BABY BOY SHOWER INVITATIONS WORDING

The Hamar (or Hamer) is a catlle herder tribe which lives on the Eastern side of the Omo Valley in Southern Ethiopia. Honey collection is their major activity and their cattle is the meaning of their life. There are at least 27 words for the subtle variations of colours and textures of a cattle ! And each man has three names: a human, a goat and a cow name.
The Hamar have very unique rituals such as a bull-leaping ceremony, that a young men has to succeed in order to get married. The cow jumping is an initiation rite of passage for boys coming of age in Hamar tribe. Cows are lined up in a row. The initiate, naked, has to leap on the back of the first cow, then from one bull to another, until he finally reaches the end of the row. He must not fall of the row and must repeat successfully the test four times to have the right to become a husband. While the boys walk on cows, Hamar women accompany him: they jump and sing. Totally committed to their initiated sons, the mothers are whipped to blood, in order to prove their courage and accompany their sons during the test.
The Hamar are very preoccupied with their beauty. They have at times spectular haidresses.
Men use a wooden head rest which prevents the hair from touching the ground. You can see them walking with it everywhere ! It is used as head rest to protect the clay wig that some do on the top of the head, but it is also usefulas a seat ! Even if there is a chair close to them, they prefer to use the head rest !
Women know many ways to do their hair. The most famous hair style is when their hair is in short tufts rolled in ochre and fat or in long twisted strands. These coppery coloured strands are called "goscha", it's a sign of health and welfare.
They also wear bead necklaces, iron bracelets around their arms, and decorate their breast with lots of cowry shells, like a natural bra.
Around married women's necks, you can see "esente": torques made of iron wrapped in leather. These are engagement presents; they are worn for life and indicate their husband's wealth. One of the necklaces catch more especially the attention: it is called the "bignere". It's also an iron and leather ring, which has a phallic-shape end. But this jewelry can only be worn by a man's first wife.
I remember a woman I have met. On her neck, there were three necklaces. According to what I just explained about the bignere, the biggest one at the top means she was "First Wife". This is important, as her statut is the higher one in Hamer society. But as she has two more simple necklaces around her neck: that means her husband took two more wives... The Hamar women who are not first wife have a really hard life and they are more slaves than wives... During my trip, I could see some of these women, working like slaves for the men: their skin were covered with clay, butter and animal fat... So they were a little scary ! Another thing to know about these women: the more scars one has on her back, the higher is her status.
The young unmarried girls, for their part, wear a kind of oval shape plate, in metal. It is used like a sunshield, but it tends to be rare in the tribe. Some of them have fund their future husband, but have to wait in their house until the so-called prentender can provide all the money for the ceremony: he has to pay for all the cows the bride-to-be's family asks for. These girls are called "Uta" and have to wait three months, entirely covered with red clay... And no right to take baths or showers ! They cannot go out of the house, let alone the village.That's why it is very rare to see or take a photo of a Uta. A cruel tradition still has currency for some Hamar: unmarried women can have babies to test their fertility, but some of them are just abandonned in the bush. This tradition tends to disapear but NGO still save abandonned new borns. Abandonments are all the more frequent than some Hamar believe that a child born out of formal marriages has "mingi", as to say something abnormal and unclean. For them, it is the expression of the devil, which may cause disasters such as epidemics or drought in the village. So, illegitimate children are abandoned. This kind of beliefs can also be observed in other Ethiopan tribes: many parents prefer to sacrifice their own child rather than risk being affected by the evil eye.
Something left me a really strong impression in Africa: football is of the highest importance, even in the most remote places !
I remember a boy, who was living several days-walk from the Turmi market. But as most of the young Hamar, he came there to watch football on television ! This guy was wearing a Chelsea tee-shirt, but still had to jump over ten bulls to be able to marry a girl in his tribe: a real culture shock! They are all really into Chelsea, Arsenal... such as many Ethiopians, who are just crazy about English football, because the national TV brodcasts every single match ! So, while

"People pass by in the street," said Lemuel, "and they don't see the need--they just see a number." This was my introduction to Lemuel Davis. "Working people pass by and they ask ME for change, for the meter or a paper or whatever, and I see the need, so I give it to them."

Lemuel was born in 1950 in a small town about 60 miles from Raleigh, NC. His parents, he said in a yet noticeable Southern accent, were both alcoholics, and his mother gave him and his four siblings over to his grandmother to raise. "I was the baby boy," he said. "We lived all of us in a one room cabin, and my grandmother received $250 a month from Social Security. But you know, we were never raggedy, we were never hungry, and we were never broke."

In 1972, after a stint in the army, Lemuel came north to Philadelphia and began work as a line cook. He worked at Bookbinder's on 15th Street, and at Pocono Manor upstate. He was, he said, the first African American honored with membership in an association of Italian chefs.

In the 1980s, he owned a 5-floor building on Poplar at 15th in Philadelphia, along with 2 cars. But addiction to crack robbed him of his possessions. He's now been clean 7 years.

Lemuel recently lost his government benefits due to an arrest, but because the charges were withdrawn, he hopes to have his checks flowing to him again soon. He's been on the street for 4 months and tries to panhandle enough each day to get a room at a North Philly rooming house for the night. On days he can't, he sleeps beside City Hall.

Davis showed me a ticket he'd received from a Philadelphia Police Officer, for panhandling and failing to move on. I'm not sure what the city hopes to achieve by ticketing the homeless.

We also discussed the recent problem of "flash mobs" of young people robbing and beating people in the street. Lemuel said, "I was standing right here when a flash mob walked up. I said, 'all ya'll gotta gimme some money.' The laughed but then they started reaching in their pockets. Some gave me 50˘, some a dollar. It's all about fear. You can't show 'em no fear. I'm from where they're from: the street. So they say, I know you, old G. And they don't mess with me."