Whip Me Because I Love Him
Jumping of the Bull Ceremony, Hammer Tribe, Ethiopia, by Charlie Grosso
We are walking down the road towards the dry riverbed when a thunderous roar of bells overtakes us. Hammer women with large bells tied to their mid-calves are running past us, blowing on their little horns, jumping up and down, ready for the Hammer’s coming of age ceremony, Jumping of the Bull.
A boy becomes a man in a public ceremony where he jumps across at least 3 bulls, a minimum of four times. Only then is the boy a man and allowed to marry. Before the jumping, the women of the boy’s clan volunteers to be whipped with thin branches by the designated Whippers as a sign of love and affection for the boy. Scarification is considered as a mark of beauty for the Hammer tribes, each of the scars from the whipping serves to remind the boy how much he is loved.
Whipping Ceremony, Hammer Tribe, Ethiopia, by Charlie Grosso
A large group of women with thin branches in their hands chases the designated Whippers from end of the riverbed to another, each begging to be whipped. Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. The branches come down on the women’s back, arms, and sides, at full speed, ripping their skin open. After each lashing, they blow the horn and bow. The whipping goes on for hours. The more the women are lashed, the more they seem to want it. Occasionally they get into a minor dispute about who should go next. The two designated Whippers grow tired and bored and tires to run away from the insatiable demands. The women chase them down the riverbed, put another branch in their hands and demands to be whipped.
Across the riverbed in a tiny grove shaded by trees, a group of older Hammer women dance in a circle to a slow methodical rhythm and one of them is crying. That is the boy’s mother. She periodically runs oil on the other women’s bloody wounds and then continues the slow rhythmic dance. The elder men of the clan sit under the shade and merely watch.
At last it is time for the jumping of the bull.
The boy, in this particular case, is 27 years old, stripes naked and is encircled by a tribe of elders for his last blessing. Some of the women start to sing while others continue to chase down the Whippers. A herd of 30 some odd cows have been gathered in the center and the men single out 8 bulls for the jump. The boy is nervous. His apprehension is written all over his face. His virility, manhood and the kind of wife he can have all depends on the success of these next few minutes.
The men lines up the bulls, holding on to their horns to keep them in place. All of sudden, the boy is on the back of the first bull, quickly running across the backs of the rest, jumping down on the opposite side. Without pause, he jumps right back up and runs across the bulls again. Stark naked, he jumps across the back of eight bulls a total of eight times within minutes and the ceremony is over. The tribes disband and make their way into town as it is time to feast.
Even though the ceremony is the boy’s rite of passage, a statement of manhood, the women perform the most remarkable display here. The whipping goes on for hours. Each one eager and desperate to be whipped as a love show of love and affection for the boy. Jumping of the Bull by the Hammer tribe in the Lower Omo Valley of Ethiopia is a mixture of rarity, sacredness and raw tribal expression.
