Source: Press office
In southern Ethiopia, 500 kilometers south of Addis Ababa, there is a valley that was explored for the first time in 1800 and which, even today, is a destination for especially Italian visitors.
The Omo Valley, a place where time seems to have stopped and which is inhabited by thirty-four different ethnic groups. The first episode of the Sky Atlantic docuseries also takes place here, “Raz&the tribe”, hosted by Raz degan. The model, actor, photographer and director is also a great traveler and passionate about indigenous cultures. In this four-episode broadcast, Raz goes to discover the indigenous tribes of the planet together with three characters who accompany him on the journey: Asia Argento, Piero Pelù and Luca Argentero. In the first episode, the actor and Asia Argento go to discover the Hamar tribe, who lives right in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia.
The Hamar are immediately recognisable, because they differ from other tribes already by their physical appearance: they love to dress with colorful dresses embellished with beads and shells and the women have their hair done in extremely imaginative hairstyles.
The Hamar tribe lives mainly on pastoralism and agriculture, the only day we don't work is Monday, market day. In the camps, women have exactly the same tasks as men.
Even in the characteristics of their houses, the Hamar differ from other Ethiopian populations, because they live in circular wooden buildings with a sloping roof.
The Hamar culture has very ancient origins and involves the bull jumping, the bull leap, and the evangadi, the night dance. Bull jumping is the ritual that celebrates the transition from youth to adulthood, in which the men who have recently jumped the bull whip the women of the family of the boy who is to become an adult, to demonstrate their love for him. The boy, therefore, he must jump, completely naked, on the backs of eight bulls, without ever falling. Following this ritual, there is the night dance, the evangadi, in which the family announces who will be the future wife of the boy who has just become a man.
The initiation rite has been much debated, especially regarding the whipping on the women's bodies, but they say they are happy to demonstrate their devotion and attachment to their relative in this way.
