Travel Guide Jinka

Altitude: 1,490 m. Population: 30,000. Distance from Addis Ababa: 810 km. Jinka is the economic capital of a province christened Bako in the 1900s, when the eponymous town 10 km from Jinka was the main one, with some 2,000 huts, but its relocation was decided in the 1960s when an airfield was created here, also where higher rainfall than in the rest of the region favors the town's expansion. Situated on a rocky escarpment on the banks of the River Neri, it's a cooler, greener little town than the scorching plains nearby, thanks to its slightly elevated position. An economic capital frequented by tribes and herds of all kinds who come to sell and buy goods for everyday rural life, it boasts service stations, banks with ATMs, hotels and restaurants, and since 2017, 4 x 4 rentals and a new airport.Jinka is the gateway to Mago Park, home to the famous Mursi. To be more precise, the national park office is two hours from a runway that plunges down to the vast savannah plains of Neri. In addition to the Tuesday and especially Saturday markets, where the Ari and sometimes the Mursi go, the town's other main attraction is its Centre de Recherche Anthropologique du Sud-Omo and its modest museum.The Ari people. Settled in the highlands overlooking the park to the north of Jinka, the Ari people, some 100,000 strong, represent the largest ethnic group in the Omo valley. Benefiting from abundant rainfall, the Ari cultivate a wide range of cereals, including maize, sorghum, tef and millet, as well as coffee, khat, fruit and vegetables. Livestock used in trade and honey collection round out their sources of income. Considered to be hard-working and tradesmen, they are less inclined to the decorative attributes so prized by other ethnic groups, regarding them as futile.The Bana people. The Bana, who live a little further south around Key Afer and up to the banks of the Weyto River, also farm, albeit in a less favorable environment, and supplement their food requirements by hunting. The Bana are estimated to number between 30,000 and 40,000.