Find Out Why These Four African Tribes Force Women To Do This To Their Mouths

African tribes are known for their strange rituals and shocking traditional practices but four specific tribes seem to have a totally strange requirement for their women.  The Surma and Mursi people of Ethiopia as well as the Sara and Lobi people of Chad have a strange practice of forcing women to have Lip plates.

The lip plate is a form of body modification made from clay or wood) and inserted into a pierced hole in either the upper or lower lip, or both, thereby stretching it. Among the Surma and Mursi people of the lower Omo River valley in Ethiopia, about 6 to 12 months before marriage, a young woman has her lip pierced by her mother or one of her kinswomen, usually at around the age of 15 to 18.

The initial piercing is done as an incision of the lower lip of 1 to 2 cm length, and a simple wooden peg is inserted. After the wound has healed, which usually takes between two and three weeks, the peg is replaced with a slightly bigger one. At a diameter of about 4 cm, the first lip plate made of clay is inserted. Every woman crafts her own plate and takes pride in including some ornamentation. The final diameter ranges from about 8 cm to over 20 cm.

Research by National Geographic shows that, for Mursi and Surma women, the size of their lip plate indicates the number of cattle paid as the bride price. But, anthropologist Turton, who has studied the Mursi for 30 years, denies this.

It has thus been noted that reasons for wearing the plate vary with tribes. Sources in Chad claim that the plate’s size is a sign of social or economical importance. But, because of natural mechanical attributes of human skin, the plate’s size may often depend on the stage of stretching of the lip and the wishes of the wearer.

Elders of the Surma have alo confirmed that the plates are used among women as a form of initiation and to symbolize social maturity by indicating a girl’s eligibility to be a wife. The value of the ornamentation symbolises female strength and self-esteem.

This adornment has attracted thousands tourists to view the Mursi and Surma women. n the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, African women wearing lip plates were brought to Europe and North America for exhibit in circuses and sideshows. Truly, the world has its fair share of wonders.

FIVE THINGS KENYA MUST DO TO PROMOTE TOURISM

Tourism is one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing industries and its importance for economic development is widely acknowledged.

What makes tourism different from many other services is that the supplier stays where he is, and the tourist comes to him rather than the supplier taking his services to the consumer. Tourism can thus play a key role in poverty alleviation, bringing jobs for unskilled or semi-skilled workers in hotels, and resorts, as well as encouraging job creation in supply industries.

We need to take tourism in our country to a whole new level and harness the huge potential this area holds to grow our economy. Below are a few things I would suggest to the Government, as tourism is a money spinner but we are simply letting opportunities slip from our hands.

1.Revamp and continually improve our travel infrastructure(Build great roads, railway networks and airports)

Good road infrastructure is vitally important for the dispersal of tourists beyond major gateways if we want to continue to grow tourism.

For foreign and domestic tourists alike, a bumpy ride with potholes, a punctured tire and aching back only to reach a game park is no good.

We need to strongly consider reviving the overnight passenger train service between Nairobi and Mombasa which used to be known as the Iron Snake of Africa. It is the most scenic way to travel to Kenya’s Coast through Tsavo National park, dinner, breakfast in the restaurant carriage, with a great and relaxed view of the coastal approach. This can lead to growth in domestic tourism.

We also need to upgrade our airports and services to international standards.

2.Aggressive tourism marketing strategies

The East African affairs, Commerce and Tourism ministry should pursue aggressive online and other marketing strategies to promote Kenya as a must-visit location. Whether it is broadcasting campaigns abroad, holding tourism seminars or offering Kenyan locations with facilities to promote foreign film productions in the country. Aggressive marketing is absolutely critical to be seen as well as heard.

3.Grow domestic tourism

Domestic tourism offers significant scope for economic growth. The government should adapt measures to generate greater value from domestic travel and tourism in country by promoting affordable and accessible travel and tourism opportunities to Kenyans. This can be done by unlocking growth points like school based tourism, targeting Co-operatives, Chamas, sports tourism etc. Education and awareness campaigns should also be held across the country to address the lack of a tourism culture amongst Kenyans.

4.Introduce tax measures to stimulate sector

New hotels across the country are needed to achieve the proposed 75,000 increase in bed capacity. Specific tax breaks for key international players willing to invest in tourism industry would be necessary if the new investment is to materialize. This can also include lower rates of corporation tax and preferentially lower rates of VAT.

5.Promote other forms of tourism

Obama tourism, sport tourism, fishing tourism, conference tourism, cruise ship tourism, eco-tourism etc. The objective would be to broaden the range of innovative tourism products in Kenya that are not only commercially viable and economically sustainable but equally benefiting communities and sensitive to ecological conservation.

Tourism may also represent a way to attract other types of consumers, not just holidaymakers. A growing phenomenon in recent years has been the movement of seniors or retirees from high-income to lower-income countries, not just for holidays but to escape harsh winters or to live permanently. As baby boomers, used to travelling abroad for vacation, begin to retire and as developing countries improve their services and infrastructure, these trends are likely to continue.

The international movement of retirees can have a profound impact on destination countries in a similar way to tourism, contributing to their development efforts. Retirees buy or rent real estate, consume goods and services, provide employment for local workers, and can attract foreign investment and greater numbers of foreign visitors to these countries.

Long-stay tourism programmes have proved successful in countries like Thailand and Malaysia in creating interest in the retirement industry.

Although the government has already started making significant improvements in some of the above areas, we still have a long way to go to let tourism alone generate significant revenue for the country.

We need to capitalize on Kenya as the country of the Big Five, Wildebeest Migration, Beautiful Beaches, Great Rift Valley, Maasai people, World long distance running champions, M-Pesa (M Country as we are known to outside world), Oil & Gas, Kitu Kidogo, a few thousand US Dollar millionaires and Hakuna Matata.

EDELWEISS TO LEAVE MOMBASA DUE TO LOW DEMAND

News swept the Mombasa tourism fraternity that the current Edelweiss charter operation, which serves both Kilimanjaro and Mombasa, will next winter season not return to Mombasa due to a lack of sufficient demand for seats. 

This will add more concerns among the coast based hotel and resort operators, already suffering from several flights having been withdrawn from the route causing significantly lower occupancies this year compared to previous years.

Coast hoteliers have been battling a negative trend since late last year, when in the run up to the March general elections in Kenya key tour operators proved to be overly cautious in their contracting and shifted long haul traffic from Kenya’s traditional markets to other destinations.

While the elections, as predicted by the way, went on peacefully and resulted in a new government, that government has since come under sustained criticism for increasing the tax burden on tourism products at a time when there was a downward trend in arrivals and for spending far less money on tourism marketing than the main gurus projected was needed to roll out a global recovery marketing campaign.

While KTB is trying to promote Kenya and the beach resorts, within their means that is considering their budget constraints, the coast resort operators in particular claim not enough is being done, while at the same time demanding open air access by foreign airlines to Mombasa, where presently only Ethiopian, Turkish Airlines, RwandAir and Air Uganda are flying scheduled services into Moi International Airport.

The announcement that Edelweiss will not come to Mombasa next winter is seen as another challenge the hotelier have to meet and there will no doubt be substantial lobbying when Kenya attends the forthcoming ITB Tourism Trade Fair in Berlin in March.

A CLOSE UP LOOK AT KIDEPO NATIONAL PARK IN UGANDA

When CNN last year nominated Kidepo Valley National Park as among their top ten choices of national parks across Africa, many people literally scratched their heads and asked where exactly this park was located as few had heard of it and fewer visited.

Those however who did, and stayed either at the edge of the park at the more recently established N’ga Moru Wilderness Camp or in the centre of the park at the Apoka Safari Lodge, will have their own tales to tell.

Kidepo, a prime piece of African wilderness, literally untouched by the outside world and nestled in the border triangle of Uganda, Kenya and South Sudan, offers spectacular views, much game and the solitude visitors can enjoy, meeting but a few other tourists while they are there. Most visitors reach the park by air from either Entebbe or Kajjansi, unless they are hardy enough to undertake the tiring drive via Tororo, Mbale, Moroto, Kotido and Kaabong, or drive via Soroti and Lira or take the alternate route via Gulu and Kitgum.

This year Kidepo will celebrate its Golden Jubilee anniversary, since its formation 50 years ago in 1964. The park stretches over 1.442 square kilometres, but being more than 700 kilometres distant from Kampala, is perhaps the main reason why it receives so few visitors inspite of the attractions it holds. Two rivers, among them the Narus which in the dry season is the centre of activity for the game, elevation differences from just over 900 metres to nearly 2.750 metres, a rich birdlife of 475 recorded species which includes 14 endemic species and some 86 mammal species, including the rare cheetah which is not found anywhere else in Uganda.

Those arriving by air will touch down at the CAA owned and operated airfield in the centre of the park and already en route will visitors enjoy the spectacle of coming close up to Zebra, Hartebeest, Oribi, Buffalo, Waterbuck, Side-striped Jackal and Warthog while Elephant, Giraffe and Lion are almost all the time seen in the valley below the lodge or at times even stroll through the lodge grounds, asserting their ‘ownership’ over the park.

The game drives into the park are extremely rewarding.  Most of the driver guide get you close to a large herd of elephant, numbering over 200, and the matriarchs and dominant bulls of the herd.

You can come close to the park’s giraffes, which have substantially increased in numbers since the successful relocation of several Rothschild giraffes from Kenya nearly 15 years ago. A very large herd of buffalo can be encountered and the estimate exceeded 1.200, probably even more as additional groups emerge from the thickets.

But the highlight of the visit is undoubtedly an encounter with  lionesses which are found high up in a ‘sausage tree’, putting to rest the claims of Ishasha and Lake Manyara, that those were the only parks where lions were found to climb into trees. These particular lions had their small cubs hidden in the high grass under the tree and when climbing down after being observed for about an hour or so, the cubs swiftly joined their mothers.

In conclusion, a visit to Kidepo, which I consider as the most scenic and rugged parks in Uganda and a top contender in East Africa, is worth it any time, satisfaction guaranteed. A definite MUST for the discerning traveler and those seeking the solitude of the ‘real’ African wilderness experience. 50 years down the line since the park was first launched, today as back then is Kidepo an example of the African wilderness, where the cattle herding tribes from Uganda, Kenya and the Sudan (now South Sudan) coexisted with wildlife, staged their raids on each other and lived in their age long fashion. After independence, crossing the new borders were for long no hindrance for the tribes and up to today are periodic raids for cattle staged, cross border no less, posing issues the tribes never had in the old days. Today it is also no longer permitted to drive their cattle into the park, even during times of draught when finding water becomes a matter of live and death for their cattle and goats, a question wildlife managers have yet to satisfactorily answer when weighing conservation and the protection of game and the integrity of the parks under their control with the needs of the people living in the vicinity of the park, among them elders who still remember that the entire area once was theirs to roam and use. Fodder  for thought no doubt.

NAIROBI SET TO HOST SWAHILI FASHION WEEK KENYA FROM 05TH APRIL

East Africa’s most successful fashion festival, the Swahili Fashion Week, is preparing to make a full appearance in Kenya as a mainstream event, starting from the 05th of April this year. 

Mustafa Hassanali’s erstwhile vision, which resulted in the first Swahili Fashion Week to be launched in 2008 in Dar es Salaam, has now established itself as the region’s foremost fashion and accessories event giving local designers a platform to showcase their creations and make a name for themselves in the international arena.

While the venue and programme are still to be announced, the SFW organizers have set a deadline for applications by Kenyan designers to send in their particulars by the 28th of February.

Expect to hear more about this event in coming weeks as the programme takes shape and the lineup of designers and models is made public.

THE WORLD’S SEVEN MOST EXTRAVAGANT HOLIDAYS

So if you happen to have a spare few million burning a hole in your pocket, why not check in to the ultimate ski chalet or rent your own private Caribbean island?

Of course you can rest assured that every whim you can think of, and many you can’t, will be well and truly catered for.

The gin palace  – £441,000

There are gin palaces and then there’s a 242ft yacht called RV Pegaso, which comes with a submarine that can accommodate five people.

You can explore the bottom of the ocean around the Caribbean while someone tops up your glass of Dom Perignon.

 

Closer to the surface, a flunkie will film you swimming with manta rays and introducing yourself to friendly sharks.

Back on board there’s a recompression chamber and toys galore (a 32ft waterslide, trampoline, outdoor gym, Jacuzzi) and, of course, a heliport at the stern.

You might want to ask for a Flyboard — a 30ft power hose, pictured right, that lets you fly through the air.With practice, you can do aerobatic spins and twists.

The yacht sleeps 12 and there’s a lift up to the oak and walnut-panelled penthouse suite.RV stands for ‘research vessel’ but you don’t need to be a marine scientist to appreciate this sort of life on the ocean wave — just very rich.

Charter Pegaso from Approx. £441,000

The ultimate safari – £52,000

Africa’s impressive wildlife is all very well but those early morning starts on safari need to be offset by a little spoiling.

At Singita Serengeti House — which opened in January on Sasakwa Hill in north Tanzania — you may feel so special you expect the animals to seek you out rather than you having to look for them.

Rented on an exclusive-use-only basis, it sleeps eight in four suites and is right on the migratory route of the wildebeest. Singita means ‘place of miracles’ and when you’ve got 350,000 acres to yourself but can still watch a family of elephants bathing from your bedroom window, you might agree.

And as you swim in the infinity pool and a rhino comes to call, you may imagine miracles are two-a-penny.

Seven nights cost approximately £52,000 all-inclusive, spa treatments extra.

Private paradise island – £300,000

The Cohens, a French family of estimable means, bought 50-acre Calivigny Island, off the south coast of Grenada in 2000 and spent more than £100 million developing it. Only in the past couple of years has the private island been available for rent.

It can accommodate 50 people, but if you want just the main house, it sleeps 20 and costs around £300,000 a week, so double that for the whole confection.

You’ll find marble bathrooms, Persian rugs, Egyptian cotton, and furniture by the classy Dominican designer Oscar de la Renta.

There are Italian, French and Granadian menus each night, six sandy beaches — one for each day of your stay — and a plethora of water sports. For New Year, a band will come over from the mainland and the fireworks should be good, too.

A week’s stay on Calivigny will set you back to approx around £300,000,

The bullet-proof chalet – £230,000

Chalet N is the world’s most expensive rental chalet at £231,088 per week. It overlooks the slopes of Oberlech just down the valley from Lech in the Austrian Alps.

This is its second season (singers Tina Turner and Rihanna were debut visitors last year) and although not even the white-hot price can guarantee snow, everything else is taken care of.

The cutlery is titanium and pillows are embroidered with your initials. A spa bigger than a tennis court takes up the basement; the pool has underwater music and the water changes colour according to your mood; there’s a private wine cellar where tastings take place as and when you wish and your skis are made by Porsche. The windows are, of course, bullet-proof.

It sleeps up to 24 in 11 bedrooms — that’s two fewer guests than staff.

The world’s poshest B&B – £2.2million

Called the King of the Castle holiday, this tour of Maharaja palaces in India’s Rajasthan includes three nights in three different hotels.

You can either have them all to yourself or invite 120 or so friends. Whatever you choose, the price is the same: £2,160,000.

Breakfast is included but everything else, including private jet travel between locations, is extra.

You start at the Lake Palace in Udaipur (built in 1743 by a philandering prince in defiance of his father and where the James Bond film Octopussy was shot) then move to Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur, where Liz Hurley married the Indian textile heir Arun Nayar in 2007.

Last stop is Rambagh Palace, once home to the Maharaja of Jaipur and set in nearly 50 acres of gardens.

The model Kate Moss and her chums checked in two years ago for the birthday bash of Naomi Campbell’s then boyfriend Vladimir Doronin — but don’t let that put you off.

The jet just for you – £590,000

Why queue at the airport when you can fly to Australia by private jet and invite 30 friends along?

This 20-day trip begins at the nearest airstrip to your house and ends in Sydney, with stops wherever you like.

How about the temples of Abu Simbel in Egypt, the Taj Mahal, India, and Luang Prebang (the World Heritage Site best known for Buddhist temples and monasteries) in Laos?

The 20-day Ancient Worlds Explorer costs Approx. £589,878 (excluding your return flights from Australia), 

The eco-millionaire’s retreat – £1.1million

Laucala Island in Fiji will do nicely if you want privacy — although there’s room for 60 of your nearest and dearest if you use all 25 villas.

This six-square-mile South Pacific island is owned by Red Bull drinks magnate Dietrich Mateschitz (it formerly belonged to big bucks American Malcolm Forbes) and is hot on self-sustainability.

Accessed only by private plane (no, not exactly the greenest of options!), Laucala rears its own livestock, grows tons of fruit and veg, makes its own honey and even bottles its own mineral water. It makes Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island look unsophisticated.

Villas have thatched roofs made from sago palms and coconut husk (all come with their own pools of course).

If you find your guests tiresome, there are five restaurants and enough space to get in touch with your inner ‘I want to be alone’ Greta Garbo. Take the whole island for a week and you’re looking at spending more than £1 million — but it is all-inclusive.

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