DONGA STICK FIGHT OF MURSI AND SURMA SURI TRIBE

A sport and ritual the Suri take extremely seriously is stick fighting. It’s said to be one of the fiercest competitions on the entire African continent. Here among Ethiopia’s Surma tribe, the Donga, Stick Fight takes place in the name of love in most cases, stick fighting is done so young men can prove their masculinity and to find wives. It is a way for young men to prove themselves to the young women. This ritual is called Donga or Zagne. Donga is both the name of the sport and the stick they use for the fight. Stick fight is central in Suri culture. In most cases, stick fight is a way for warriors to find girlfriends, it can also be a way to settle conflicts. On this occasion man show their courage, their virility and their resistance to pain, to the young women.

The fights are held between Suri villages, and begin with 20 to 30 people on each side, and can end up with hundreds of warriors involved. Suri are famous for stick fighting, but they are not the only ones to respect such a custom, as the neighbor tribe, the Mursi were also practicing these traditional fights. But Now a day because of unknown reason the Mursi stop the tradition of stick fight.

The day before the Zagnei, fighters have to pure themselves. They do it by drinking a special preparation, called Dokai, which is made of the bark of a special tree, which is mixed with water. After taking it, warriors make themselves vomiting the drink. The water is supposed to bring with it many of the body’s impurities. After this ritual they don’t eat until the following morning. Warriors walk kilometres to come fighting at Zagnei, which takes place in a clearing. They stop when crossing a river in order to wash themselves, before decorating their bodies for the fight.

Some years ago the Ethiopian Federal government tried to ban most of the ‘harmful customs’ all over the country in different tribal people, such as cattle-raiding, lip plates and stick-fighting in Surma, but effort ended without any result.
They decorate themselves by sliding the fingers full of clay on the warrior’s bodies. This dressing up and decoration is meant to show their beauty and virility and thus catch the women’s attention. The phallic shape ending the sticks contributes to that virile demonstration.

Fighters arrive on the Donga field all together, carrying the strongest man, dancing and singing. Some fighters wear colourful headdresses sometimes with feathers on it, and also knee-protectors. But most of them use no protection at all and fight completely naked in order to show their bravery. They also wear strings of decorative coloured beads around their necks given by the girls and waist, but their genitals are most of the time uncovered and they are barefoot.