The Dorze Tribe

The Dorze are very industrious and are well educated, comparatively speaking. The literacy rate is estimated to be 45%. They are “cousins” of the Gamo tribe, but consider themselves superior to the Gamo. The Dorze Christians are largely Orthodox, while the Gamo Christians are largely Protestant.

The Omotic Dorze people are famous for their beehive shaped huts which are constructed with vertical hardwood poles and woven bamboo. According to the inhabitants this towering, re-locatable, structure can go as high as 12 meters and last from 60-80 years. Traditionally the bamboos that are used as frames for the huts are cut during moonlight. For insulating the roof of the hut a thatch of false banana (Enset), grass and cover of the bamboo stem are used. Through time when termites destroy the basement of the huts, after having avoided the rotten part of the basement, the whole structure can be lifted and relocated in a different place of the same compound. This practice explains why the hut is first built so high. The older the house the shorter the height. Hamar live in the rugged terrain of the South Ethiopian Rift Valley. The mountains rise to the North until they vanish almost completely in the clouds that cover the cool highlands of Gofa and Gamo, and to the South they slope down to seemingly endless plains that vanish from view in the haze that hovers over the hot Omo valley.