It may sound unbelievable that some people to this day, live this way in our modern world, unaffected by most of our modern trappings, even when it’s obvious we have reached the peak of our civilized world.
Women in Ethiopia’s Hamar tribe are beaten with canes and bruised with thorn bushes to demonstrate their strength to the men.
Location
The vast majority of the 20,000 Hamar people live in the Omo River Valley, a fertile part of southwest Ethiopia’s vast Southern Nations, and Region bordered by Kenya and South Sudan.
The majority still live in traditional villages, but an increasing number are migrating to the region’s cities and towns, as well as the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
Marriage
Hamar males devote the majority of their time to caring for animals, which are also used to pay bride prices when they marry.
Parents have a big role to play in the lives of their sons, It is the parents who grant permission for their sons to marry, and many do not marry until their parents are ready for the rituals
Girls, on the other hand, marry around the age of 17.
Marriage among the Hamar tribe requires ‘bridewealth, a payment made to the woman’s family that is typically comprised of goats, cattle, and guns.
Although it is paid instrumentally, a man is expected to pay (30 goats and 20 head of cattle) which is rarely repaid in a lifetime.
Rituals ceremony
The Hamar tribe, located among the bush-covered hills on the eastern side of the Omo Valley in southern Ethiopia, has a distinct culture and customs, one of which is a cattle-jumping ceremony in which women are beaten
The main event of the day is the bull-leaping ceremony, or “bulla.” this ceremony is to determine whether a young Hamar male is ready to make the social leap from youth to adulthood, and is prepared for the responsibilities of marriage, family, and cattle ownership.
the initiated young man who must jump from one bull to the next until he reaches the end of a row of 10 to 15 of them To be eligible to marry, he must perform this feat four times in a row without falling off.
volunteer for whipping
Women from the Hamar tribe in Ethiopia are whipped to show their love for men going through the Rite of Passage ceremony.
The ceremony starts with all the female relatives dancing, during which they offer themselves as subjects to be whipped by men who have recently been initiated.
Ritual beatings are carried out by a group of men known as ‘Maza,’ and they continue until the women’s backs are battered and bruised.
Totally committed to their initiated sons, the mothers are also whipped to blood to prove their courage and accompany their sons during the test.
The beatings go on until their backs turn bloody. During the beatings, women are not allowed to scream or show any sign of pain.
They do not also flee the ceremony but rather beg the men to beat them over and over again with enthusiasm.
The more abundant and extensive the initiate’s scars are, the deeper the girls’ affection is to the boy who is about to become a man.
Beatings are not just ceremonial
Women in the Hamar tribe are subject to beatings even after the ceremony at any time the man pleases unless they give birth to at least two children.
Worthy to note is that Hamar women who are not the first wives have a really hard life and they are more slaves than wives.
Significance of the beating and scares
The reason for this ritual whipping is to create a strong debt between the young man and his sisters.
If they face hard times in the future, he’ll remember them because of the pain they went through at his initiation.
Her scars are a mark of how she suffered for her brother… same applies to their mother
Should they be left alone or encouraged to integrate into the modern world?
what’s your take
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