Travel Mother Earth, September 17th, 2007
Imagine being lashed so brutally on your back that you suffer raw, open wounds that scar you for life. Now imagine that you do not consider it suffering at all, but instead yearn to have it happen. Although you would likely be put under 24-hour observation anywhere in the Western world, in certain circles in southern Ethiopia, you would be celebrated.
The Hamer people, a relatively small tribe of pastoralists in the rugged Omo River valley, indeed hold a tradition that calls upon a woman to endure this degree of flagellation. It is in response to cow jumping, a revered tradition among the Hamer, which is the coming-of-age test that determines a boy's fitness to be a man. This rite of passage must be performed by all boys before they can marry. The naked boy (naked to symbolize the childhood he is leaving behind) must "jump the cattle" four times to be successful. If he succeeds, he joins the ranks of the maza, other men who have recently passed the same test.
It is the task of the maza to respond to provocations by the women¾usually the cow-jumpers sisters¾by beating them with sticks until they are severely wounded. The endurance of these beatings is confirmation, in the eyes of all concerned, that the sister or relative has withstood intense pain for the new man and thus can call on him later in life should she ever need assistance.
Women play another significant role in Hamer culture: Because they generally marry men who are much older, while they themselves are still very young, they are commonly left to run the family after the husband dies. The woman is not allowed to remarry, and she is given authority over the brothers of her deceased husband, and all their livestock, if their parents are dead.
Sidebar: Travel Mother Earth recently dropped in on a Hamer family while exploring the Omo River valley. We found them to be a gentle, generous people. After serving us coffee in their hut (made from the boiled shell of the bean), they sang us their songs and we sang them ours. Later, they treated us to fresh honey dripping from their bee hives, and then we went with them into the fields to help grind their tobacco. Finally, the head of the family honored one of us with a face-painting ceremony outside his hut.
