Ethiopia – de Hamar gemeenschap

Ethiopia – de Hamar gemeenschap

The married women surprise us with their decorated tresses smeared just like their bodies with a red substance made of clay, finely ground red stone and oil. A dozen or more copper

 bracelets around their arms and thick welts on their bodies which they applied themselves by cutting into their bodies and treating the wound with ashes and charcoal. In addition to the colorful beaded necklaces, these women wear one or more thick copper rings, often with a round wedge of approximately 10 cm long that protrudes from the front of the throat. The excellent wedge shows that she is woman number one. These metal rings can no longer be removed. In their pierced earlobes they wear metal earrings.

Leather cloths are worn as a kind of dress and are held at the waist by belts decorated with Kauri shells (porcelain shells). The shells are easy to pierce and therefore they are sewn on everywhere. Superstition: in front of them they have 'evil-repelling' shells. Not only on their arms (wrist and upper arms) but also below the knee they wear a number of metal bands and rings.

Young girls usually wear a headband (bala) to which a very light metal flap is attached.

The men also have body decorations but less painful. They lime themselves with white lime paste before a dance or a ceremony. The clay decorative rings, a hood, on the head of some men indicates that they have killed a dangerous animal in the last year. The hood was made by smearing their heads with different colored clay which has a beautiful effect after the clay has dried. Other men wear a smaller hood with an ostrich feather and thereby prove that they have shot a bird.

The men sleep at night with their head on a neck support so that their hairstyle would not break. They also hang themselves with earrings, chains, wrist and upper arm bands. In their loins they wear a loin cloth like any other garment.

Je zal bijna nimmer of nooit een Hamar zien zonder neksteun, een mes of een Kalashnikov