Mursi Tribe
Hello: Achali

Over the years the Mursi have become one of the most visited and photographed of the Lower Omo Valley tribes. This is in large part due to their similarity to the Suri in that they also practice wearing lip plates and have intricate headdresses and costumes, but it’s their proximity to the town of Jinka and it's airport, that means they’re closer to the main tourist routes.

The Mursi were, perhaps unsurprisingly, the most commercial of all the tribes we visited - pushing hard to sell their wares, such as decorative lip plates - and less interested in being photographed. We didn’t spend much time with them, but one unique experience was finding a few Mursi boys out in the corn fields with a small fire burning. With remarkable accuracy and speed, they fired rocks from a slingshot at some birds in trees a decent distance away - keeping them from eating the crops.