Mario Gerth’s Portraits of Africa’s Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Peoples

German documentary photographer Mario Gerth spent years travelling through Africa to photograph peoples who still live, fully or partly, by moving with their herds. This selection of eleven portraits comes from Namibia, Ethiopia and Kenya: Himba, Hamar, Arbore, Suri, Karo, Samburu and Mursi. Gerth has worked in more than 80 countries, and according to a profile published by the ONE Campaign he spent around six years on the continent over many trips, two of them on a bicycle journey from Cape Town to Cairo.

He shoots most of his subjects against a plain dark backdrop, so jewellery, hairstyles and body paint carry the picture. That style is striking, but it also strips away context: herds, homes, markets and mobile phones are all outside the frame. The notes under each portrait try to put some of that context back, explaining who each community is and what the visible details usually mean. “Nomadic” here is a broad label. Most of these groups are semi-nomadic or agro-pastoral, combining herding with farming, fishing or trade.

11 Portraits of Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Peoples in Africa

Namibia: the Himba of the Kunene Region

A Himba girl in Namibia
A Nimbi Girl In Nambia

Photo: Mario Gerth

Older versions of this caption called her a “Nimbi” girl, but no Namibian people goes by that name; the hairstyle and ochre-coated braids identify her as Himba. About 50,000 Himba live mainly in north-western Namibia’s Kunene Region and across the river in southern Angola. They rub their skin and hair with otjize, a paste of butterfat and red ochre that protects against sun and insects, and their hairstyles change with age and marital status.

Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley: Hamar and Karo

The Lower Omo Valley in southern Ethiopia is home to more than a dozen distinct peoples speaking languages from several families. Many of Gerth’s portraits were taken here.

A Hamar woman in Ethiopia
A Hamar Lady in Ethiopia

Photo: Mario Gerth

The Hamar live east of the Omo River, with their district centre at Dimeka, and raise cattle, goats and sheep alongside sorghum and maize. In this portrait she wears ochre-tinted bead-like locks, heavy metal neck rings and rows of cowrie shells, all common elements of Hamar women’s dress. Hamar women also do most of the work of growing sorghum and maize.

A Hamar boy in Ethiopia

Photo: Mario Gerth

The rows of raised scars on his chest are a form of decorative scarification found across several Omo Valley groups. For Hamar young men, the most important rite of passage is the bull-jumping ceremony, after which a man may marry and own cattle. The ceremony is famous with visitors but also controversial, because it includes the ritual whipping of female relatives.

A Karo boy in Ethiopia

Photo: Mario Gerth

The Karo are a small community living close to the Omo River, with estimates of only a few thousand people. Their language is closely related to Hamar. A flower crown like this one is part of the playful, changing decoration that has made Karo portraits a favourite of photographers.

Karo in Ethiopia

Photo: Mario Gerth

Elaborate body decoration, headdresses and scars are central to how the Karo express beauty and status. Here a white coating has dried and cracked across the face, turning the portrait into something close to a sculpture. Such designs are temporary and are typically renewed for dances and other occasions.

The Arbore of Lake Chew Bahir

Arbore, Ethiopia

Photo: Mario Gerth

The Arbore live in a handful of villages in the delta of the Limo River at the northern end of Lake Chew Bahir, in Ethiopia’s South Omo Zone. Their language is Cushitic, unlike the Omotic speech of their Hamar neighbours. This young man’s feathered headdress and dotted face paint are typical of ceremonial dress in the region.

An Arbore girl in Ethiopia

Photo: Mario Gerth

Layers of bright bead necklaces and a black head cloth are the best-known signs of Arbore women’s dress. The community depends on a mix of herding, sorghum farming, seasonal fishing and hunting, all tied to the river’s yearly floods. That dependence makes the Arbore especially exposed to droughts and changes in water flow.

Suri and Mursi: the Surmic peoples

A Suri woman in Ethiopia
A Suri Lady in Ethiopia

Photo: Mario Gerth

The Suri, around 30,000 people, live in south-western Ethiopia near the South Sudan border. On special occasions they paint each other with mixtures of crushed rock, plant juices and water, and wear leaves and flowers as headdresses, as in this portrait. Cattle are their main measure of wealth and are used for bride-wealth.

A Mursi mother with her child in Ethiopia

Photo: Mario Gerth

The Mursi, about 11,500 people at the 2007 census, live between the Omo and Mago rivers. This mother wears a clay lip plate and a headdress with horns and metal ornaments. Lip plates are a traditional mark of adulthood for Mursi women, but they are now also worn for tourists who pay to take photographs, a trade that brings income and tension in equal measure.

Kenya: the Samburu

A Samburu warrior in Kenya

Photo: Mario Gerth

The Samburu of north-central Kenya speak a dialect of Maa, the language of the Maasai, and many see themselves as part of the wider Maa community. Young men of the warrior age grade, the moran, traditionally grow long braided hair like this and shave it when they become elders. Beadwork, as on his chest, signals status and identity.

A Samburu girl in Kenya

Photo: Mario Gerth

Samburu women and girls wear many strands of beaded necklaces, often stacked into a broad collar like this one. The Samburu are traditionally semi-nomadic herders of cattle, goats, sheep and camels, and livestock remains the centre of their economy. Like other herding peoples, many Samburu families now combine livestock with schooling, wage work or small businesses.

Looking beyond the beautiful portrait

Portraits like Gerth’s are often shared with captions about “the last tribes” or peoples “fading away”. The reality is more complicated. These communities are not relics; they are living societies dealing with very modern pressures, including large dams on the Omo River, national park boundaries, land leases for commercial farming, climate stress and fast-growing tourism.

A few things are worth keeping in mind when you look at photographs like these:

Each group is distinct. Hamar, Mursi and Samburu differ in language, customs and history as much as any two European nations.
Dress is not a costume. Hairstyles, beads and scars often record age, marital status or achievements.
Tourism cuts both ways. Paid photography is a real source of income, but it can turn traditions into performances and create pressure to look “traditional” for visitors.
Change is not loss of identity. Many young people move between herding, school and town life while keeping their community ties.

Gerth describes his aims as documenting, informing and preserving. Seen with context, his portraits are a good starting point for learning about the people themselves, not just the way they look.

Sources: photographs by Mario Gerth; ONE: Portraits of the sons and daughters of the wind; Wikipedia articles on the Himba, Hamar, Arbore, Suri, Karo, Samburu and Mursi peoples. Earlier coverage via The Plaid Zebra.

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