Pastoral peoples and practices

The peoples of the Ilemi triangle (the Omo valley of Ethiopia, Central and Eastern Equatoria and Northern Kenya) are all pastoralists. Their bond with their livestock is inextricably connected to their environment and their subsistence farming systems have a small ecological footprint. This area is very vulnerable to climate change and the impacts of drought have desiccated their environments. Cattle, sheep and goats are their livelihoods and all their wealth is dependent upon them. The animals are used in barter for guns, dowry’s for wives, blood for nutrition, milk as part of their daily diet and occasionally they slaughter cattle for meat. The Mundari of Central Equatoria and the Kara of the Omo have many traits and traditions in common. They often practise transhumance, moving their herds in response to rains and fresh grazing. They often take blood from their cows, sometimes to mix with milk and sometimes to simply drink it from a calabash. The Mundari gather the fresh dung each morning, dry it and use it to fuel their fires. The ash from the fires is then used to massage their Ankole Watusi cows to mitigate against bites from tsetse flies and mosquitoes. They also veneer themselves with ash for the same reasons, hence they appear ghostly as they herd their cattle and fade into the nebulous haze of smoke generated by the fires. The Kara keep their goats and sheep close to their villages which in recent years have become very arid due to climate change and the damming of the Omo river which they depended on for flood recession cropping. The goats, when herded, create clouds of dust which is atmospheric but it is also indicative of increasing desertification. Like the Hamar and Bashada, they practice the Bula, or bull jumping, which signifies the coming of age for young men. An initiate has to prove his readiness for manhood by successfully jumping over rows of cattle six times in a row. Their connections with their animals are inimitable as are their interactions with the environments in which they live.