The Karo Tribe
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The Karo tribe, Ethiopia
Located in Southern Ethiopia, the Karo or Kara Ethnic group reside along the east banks of
the Omo River, seemingly untouched by the outside world. It is the smallest tribe in South
Ethiopia with an estimated population of about 2,000 people and for sustenance, they
practice flood retreat cultivation, growing beans and maize, breeding cattle and goats and
fishing.
What you will find is they are a fascinating culture famous for their practice of intricate face
and body painting, using a combination of white chalk, charcoal, yellow rock and iron ore to
create some truly dramatic body artworks. These paintings and markings take elaborate
processes with designs ranging from simple and fine dots to rough deliberately drawn.
Animal motifs are some of the striking body painting designs they do.
