Dassanech tribe | Fair Voyage

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Cross Omo River to visit the Dassanech tribe. This is the most southerly of the tribes who live in Ethiopia’s Omo Valley only 28km from the Kenya border. They live in small huts made from sticks, corrugated iron & animal hide. The men and a few of the women carry around guns for protection against hyenas at night.

Dassanech girls are circumcised quite young, at the age of 10 or 12. They must go through this process, which is normally administered by their mother or another older woman, in order to marry and for their father to receive his payment. Payment for a bride is made to her father in kilograms of honey, cows, coffee, goat & chicken. Until they are circumcised, the young girls are considered 'wild animals' or 'men' to tease them. The reason for this is that their clitoris has to be removed before they act like women.