In the secluded Omo Valley in the southwestern part of Ethiopia lives an indigenous tribe known as the Mursi. They are among the last tribes that still wear traditional clothing and accessories, such as the colourfully painted clay plates worn on the lower lip by women. The lip plate is known as dhebi a tugoin and has become the chief visible distinguishing characteristic of the Mursi.
At fifteen or sixteen, a girl's lower lip is cut by her mother or another woman in the village and held open by a sodden plug until it heals. It usually starts with a one-centimetre diameter, and the painful process often takes several months.
It is up to the individual girl to decide how far to stretch the lip by progressively inserting larger plugs for several months. Some girls persevere until their lips can take plates of 12 centimetres or more in diameter.
The Mursi are an egalitarian community, and the young girls' are not forced to pierce their lips but are free to choose to do it or not. However, like all teenagers, they feel some degree of peer pressure, but many girls marry happily without doing it. Sometimes, some change their minds and decide to go ahead with the process after marriage and having one or two children.
Single and newly married women generally wear the lip plates on four main occasions; when they participate in ritual events, when they attend duels, dance, and when serving food to their men. If a woman with a lip incision fails to wear the plate on these occasions, she is sometimes defined as lazy (karkarre) and can be whipped by relatives.
The widow throws away her lip plate when the husband dies to signify mourning. If the woman is still young and subsequently remarries one of her deceased husband's brothers, she will return to wearing the lip plate.
The origin of this custom and its meaning is not clear. However, there are several theories about it. Some believe it was a way of keeping the women from slave traders by making them look unattractive and, therefore, would not be captured for deportation.
Others believe the lip plate is worn to protect the wearer from evil spirits. Lastly, others believe the size of the plate is directly proportional to the bride price, though this theory has no evidence in reality since the bride price is established when a girl is very young and does not yet wear the lip plate.
The dhebi a tugoin is a symbol of femininity and is linked to the concept of fertility. It is also a symbol of identity and pride in the culture. A Mursi woman wearing the lip plate can walk with her head high.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
LaTosky, Shauna (2006). Strecker, Ivo; Lydall, Jean (eds.). "Reflections on the lip-plates of Mursi women as a source of stigma and self-esteem" (PDF).
Perils of Face: Essays on Cultural Contact, Respect and Self-esteem in Southern Ethiopia. Berlin: Lit Verlag: 382‒397.
Beckwith, Carol; Carter, Angela (1990). African Ark: People and Ancient Cultures of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. Collins Harvill. p. 251.
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