At the Bull Jumping Ceremony
Omo Valley in Ethiopia 2013
A Hamar man ‘lays into’ a Hamar woman as part of the rites of passage into adulthood for a fellow tribesman. His expression is as concentrated as a surgeon’s as he strikes his blow. The men around him didn’t wince, but I think they wanted to. The pain he inflicts is brutal.
I missed the photo of the whip slashing down. He was too fast and the whip is slender. I was looking at the women who came meekly to be flogged and left stoic but weak-kneed and in a pain-wracked stupor.
Marks of Honor
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