Africa’s Great Rift Valley stretches across 3,500 miles of territory from the shores of Eritrea to the red soil of Mozambique, and is recognized by scientists as the birthplace of humankind. All people share an ancestral link with this remarkable geography, where fossil remains of 4 million years of human history lay scattered across the valley floor, revealing the story of our evolution on earth. The diverse societies living in the Rift Valley are some of Africa’s last traditional people, and their centuries-old heritage is rapidly disappearing.
These images are from Elizabeth Gilbert's book,
Tribes of the Great Rift Valley.
The Afar people are also known as the Danakil, so named for the desolate desert triangle where they live, between Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Djibouti. It is a purely nomadic society, roaming the desert environs with the herds of livestock. This woman is named Fatuma.
This is the Danakil Caravan. The nomadic Afar tribe carefully monitors salt mining, the sole economy in the barren environs of the Danakil desert. Caravan runners march across the lunar landscape of the depression to carve salt blocks from the lakes and carry them by camel back up to the highland markets for trading.
Elizabeth Gilbert
Ethiopia boasts the oldest recorded Christian history in Africa and is famed for its centuries-old rock-hewn churches in the mountains of the northern province of Tigray. The pious must often climb footholds or traverse steep, rocky terrain to attend services.
Elizabeth Gilbert
Pygmies residing on the Uganda-Congolese border hunt in the leafy, shadowy environs of the forest. Bows and arrows are the weapons most frequently used in this practice, though traps may also be set.
Elizabeth Gilbert
Kereyu living in the Metahara Plain return from watering their livestock. Nomadic cultures are a prominent feature of Rift Valley societies.
Elizabeth Gilbert
In Salima, Malawi, Counselors from a Yao circumcision camp dance in the nearby village as a form of comfort and entertainment for the worried parents and relatives of the boys. Parents are not allowed to see their sons while the boys are sequestered in the camp during "jando", the Yao circumcision ceremony that marks the male passage into adulthood.
Elizabeth Gilbert
Among the Samburu and Maasai peoples of Kenya and Tanzania, life is divided into a series of stages, with ceremonies marking passage from one age group to the next. During the teen years, after boys are circumcised, they serve as warriors for up to seven years, after which they graduate and become full-ledged adults and junior elders. Here, a Maasai warrior stands in the rain, brimming with confidence, on the day of his graduation.
Elizabeth Gilbert
The Samburu and Maasai people of East Africa practice group circumcision ceremonies. This vanishing tradition is the single most important ritual in a young man’s life, and represents the end of childhood with the cut of a knife.
Circumcisions are swift and occur in public among the male members of the community. Before the moment of circumcision, a boy is blessed with a shower of milk to give him courage.
Elizabeth Gilbert
Patrick, a 22-year-old Samburu circumcision initiate, wears a simple woven headband adorned with the bodies of two small birds. These bird trophies are hunted by the boys during their recovery from the circumcision operation and are worn to show the community that they have successfully passed into adulthood and are in recovery.
Elizabeth Gilbert
In order to show a man’s readiness for marriage and adulthood, young Hamar men must prove their bravery by running four times across the backs of up to twenty bulls gathered in a long row, and held in place by young men who themselves have already passed the initiation ritual.
Elizabeth Gilbert
The men corral the cattle and wrestle each animal into position, firmly holding the bulls in place to create stability for the jumper. As with many African rituals, these ceremonies also serve to join members of the community in shared history and common experience, paving friendships and bonds that will last a lifetime.
Elizabeth Gilbert
A young Hamar initiate is required to begin with a running leap, literally jumping onto the back of the first bull in the line, and must cross the cattle’s backs four times without falling in order to become eligible for marriage.
Elizabeth Gilbert
The Mursi people of southern Ethiopia are among some of the last peoples in Africa to wear ceramic lip plates, a traditional adornment believed to increase the value of a potential bride. Over time, larger and larger plates are systematically inserted into the cut lip.
Elizabeth Gilbert
Hadza, or Hadzabe, men set set out at daylight to locate a baboon hunted the night before in the cliffs overlooking the Eyasi Basin in Tanzania. Among some of African's last hunter gatherers, they continue to hunt with bows and arrows and are excellent marksmen.
Elizabeth Gilbert
Maasai warriors run together in the last frenzied days of their graduation. In their ever-changing world, this 200-year old ceremony is becoming less and less relevant and is likely to disappear as the decreased need for warring parties and the increased availability of education render the practice obsolete.
Elizabeth Gilbert
See more of Elizabeth Gilbert's images of the Maasai culture in her book, Tribes of the Great Rift Valley. See a video accompanying the work, here.
