The A’ari People
The A’ari is a people of the South, living in the Jinka highlands. In this region they are the culturally and economically dominant group. Their language is Omotic. They live in tribes with a clan structure – these tribes used to live independently from one another until 1897, when they were conquered by Ethiopian empire.
The three largest tribes are the Argenne, the Shangama, and the Ubamer. The economic system is based on farming, on small farms with crops like coffee, wheats, and various root crops.
Walking through the green mountains of Ari in southern Ethiopia one would recognize that some of the attractive grass-roofed houses of the Ari people are decorated with beautiful wall-paintings in natural colours. In Ari, painting is done by women. Women plaster the walls of their houses with mud and renew the walls and floors of their houses regularly. The word for wall-paintings in Ari is bartsi what means “giving beauty” and the paintings are done by women who are skilled. As Sambetti Galshi expressed it “men just farm the whole day, that’s why they don’t know how to paint.
The women who decorate their houses, all have their own personal style of painting; they paint not only different patterns and motifs, but they also use different materials and colours. The motifs and patterns will be explained with each individual painting. For painting, the women use their fingers, hen feathers and sticks of yams plants. The colours found on houses are made out of ground charcoal, battery acid,ash,light soil,red soil,cow dung and water.
Related Attractions
Suri Tribe
Each household in the Suri village is managed by a married woman. The women prepare the food, take care of the children, and cultivate their own fields and gardens, and are allowed to use their profits however they wish. There are also age grades. Young men (Tegay)...
Nyangatom Tribe
Also known as Bume, the Nyangatom belong to the Nilo-Saharan linguistic group. They live throughout the eastern part of the Lower Omo Valley and the Kibish Basin, even into Sudan. Closely related to the Topossa people of Sudan, they shun conflict with these...
Mursi Tribe
Pertaining to the Nilo-Saharan linguistic group (subgroup East-Sudanic), the Mursi are pastoralists and cultivators. The large Surma group consists of the Mursi (about 11,000 individuals), the Chai (about 11,000 individuals) and the Tirma (about 9,000 individuals),...
Konso Tribe
VillagesPerched on a narrow range of highland mountains ranging from 5,000 to 6,000 feet, live a group of people called Konso. Their homeland, located south of the town of Arba Minch, is surrounded by the lands of the Borana, Burji and Gaudwada peoples. While they...
Kara Tribe
Like in most of Omo tribes, scarification is widely used in the Kara tribe. Men braid hair in tight braids close to the skull. Sometimes men love to decorate their hair with various feathers and flowers. Women’s favorite hairstyle is a shaved skull or very short hair...
Hamar Tribe
ETHIOPIAN MASTERS OF BODY DECORATION But scarification is only one aspect of Hamar adornment. After all, the Hamar people are considered to be “masters” of body decoration and it would be an understatement to say that most Hamar men and women share a fundamental...
Gamo Tribe
Types of Gamo Vernacular house There are three main types of Gamo vernacular houses. These are Waje, Yara and Kaara. According to the society, houses are differing in their shape, sizes, functions, way of construction and materials. #Waje/ Zuufa "Waje" is type of Gamo...
Dorze Tribe
Weaving There are numerous regional variations of the treadle loom. The “pit looms” is the one Dorze use. The weaver is sitting on the edge of the pit above which the loom is mounted and in which he operates the treadles with his feet. Alternatively, the weaver may...
Dasenetch Tribe
The Dassanetch are known under more than one name, like Glebe, Murielle and Reshiat. These names all concern the same people, in total 35,000 souls. The Dassanetch can however be divided in eight clans. These are the Elele, Inkabelo, Inkoria, Koro, Naritch, Oro,...
Benna Tribe
Just like most of the indigenous tribes in the lower Omo Valley, the Benna practice ritual dancing and singing. The men often have their hair dressed up with a colorful clay cap that is decorated with feathers. A Benna man comes of age by leaping over a line of...
Arbore Tribe
The Arbore, also known as Erbore or Ulde, are an ethnic group living in Southern Ethiopia, near Lake Chew Bahir, in the South-Western region of the Omo Valley. The Arbore are divided into only four villages: Gandareb, Kulaama, Murale and Eegude, the total number of...