Hamar people (original) (raw)

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Omotic language-speaking ethnic group in southwestern Ethiopia

Ethnic group

Hamer

Hamer women, 2012
Total population
46,532
Regions with significant populations
South Ethiopia Regional State
Languages
Hamer
Religion
Animism

The Hamar people (also spelled Hamer) are a community inhabiting southwestern Ethiopia. They live in Hamer woreda (or district), a fertile part of the Omo River valley, in the Debub Omo Zone of the former South Ethiopia Regional State (SERS). They are largely pastoralists, so their culture places a high value on cattle.

The 2007 national census reported 46,532 people in this ethnic group, of whom 10,000 were urban inhabitants. The vast majority (99.13%) live in the SNNPR.[1]

According to the Ethiopian national census of 1994, there were 42,838 Hamer language speakers, and 42,448 self-identified Hamer people, representing approximately 0.1% of the total Ethiopian population.[2]

Bull-jumping ceremony

The Hamar are known for their unique custom of "bull jumping," which initiates a boy into manhood. First, female relatives dance and invite whipping from men who have recently been initiated; this shows their support of the initiate, and their scars give them a say on whom they marry.

The boy must run back and forth twice across the backs of a row of bulls or castrated steers, and is ridiculed if he fails.[3]

The men of the tribe will often style their hair with clay, creating a sculpture of sorts that is styled with various pigments, mostly red and white, and in smoothing the clay they create very small protruding tube in which they house ostrich feathers from their hunts.

The Assistant Administrator of Hamer Bena, Ato Imnet Gashab, has commented that only seven tribal members have ever completed secondary education.

Hamer decoration

Collars for Hamer married women

Mingi, in the religion of the Hamar and related tribes, is the state of being impure or "ritually polluted".[4] A person, often a child, who was considered mingi is killed by forced permanent separation from the tribe by being left alone in the jungle or by drowning in the river.[5]

  1. ^ 2007 Ethiopian census, first draft Archived 4 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Ethiopian Central Statistical Agency (accessed 6 May 2009)
  2. ^ Hudson, Grover. 75 Ethiopian Languages: 19 Cushitic, 20 Nilosaharan, 23 Omotic, 12 Semitic, and 1 Unclassified, 2005.
  3. ^ Wharton, Jane (22 February 2015). "The making of a man: Inside a bull jumping ceremony with Ethiopia's Hamer tribe". Express (London). Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  4. ^ Do the Hamar have a Concept of Honor?, Ivo Strecker, University of Mainz, "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 19 February 2010.{{[cite web](/wiki/Template:Cite%5Fweb "Template:Cite web")}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. ^ "The Hamar and Karo Tribes: The Search for Mingi". Films Media Group. Retrieved 20 November 2019.

Media related to Hamar people at Wikimedia Commons