Hello guys, in this video I am going to show you Mursi people.
The Mursi Tribe, of which there are less than 10,000, are well known for the large plates the women wear in their lower lip. The custom of wearing a lip plate is linked to the female’s fertility and eligibility for marriage.
Surrounded by mountains between the Omo River and its tributary the Mago, the home of the Mursi is one of the most isolated regions of the country. Their neighbors include the Aari, the Banna, the Mekan, the Karo, the Kwegu, the Nyangatom and the Suri. They are grouped together with the Me’en and Suri by the Ethiopian government under the name Surma.
The Mursi undergo various rites of passage, educational or disciplinary processes. Lip plates are a well known aspect of the Mursi and Surma, who are probably the last groups in Africa amongst whom it is still the norm for women to wear large pottery, wooden discs, or ‘plates’, in their lower lips. Girls’ lips are pierced at the age of 15 or 16.
The African Parks Foundation and government park officials are accused of coercing Mursi into giving up their land within the boundaries of the Omo National Park without compensation. The documents are being used to legalize the boundaries of the park, which African Parks has taken over.
A common meal found among the Mursi is a dry cereal made from maize and sorghum. To this, they add milk and blood cut from a cow’s neck without killing it.
A girl’s lower lip is cut (sometimes by her mother) when she reaches 15 or 16, and held open by a sodden plug until it heals. It’s up to the girls how far they want the lip to be stretched. The very painful process often takes over several months.
Lip plates are more frequently worn by unmarried girls and newlywed women than by older married women with children.
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