The Suri tribe, also known as Surma, is an indigenous community residing in Southwest Ethiopia and parts of South Sudan. They are renowned for their distinctive lip plate custom, especially among the Suri and Mursi subgroups. The Suri, Mursi, and Me’en are the three ethnic groups that currently make up the Surma, numbering around 187,900 people.
Map of the Southwest Ethiopia
Origins and Location
Native to what is now Southwest Ethiopia and a small portion of South Sudan, the Surma people share a common culture. They are located in the southwest region of Ethiopia.
The Iconic Lip Plates
The Mursi, who reside near the Omo Valley, are the most well-known of these three ethnic groups, who all share a common culture. The fact that their women wear huge clay plates on their lower lips is said to be the reason for their popularity. After cutting the lower lips, the young Surma girls inserted a wooden plug. Until the lips can eventually stretch sufficiently to admit a wooden plate, each plug is periodically replaced for a wider size. Curiously, in order for the plate to fit properly, two or three of their lower teeth must be extracted.
The Surma women use these lip-plates for prestige as well as attractiveness, which may be in contrast to modern women who apply lipstick to beautify themselves and enhance their appearance. Their attractiveness increases with plate width. To attract more attention from the other sex, the younger females literally dress in colourful plates. It is said that women with broader lip plates make better spouses, thus greater money is paid for their hand in marriage. Although several local hypotheses have been proposed, the main explanation for why and when this lip-cutting custom began cannot, regrettably, be traced back to that time. To put it simply, the girls choose to wear them rather than being coerced into it. It's undoubtedly painful.
Read also: Ethiopian Traditions
'We get a stick and make a hole', explains Nabala, the wife of Bruce's host. 'Then we gradually make the hole bigger.... My lip was cut a long time ago. My brothers and father made me get it done. Without a lip plate I wouldn't get married, and they'd get no cattle. My lip is big, Dongaley's is smaller. My lip plate is worth 60 cattle. As well as lip plates, the girls of the village mark their bodies permanently by scarification. The skin is lifted with a thorn then sliced with a razor blade, leaving a flap of skin which will eventually scar. The men, meanwhile, scar their bodies to show they've killed someone from an enemy tribe. There are particular meanings assigned to these scars.
Exploring Ethiopia
Lip Plate Tradition Details:
- Initiation: Starts at puberty with a small wooden stick inserted below the lower lip.
- Process: Wooden sticks are replaced with larger plugs and then clay disks to stretch the lip.
- Modifications: Two to four lower teeth are removed to accommodate the lip plate.
- Materials: Lip plates are made of wood or clay.
- Significance: Symbol of beauty, pride, and marital value.
Suri Culture and Daily Life
Social Structure
Suri villages range between 40 and 2,500 people. Suri life is egalitarian. The Suri 'chiefs' (called komoru) have a ritual function and are merely the most respected elders and have no executive powers. Village decisions are made by an assembly of the men, though women make their views known in advance of the debates. Village discussions are led by elders and the komoru - a ritual chief. The korumus all come from the same clan and are chosen by consensus. Each household is run by a woman. The women have their own fields and dispose of the proceeds as they wish. Money they make from selling beer and grain can be used to buy goats, which they then trade for cattle.
The men of the village are divided by 'age-set': children, young men (tegay), junior elders (rora) and senior elders (bara). Each set has its role. Children start helping with the cattle when they're about eight years old. The tegay age-set are unmarried and not yet known as warriors. They do the herding and earn the right to become young elders by their stick fighting and care of the cattle. Initiation ceremonies for those moving into the next age-set only happen every 20 or 30 years.
By the age of eight, the younger boys (Tegay), who are not yet warriors, begin to become Rora (junior warriors). The young males must undergo a protracted initiation process that could take twenty to thirty years. This could entail starvation for a few days or being lashed until bleeding. A group of men gathers to make decisions for the community in the event of any situation, and the Komoru, the tribes’ ceremonial leader, chairs the meeting.
Marriages are possible across keno (clan) lines only. This stricture is carefully observed, although sexual liaisons between members of nominally the same clan (some of them have fissioned in two named halves) do occur. Marriages are usually arranged after the rainy-season dueling contests have ended. At that time, a girl, having watched the contests and selected her favorite duelist, tries to approach the chosen one by indirect messages sent through friends and relatives. In traffic between the two families, the possibility for a marriage alliance is tested.
Read also: Bodi Traditions
Cattle and Economy
Cattle are enormously important to the Suri. They bring status; when two Suri meet they'll ask each other how many cows they have. Cows are a store of wealth to be traded, and a source of milk and blood. Bleeding a cow is more efficient than slaughtering it for meat, and blood can be drawn during the dry season when there's less milk. The animals aren't generally sold or killed for meat, though they are slaughtered for certain ceremonies. They are treated with reverence. Fires are lit to keep them warm and to protect against insect bites, they are covered with ash. Every boy is given a young bull to look after, and his friends call him the name of his bull. The average man owns between 30 and 40 cows. In order to marry, he needs about 60 cows to give to his wife's family. As well as cattle, the Suri trade.
Many weeks or months are typically spent away from the hamlet caring for the herd of cattle by the young male warriors. They just consumed milk and anima blood during that time. The procedure involves making a tiny incision on the cow’s neck, puncturing a vein, and then extracting the blood. They also paint their nude bodies with white clay. This is done to appear fierce and command respect.
The Suri are predominantly sedentary, agrarian community with the economy built on agriculture. The rich fertile soil results in a remarkable size and quantity of crops. They keep goats and sheep. They also hunt large game and collect honey during the dry season. They pan gold in the streams and make pots.
Suri man decorating his body with manure as part of a blood drinking ritual
Religious Beliefs
The Suri people revere the sky deity Tuma. They make offerings and prayers to their god through the medicine men, and they believe in ancestor spirits. The rain-maker is another intriguing yet significant Surmi role. Hereditary means are used to pass on the position that only men can hold.
Read also: Enigmatic Blue Eyes
Suri warrior, Ethiopia
Stick Fighting (Saginé)
In an unstable region, these self-sufficient people have a powerful assurance in their own culture. They are expert in a spectacular form of stick-fighting and pride themselves on the scars that they carry. Suri are a self-conscious and culturally proud people, with, among others, a liking for stick fighting called saginé. This is more properly called 'ceremonial duelling', and serves as a rite of passage for male youngsters and brings great prestige to men - it is especially important when seeking a bride - and they are very competitive, at the risk of serious injury and occasional death.
Stick fighting is part martial art, part ritual, part sport. It's seriously dangerous. 'If you get hit in the stomach it can kill you,' says Bargalu, Bruce's host. That's not to mention the danger if someone in the crowd decides to use their gun. The fights take place between Suri villages, and everyone turns out to watch. The busiest time is just after the rains, when food is plentiful and there's enough time and energy for fighting. There are something like 20 or 30 fighters on each side, who take turns to fight one-to-one. Most bouts - or donga - end in a draw after only a few blows have been exchanged. There are referees to enforce the rules - for instance, that you must never hit anyone on the ground.
Traditionally the stick fights were a place where young men could prove themselves to the girls and find a wife. But they're more than just a meeting place. Dongas get young men used to the bloodshed they'll face from the Nyangatom and other tribes, and provide the schooling a young man needs to fight for his tribe's survival. These days, guns are eroding the traditional controls. In the volatile atmostphere of the stickfight, shooting can easily break out. As one Suri woman puts it: 'When our fathers were stick fighting no one went around shooting like this... Now all these young men they just pick up their guns.
An entourage of men and boys arrive for the stick fighting Donga (or Sagine)
Conflict and Challenges
The dozen or so tribal groups in this part of southern Ethiopia are locked in mutual hostility. Fuelled by a steady supply of semi automatic weapons, the violence only gets worse. Cattle raiding is a part of Suri life. Their herds are under constant threat, and they in turn regularly run raids on their enemies. Gazing land is under intense competition, particularly since the Sudan war pushed neighbouring tribes on to Suri lands. The Suri's traditional enemies are the Nyangatom who, ten years ago, drove them from some of their traditional lands in a bloody conflict that has led to many deaths. Though hundreds of people have died in the conflicts in the region, the state authorities rarely provide any kind of formal justice.
For the last 20 years the traditional lives of the Suri have been in disarray. In the past, the role of the chief was to uphold values of restraint and non-violence, and to provide reconciliation between clashing groups and clans. Disputes were resolved by strict rules, debates and rituals - for instance, sacrificing cows, verbal pledges or firing of guns at rocks to signify that bullets must hit the earth and not people. The Suri exist at the margins of the Ethiopian state. The government in Addis Ababa regard them as trouble makers. They feel neglected and discriminated against. They say that the government has unfairly targeted them for disarmament, despite the fact that their neighbours continue to attack them. The state has also tried to ban ‘harmful customs’, such as cattle-raiding and lip plates.
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