Surma
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the personification of death, see Surma (Finnish mythology). For the American businessman, see John Surma.
- Also another name for the eyelash dye/ eye cosmetic kohl.
The Surma is the government name for a tribal groups who call themselves Suri, in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region (SNNPR) of Ethiopia. They are largely pastoralists, and their culture places a high value on cattle.
The women wear lip plates (some up to five inches in diameter]. Women begin stretching their lips prior to marriage. The men fight with sticks known as donga sticks, which are being replaced with Kalashnikov rifles for inter-tribal conflict, particularly with the Bumi tribe from Uganda.
The tribe's children are sometimes painted with white clay paint, which may be dotted on the face or body in recognition of the stars in the sky. A Russian explorer, Col. Aleksandr K. Bulatovich visited in or around 1898. The tribe was inoculated against polio by a further white expedition to the region, in or around 1970. Perhaps in memory of these white peoples, children paint their faces white, though this is by no means certain.
A further Russian expedition of filmmakers recently visited the Surma and made a television programme about them.
There are about 28,000 Surma.
The Surma/Suri are in danger of displacement and/or denial of access to grazing and agricultural land, by African Parks Foundation, also known as African Parks Conservation, of the Netherlands.
The Surma/Suri were coerced into signing documents they could not read by government park officials. The documents said the Surma agreed to give up their land without compensation. The documents are being used to legalize the boundaries of the Omo National Park, which African Parks has taken over. This process, when finished, will make the Mursi 'illegal squatters' on their own land. A similiar fate is befalling the Mursi, Dizi, Me'en, and Nyangatom, who also live within the park.
463 houses were burned down in Nech Sar National Park, Ethiopia on November 25, 2005, and people were evicted, after African Parks Foundation signed an agreement with the government to take it over.
