THE KARO TRIBE ETHIOPIA’S INDIGENOUS SOCIETY WHO EXCELS IN BODY PAINTING

the Lower Omo Valley in southern Ethiopia is home to over a dozen different tribes, who have lived there for centuries. Forming part of the estimated 200 000 indigenous people inhabiting the area are the Karo, who have a population of about 1000 to 2000, making them the smallest ethnic tribe in Ethiopia, probably on the continent as a whole. A deadly scourge of sleeping sickness is reported to have reduced their population at the end of the nineteenth century.