Travel Guide Parc National Du Mago

Founded in 1975, the park is home to one of Africa's most fascinating ethnic groups, the Mursi, whose reputation is enhanced by the women with their plate labret. The park covers an area of 2,200 km2, overlooked to the north by the Mago mountains, the region's highest peak, to the west by the Mursi hills and to the east by the Jinka escarpment. These peaks drain the waters of the Mago and Neri rivers, tributaries of the Omo, which flows further south into Lake Turkana and forms the park's southern border. In the center, a vast plain covered by semi-arid savannah is subject to a hot, dry climate where temperatures can approach 40°C. Animal and human sediments and fossils, particularly abundant in the region, provide clues to the formation of the Rift Valley and the evolution of life in East Africa.Created to preserve buffalo, giraffe and elephant populations, the area is home to some 74 species of mammal and 153 species of bird. The tsetse fly is undoubtedly the most fearsome animal you're sure to encounter! Avoid wearing blue and black accordingly. Despite this diversity, the number of large animals subject to poaching has declined significantly. Along rivers populated by hippos and crocodiles, the canopy of tall sycamore fig trees is the territory of colobus monkeys and baboons, which prowl close to campsites. Nearly 314 km of trails criss-cross the park, allowing you to track wildlife and meet the local people living in these remote areas. These routes are only practicable in the dry season, between December and March, and from August to September, but even in these periods, a simple rainstorm can complicate the expedition and put the 4 x 4 to a severe test.Mursi territory. Having become the main attraction of the southern ethnic groups thanks to the media coverage they receive, this people of around 7,000 souls are spread over a territory between the Mursi hills and the Omo River, and as far north as the Tama plains, which are classified as a "nature reserve". Traditionally nomads, the Mursi, often faced with famine, cultivate a few acres of land on the silty banks of the Omo and supplement their diet with the fruits of hunting (often considered poaching here). The search for fertile land and the proliferation of tsetse flies, a real threat to their livestock, are the reasons for their regular migrations. The short-haired women wear large ear discs and even more impressive terracotta labrets inserted in their lower lip. The lip is pierced with a fire-reddened point, and the lower incisors are removed. Coated with butter to hasten healing and ensure the elasticity of the flesh, the lip received increasingly large labrets, with the largest reaching 18 cm in diameter! There are many theories about this practice, which is now unique in the world (only a few other African and Amazonian ethnic groups had a comparable ritual). Intended to discourage slavers or to spare women during raids, according to some, or to ward off evil spirits seeping through the mouth, according to others, it seems that for the Mursi, labrets have above all an aesthetic value. Reserved for high-caste women, the volume of the labrets determines the value of the dowry demanded of the young girl thus attired. For their part, the men - among them Africa's last naked warriors - sport scarification marks, proof of their courage and valour in battle, and body paint with purely aesthetic motifs. Known for their warrior instinct, the Mursi are in latent conflict with their closest neighbors, and only the Surma, whose common origins are recounted in legend, are considered cousins. According to this mythology, Tumu, the supreme being, one day carved two wooden figurines and breathed life into them. After a peaceful existence, the two brothers, who had settled on the banks of the Omo, decided to separate following a dispute over the ownership of their livestock. One, who remained on the western bank of the Omo, begat the Surma lineage; the other, who crossed the river, is the ancestor of the Mursi. These two peoples of Nilotic origin still share many cultural traits. Inaddition to wearing the labret, the form of which varies from Surma to Mursi, both Surma and Mursi practice the saginé ritual, a stick duel of rare violence.Bodi territory. Unlike the Tishana, another branch of the original Me'en people settled on the other bank of the Omo to the north of Dizi territory, the Bodi have preserved their ancestral customs, in which clan identity still plays a key role. Cattle are still the mainstay of social life, and "body culture", marked by decorative paintings and scarification for both men and women, is still very much alive. Doubtless influenced by the Surma, women still wear a small wooden disk inserted under the lower lip. Numbering around 5,000, the Bodi live in isolation along the upper reaches of the Omo to the north of the Mursi, raising livestock and practicing shifting agriculture. Every June sees the eagerly awaited Ka'el, a ceremony and competition for the fattest man in each Bodi village. The only one of its kind, it compares the rounded bellies of young unmarried men who have spent six months in isolation, drinking only liters of milk and blood every day, as quickly as possible to become the fattest and therefore the most handsome. It's quite a challenge, as you have to drink 2 liters before the mixture coagulates and some of them vomit... You can imagine it's not easy. On the day of the ceremony, they parade naked, covered in clay and ashes.