A mother holds her son\u2019s head, the boy is no older than two, inside a goat\u2019s stomach. After a couple of minutes, he resurfaces as if out of water. He isn\u2019t wet but his skin in covered in what the animal ate before dying \u2013 semi-digested grass \u2013 which his mother smears on his feet as if she were performing a cosmetic treatment. Then she gives him a piece of the stomach to chew on.<\/p>\n
In order to comprehend the lifestyles and worldview of the tribes of the Lower Omo Valley in southwestern Ethiopia, first of all we must suspend all judgement. The ritual described may seem cruel but the child is peaceful and like the rest of the Hamer tribe his mother believes this act, which would be considered a form of violence elsewhere, can protect him from malaria. And if anything, it serves to prepare him for a hard life of daily toil and suffering. What\u2019s important, therefore, isn\u2019t to deliberate on what\u2019s right and what\u2019s wrong, but to gain a clearer picture in order to understand whether these peoples\u2019 ways of life should be preserved. And, more importantly, who gets to decide this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The tribes of the Lower Omo Valley in Ethiopia live in close contact with nature and the river they depend on. We explore how their ancestral ways of life are being threatened by the impacts of a mega-dam, climate change and a booming tourism industry, in this exclusive reportage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":3031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,33],"tags":[7,14,34],"class_list":{"0":"post-3034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-travel","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-travel"},"yoast_head":"\n