The Strange Hamar Tribe Scathing Tradition
Hamar people are a community inhabiting southwestern Ethiopia. They live in Hamer Woreda, a fertile part of the Omo River valley, in the Debub Omo Zone of the Southern Nations. They are largely pastoralists, so their culture places a high value on cattle. The Hamar people consist of over 46,532 people. These pastoral and polygamous people are popular for their traditional ‘jumping of bulls’. This ceremony often attracts neighbors and people foreign to their culture to witness it. They also got a strange blood-spitting whipping tradition known as Ukuli Bula.
In the tradition known as Ukuli Bula, women are whipped as part of a rite of passage ceremony for boys, when female family members declare their love for the young man at the heart of the celebration. The boy is then allowed to marry since the ceremony makes him a man. A key element of the ceremony is the whipping of young women who are family members or relatives of the boy undertaking the rite of passage. But before they do that, the man must “jump the bull.” As the name implies, Hamar men are made to jump over 15 to 30 bulls naked as a rite into becoming a Maza. Mazas are men who have successfully passed through this rite and are allowed to marry.
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From jumping the bull to Ukuli Bula
Once the man successfully jumps the bull, the moment of declaring love for men kicks in. The women trumpet and sing, extolling the virtues of the ‘Jumper’, declaring their love for him and for their desire to be whipped.
The women instead of fleeing beg men to whip them again during the ceremony held in the Omo River Valley. Once whipped, the girls proudly show off their scars as proof of their courage and integrity. Some whipping appears to be tender, others more fierce. The violent lashings leave deep scars on the backs of women.
They coat their bodies with butter to lessen the effect of the whipping which is only carried out by Maza – those who have already undergone this rite of passage. The thought of being whipped repeatedly would make most of us cringe. Yet the practice is embraced and encouraged not only by attendees watching from the sidelines but the women subject to the beatings. The women taunt the men and even ask them to strike their bodies with long, wooden whips. Enduring the pain, amid dancing and cheers, is seen as a sign of love and loyalty toward their male relatives. Indeed, the men are forever indebted to the women after the ceremony is over.
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Women entice the Maza to use whips and canes on their backs by forcing them to beat them, sometimes against their wishes. With blood seeping out from their backs, they tell the men to continue whipping them. He maintains the right not to explain why he is beating them.
These whips, though painful, show that the women are dedicated to the men. The newly initiated Maza relatives are not left out. The number of scars on the back also shows the new Maza who loves him best. They take in the beating on the condition that he remembers them when they face difficulties.
When this is complete, they go into the Evangadi (night dancing) before the families of the new Maza announce his first wife. Their traditional clothes are made of goatskin. They also adorn their bodies by cutting their skin and adding ash and charcoal to the cuts.
The men and the women do not have gender roles when taking care of their cattle. These cattle are used to define their wealth status and are used also used to pay the woman’s bride price.
The tradition reminds us of a primitive yet accepted reality of our African culture practiced by one of the region’s largest tribal groups in Ethiopia. It is usually a landmark coming-of-age ritual among the Hamar people.
