The Banna/Benna Tribe

The Banna tribe are one of the major indigenous tribe in Omo Valley, numbering 52,000, and occupied the southeastern highlands of the area. These Omotic- Speaking people are considered to be the peaceful and friendly people of the area. Their neighbors are Hamer people and it is believed that Bana people actually originated from the Hamer centuries ago.

In terms of appearance, the men often have their hair dressed up with a colorful clay cap that is decorated with feathers. Both the men and women wear long garments and paint their bodies with white chalk. Women of the tribe wear beads in their hair that is held together with butter. They are mainly being pastoral tribe whose culture revolves around cattle and their harsh environment forcing them to be semi-nomadic, during the dry season, the men walk long distances with their herds looking for water and grass, and raising cattle, goat as well as sheep provide milk, meat, blood (specially on the dried season), hides for clothing, sleeping mats. Like any other tribe in Omo Valley, the wealth of the Banna men are measured by the number of cattle’s they own, and use their cattle for bride price as well.

  However, recently they being started practicing agriculture using the annual rain and grow varies crops. They also practice Bee Keeping widely more than the can consume themselves, so they sell it in the market in order to buy things that they cannot produce by their own mainly, Coffee (Bunno locally) salt(Soko), jewelries (Shekinni) and so on.