Ethiopia. Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region. Omo Valley. Turmi. Hamar tribe (also spelled Hamer). Pastoralist group. portrait. Body painting on men' faces. Ritual for a young man before the traditional cattle jumping ceremony. A Hamar man comes of age by leaping over a line of cattle. The bull jumping ceremony is one of the most important in man's life and once completed allows him to marry, own cattle and have children. The ceremony is about hierarchy and tribe's membership. The Omo Valley, situated in Africa’s Great Rift Valley, is home to an estimated 200,000 indigenous peoples who have lived there for millennia. Amongst them are 60'000 to 70'000 Hamar, an Omotic community inhabiting southwestern Ethiopia. They live in Hamer woreda (or district), a fertile part of the Omo River valley, in the Debub Omo Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region (often abbreviated as SNNPR) which is one of the nine ethnic divisions of Ethiopia. 9.11.15 © 2015 Didier Ruef