there, for example, a cigarette or a smoking pipe, or even a knife, so that your hands are free. In Africa, not only the earlobes, but also the labia of women are lengthened.

This piquant custom exists, for example, among the Tutsi in Rwanda and Burundi, as well as among the Hottentots and Bushmen of South Africa. Girls have metal clips attached to their outer labia, which they are forced to wear all day long without removing them. It is believed that this enhances not only the attractiveness of a woman, but also the pleasure of sexual contacts for both partners.

What about the swan neck? This concept is well known to the South African Ndebele, even if they have never seen swans in the wild. Here, women's necks are humiliated from their youth with numerous bracelets that symbolize the wealth of the family - the more bracelets, the higher the status. From early childhood, women of this people wore brass hoops around their necks, thanks to which the neck could lengthen by 40–50 cm. These hoops could not be removed, since weakening the neck muscles would lead to immediate injury to the woman. The woman with the longest neck was considered not only the richest (metal is highly valued in these areas), but also the most beautiful. Several rings are also worn on the hips. Their primary purpose is to imitate folds of fat, to “add body,” since thinness is considered unattractive. In fact, neck and thigh rings add not so much body, but weight: depending on their number and width, this can add up to 25 kg! It is not surprising that Ndebele women’s ceremonial dances are very slow and measured - you can’t really dance with such a load.

We will talk about paints on the body and face a little lower, in the chapter “Culture”. Giving your body a special shade is also a fashion requirement. Women of the Himba people (Angola and Namibia) begin their day with an unusual cosmetic procedure - they cover themselves from head to toe with a mixture of ocher, fat and ash. Shrub resin is added to the ointment omuzumba– it gives the body a red tint. This mixture not only makes Himba women attractive in the eyes of men, but also protects the skin from the scorching sun and insects. But this is not enough to make a woman look amazing. After the rite of passage into adulthood, girls have their four lower teeth removed.

The strange custom of removing the six lower front teeth of men in the most primitive way - they are knocked out with a spear in childhood - was until recently widespread among the Nilotic peoples of East Africa. This practice still exists among the Nuer, Dinka, and Shilluk peoples of South Sudan. There are many explanations for this custom, and one of them is the veneration of cattle in material and spiritual life: since the bull does not have lower front incisors, the Nilotes, in order to be like their beloved bulls, remove their own teeth.

The filing and removal of teeth is an integral part of beauty standards not only in eastern Africa. The ladies of the Luba people and some of their neighbors in the Congo almost completely grind down all their teeth visible from the outside. For women in Madagascar, filed teeth are also in fashion. They polish their incisors in such a way that the smile resembles the grin of a shark - no man can resist this.

Tsamai girls brush their teeth with sticks made of special wood, Ethiopia

In general, it is worth noting that the snow-white African smile, which many Europeans were surprised by, is also the result of the fact that Africans carefully care for their teeth. During the day, they brush their teeth with the bark or roots, using the pulp as a paste and the fibers as a brush. Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, people can be seen going about their daily activities with a small stick or twig in their teeth, which they chew and move from one corner of their mouth to the other. Twigs of trees and bushes are African toothbrushes and toothpicks. Their users claim that they are much more effective and cheaper than beautifully packaged, expensive dental products. Natural remedies have medicinal properties, so they not only help keep your mouth clean, but also treat a number of ailments. Laboratory studies have shown that the plants from which the sticks are made contain antimicrobial compounds: they kill bacteria that cause caries and periodontal disease.

As you know, 80% of men prefer fat women and only 20% prefer very fat ones. This rule also applies without fail in Africa, where the problem of malnutrition is the most difficult of life's problems. The weight of a representative of the fairer sex directly speaks to the capabilities of her father or husband - can he provide his daughter with a decent living? Fatness is associated with fertility, the main function of women in any African society.

In many nations, it is customary to force girls to gain excess weight from childhood: they are fed fat, deprived of the opportunity to move too much, and forced to eat camel milk. In some areas of Sudan, the bride's body is generously rubbed with fat for many days, after which she is presented with about a kilogram of durra porridge without salt and seasoning, which must be eaten to the last drop. The bride is watched over by an unforgiving relative, armed with a stick or whip made of hippopotamus skin. If the unfortunate woman is unable to swallow the mass of disgusting porridge, reprisals are inevitable.

A man from one of the friendliest Ethiopian tribes, Hamer, Africa.

Hamer woman.
On the website beauti-world.ru you can admire a large number of works made not only by professional artists, but also by simply amateurs of their craft. Pencil drawings always attract attention, sometimes they fascinate so much that the hand itself reaches for a pencil or brush to try to reproduce something similar.

Girls of the Hamer tribe, located in Africa, drink an alcoholic drink in the morning that tastes like beer and dance in circles. The heat and alcohol put them into a kind of trance.

Residents of the Karo tribe are engaged in animal husbandry; they are considered the best masters in body painting, as well as in preparing for dances and holidays.

Photo of representatives of the Bena tribe, whose traditions have not yet been fully studied.

Men of the Hamer tribe go to graze cattle in the morning, armed with spears. Africa.

The Mursi are one of the most aggressive tribes in Ethiopia, whose men carry sticks and beat to death those who encroach on their leadership.

The people of the Karo tribe love a strict geometric style - they draw stripes, circles, and spirals on the body. They use natural materials for painting: chalk, iron ore, ocher deposits, coal.

The African Karo tribe is the smallest (about a thousand people).

A woman from the Surma tribe, which is located in the southwestern part of Ethiopia. These tribes are fenced off from the rest of the world by inaccessible mountains.

Hamer woman.

Photo of a woman from the Surma tribe with a child.

The tribes of Ethiopia mainly speak Amharic and Oromo languages.

An Ethiopian tribal woman smokes a pipe.

A child from the Surma tribe, whose population lives by raising cattle.

Men and women of the Surma tribe shave their heads to be beautiful, and children decorate each other with designs.

Unlike children of other peoples of Ethiopia, children of the Hamer, Karo and Benna tribes do not ask for money.

The Ethiopian Hamer tribe is interested in communicating with tourists who come to photograph them, touch and look at the white man.

Cattle breeding is well developed in this African tribe. The number of livestock measures the welfare of a family. In the Hamer language there are about thirty words to describe the different shades of color and texture of livestock skin.

Women from the Hamer tribe.

The distinctive features of Hamer representatives are high cheekbones. They decorate themselves with beads, leather and thick copper necklaces around their necks.

Each tribe in the valley is unique, with its own customs and beliefs.

The Hamer people number approximately 35-50 thousand people; they inhabit the eastern part of the lowland Omo Valley.

The Hamer are Sunni Muslims. They believe that natural objects have souls and also believe in spirits that can take the form of humans or animals.

Representatives of the Arbore, a people belonging to the Afro-Asian linguistic group, live in one of the villages. There are about five thousand of them.

The Hamer tribe has a very interesting ritual - “running on the backs of bulls”, which men who have reached adulthood undergo before getting married. They must run four times along the backs of bulls standing in a row. A Hamer man performs the ritual naked, symbolizing the childhood he is about to leave behind. Cows do not always stand still, so it is important not only to run, but also not to fall, losing your balance. After successfully completing the ritual, the young man is classified as a “maza”. If he falls, he will train and undergo this ritual in a year.

The Arbore differ from other nationalities in that they wear numerous multi-colored beads. During ritual dances, they sing, believing that this relieves them of accumulated negative energy.

Before marriage, a tribal girl must be a virgin.

Representatives of the Hamer tribe have neither surnames nor passports.

A girl gets married at the age of 12.

A Hamer man has two or three wives and many children.

Typically, an African tribal village consists of several dozen round huts standing on stilts with conical roofs. Their frame is knitted from poles, and the top is covered with a thick layer of dried grass and straw.

The inside of the hut is divided into a living area, a granary and a goat pen. The master's bed is made of stones, covered with a layer of clay and straw, and covered with many goat skins on top.

African women braid their hair into a certain number of dreadlocks and smear them with ocher (for beauty and protection from insects).

A woman from one of the Ethiopian tribes drinks water.

The western and southwestern regions of the country are inhabited by different races: Afar, Agau, Oromo, Sidamo, Somali, Kafa, Beja, etc. And if you consider that each race includes up to a dozen different tribes speaking their own dialects, then there are different languages ​​in Ethiopia will get more than 200.

Almost every man from the African Suri tribe has a Kalashnikov assault rifle, which is always ready to shoot.

Not every man can have a wife, not everyone can afford marriage. The groom negotiates with the bride's father about the amount of the ransom. A wife costs 8-10 cows - for Ethiopia this is a fortune.

After the groom has paid the ransom to the bride's family, he builds her her own new house, regardless of what kind of wife she is. There she brings her dowry (clothes, several bags of grain, a dozen chickens and other small things necessary for arranging a new home). The husband himself does not have his own separate house; he leads a semi-nomadic lifestyle, living alternately in the houses of his wives, which he builds either close to each other or in one large fenced yard.

If suddenly the wife dies soon after marriage, then the husband has the right to return his ransom back. If the bride’s family has another daughter who has reached marriageable age, then the widower receives her in return for the deceased. Widows do not remarry.

Among the African tribes Surma and Mursi, the labial disc traditionally plays an important social role. The larger its diameter, the higher the girl’s authority and the greater demand she is as a bride.

Women take out the discs during meals or before bed, but do not leave them outside the home or in public. African women Surma and Mursi often exchange these jewelry among themselves (except those given by their husbands).

Hamer (Africa) woman with a pipe.

A Karo chief who participated in numerous raids and battles.

The African tribe Daasanach, whose people have become Orthodox Christians since 1983.

The population of Hamer often goes hungry - droughts lead to crop failure. Africa.

When a member of the Bodi tribe dies, his body is guarded for three days, after which he is eaten by his fellow tribesmen as a sign of respect. Africa.

Chief Hamer. The scars on the skin show the number of enemies he has defeated in battle.