Blood with milk (29 photos)

More – it means better. This is exactly what the Bodi or Men people think.

A tribe living in a remote region of the Omo Valley in Ethiopia practices an unusual ritual in which young people drink milk with cow's blood in order to later become the fattest resident of the village. They live in isolation for six months and then emerge from their huts to proudly show off their bloated bellies and compete with others to be crowned the fattest. The winner will be considered a hero for the rest of his life.

French photographer Eric Lafforgue decided to tell the rest of the world about this ritual.



Southern Ethiopia. Omo River Valley. UNESCO World Heritage Site. The territory, until recently untouched by civilization, is now crossed by roads. Warriors of indigenous tribes come out with sticks instead of machine guns to defend the right to live on the land of their fathers. “Leave us and our cows alone,” — they say

It all started several years ago with the construction of a cascade of dams on the Omo River. One of the hydroelectric power plants under construction — Gibe III — should become the largest in Africa, double Ethiopia's energy potential, and also bring considerable income to the state treasury. Part of the fields that have belonged to local tribes for centuries — body, mursi, suri, dasanech, khamer, karo and others, — will be flooded, the other part will dry out. The UNESCO World Heritage Committee, human rights and environmental organizations around the world are opposed to the launch of the power plant, which threatens to destroy the ecosystem in the lower reaches of the Omo River, leading to climate change and the way of life of 200,000 indigenous people. They are different from ordinary Ethiopians, the city considers them savages, because members of the tribes still disfigure their skin with scars, cover their bodies with clay, insert discs into their lips, removing their front teeth. They support the traditions of blood feud; their boys become real men only after killing the enemy. Their men, naked, fight with rare cruelty on long poles. They buy wives for 25 cows and a Kalashnikov assault rifle…

1. In preparation for the New Year celebrations in June, the men of the Bodi tribe drink a lot of cow's blood and milk to gain weight.

2. Each family can nominate one unmarried candidate for the traditional competition. The most well-fed becomes the winner and wins recognition of the tribe for a year. 

3. The competition for the fattest member of the tribe begins six months before the ceremony.

4. Each family can imagine an unmarried man who, after selection, returns to his hut and must not leave there or have sex for six months.

5. Women from the village regularly bring them a mixture of cow's milk and cow's blood – this is their food.

6. Cows – are sacred to the Bodi tribe, so they are not usually killed.

7. Blood is taken from cows through a small hole in a vein, which is made with a spear or an ax, and which is then sealed with clay.

8. Due to the scorching heat, men must drink a 2-liter bowl of blood and milk as quickly as possible before it coagulates, but as you can imagine, this is not something everyone can do.

9. Men drink blood and milk all day long.

10. The first bowl is drunk at dawn.

11. There are flies flying everywhere.

12. Not all participants cannot swallow bloody milk so quickly. Many people feel sick.

13. On the day of the competition, the men smear clay and ash on themselves, then leave the huts and go to the site where the ceremony will take place.

14. Due to weight gain and a sedentary lifestyle, covering such a short distance is an almost impossible task for many.

15. Many simply cannot walk.

16. One of them even asked the photographer to take him in a car, and in the van he continued to drink blood and milk.

17. The ceremony itself consists of fat men walking around the sacred tree for hours. The rest of the men watch them closely, and the women give them alcohol and wipe off their sweat.

18. Once the fattest man has been chosen, the ceremony ends with the killing of a cow using a huge sacred stone.

19. The village elders then examine her stomach and blood to determine whether there will be a bright future or not.

20. After the ceremony, the men's lives return to normal, and most of them lose their bellies after just a few weeks of dieting

21. But within a few weeks, the next generation of “competitors” will be chosen to participate in the new ritual.

22. Become the fattest in the village – every Bodi child's dream.

23. A few weeks after the ceremony, the hero returns to normal, but remains a hero for the rest of his life.

24. Women look at this ritual as an opportunity to choose a potential husband.

25. In the tribe, body is fat, which means beautiful.

26. But today the traditions and customs of the Bodi tribe are under threat.

27. Pictured: A Bodi woman from the remote village of Hana Mursi.

28. For women, the ceremony of choosing the fattest resident of the village – this is not only a reason to find a potential groom…

29. …but also a reason to show off in your best outfits.