Dorze house

Dorze house

A construction and weaving community, living in spectacular tall houses.

Dorze compound

Dorze compound

The Dorze are a relatively small group close to Arba Minch, mostly known for their construction capacity. They have, for 100s of years apparently, built fabulously tall houses, from a bamboo frame woven together with grass and banana leaves. Very attractive structures, all the more so because they do not require a central supporting pole inside, and can simply be picked up and put down somewhere else, should the family move, or should the termites eat too much of the bottom of the structure in one particular place.

tools inside the hut

tools inside the hut

storage space inside the hut

storage space inside the hut

the roof: no poles!

the roof: no poles!

even the cattle sleep inside

even the cattle sleep inside

the weavings

the weavings

Dorze houses behind a compound wall

Dorze houses behind a compound wall

All this makes the Dorze people, who live in the villages of Chencha and Dorze,  a tourist attraction, and thanks to Dutch development aid, the village has established a smooth tourist reception and management system, centered around the local tourist guide association. In short, one is being dropped at one of the houses, taken outside and inside, shown a weaver (the community is famous for weaving, too), shown how they make food, and then guided towards the tourist shop where they sell the weavings, whilst you wait for the local food to be served – a kind of pancake with honey. Smooth tourist management, but every sense of authenticity is well and truly gone, of course. Still, the houses are impressive.

What also makes Dorze attractive is its altitude, at 2900 m well over twice as high as nearby Arba Minch. The steep ascent provides not only nice views over the mountain slopes and the lake below, but it also crosses some real forest, with real trees, unheard of almost everywhere else in Ethiopia. Of course, they don’t need wood for their houses here….

 

Although the Dorze are not part of the South Omo Valley tribes, visiting them is not much different; more on those tribes, as well as my view on this circus, can be accessed through the Ethnic Minorities entry.

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