Learning from South Omo

14 Oct-13 Dec 2025

Tourists flock to this remote region to visit the indigenous inhabitants, but these encounters often confirm stereotypes of exotic and unchanging tribes. Meanwhile, climate change further upsets the delicate ecology of the flood plains of the Lower Omo Ri

Overview

South Omo Zone, a lowland area of Ethiopia close to the borders with Kenya and South Sudan, has undergone rapid and unprecedented change in recent decades. Customary livelihoods – based on combinations of animal herding, small-scale agriculture and shifting cultivation – have been undermined by land-grabbing for sugar plantations, national parks and hydro-electric projects.