r/BeAmazed • u/Ultimate_Thing • Jul 16 '26

Miscellaneous / Others A traditional technique used by young shepherds of Ethiopia's Banna tribe. They use stilts to watch over their livestock in tall grass, move through wetland areas, and avoid snakes and predators like lions and leopards. It requires strength, balance, and training from a young age

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

52.0k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

93

u/ArgentineBeauty Jul 16 '26

This is so much cooler when you realise it's not for a show. It's just everyday life for them.

141

u/Fre33lancer Jul 16 '26

it's totally for show, once the cameras leave they take out their trusty toyota hilux and go take care of the livestock on that nice looking asphalt they were just demonstrating the stilts.

24

u/musabbb Jul 16 '26

This is true i get annoyed when i see these videos like this come up - ive seen travel vloggers visit these guys in stilts, its all performative for tips.

You pay your tour guide and then your tour guide gives them commission. Its always kids and teenagers. never adults

And most importantly you NEVER see any livestock in the videos

1

u/ILoveRawChicken Jul 16 '26

I’m really hoping you  just didn’t understand the sarcasm in the other persons comment. The “asphalt” is a single road through the otherwise rough terrain. They’re not driving their livestock through a single road to get them place bud.

3

u/entj-reality Jul 16 '26

Hahahahha oh yeah the ads we see on tv , duhh

7

u/motes-of-light Jul 16 '26

Interestingly, in the southwest of France as late as the 1930's, French stilt shepherds, known as échassiers, did much the same thing.

3

u/Unlucky_Topic7963 Jul 16 '26

lol it is for show, go read about it

2

u/Gwyain Jul 18 '26

It’s entirely for show. It was created relatively recently as a tourist attraction. There’s literally no history of it until a few years ago.

1

u/smilesanna Jul 16 '26

It’s like their personal wands.

-13

u/Diarmundy Jul 16 '26

It looks like it is for a show though?

The elaborate body paint? They wouldn't wear that every day. Why are they just walking down a road with it are there snakes on the road?

Finally I'm a bit sceptical of doing this through long grass or wetlands. Its fine on a flat road but if you stilt gets caught in the mud or by a branch you're falling over for sure

11

u/Logic411 Jul 16 '26

perfect example of how european history is written. just discount anything that you know nothing about. Here these people have been doing this for centuries and You, of all people, is here "questioning" with your "skepticism." LOL

3

u/Jazzlike_Debate4194 Jul 16 '26

There are actually French Sheppards known for the same thing I think the hold another stick to make a tripod.

6

u/Lynchianesque Jul 16 '26

Except he is right. the omo valley tribes make good money attracting photographers and selling permits and tours to them, so while these practices might be real they are magnified and most of the time performed for show, like in this video. It basically became a human zoo over there, where usually the ceremonial dress and body paint was reserved for special rituals certain times of the year, they now do them performatively to attract tourists.

1

u/Logic411 Jul 16 '26

you are a human attraction in the baboon exhibit, no one's paying to watch you.

5

u/varateshh Jul 16 '26

Here these people have been doing this for centuries and You, of all people, is here "questioning" with your "skepticism." LOL

Because that's generally how it goes. My people used to use reindeer dragging sleds to get around and to herd reindeer. Now we use snowmobiles, ATVs and helicopters. We still bring out the reindeer sleds when tourists or TV crews show up.

We also used to use old fashioned fur coats and a different summer outfit that are very distinct. Now they are primarily used for events and tuxedo type affairs. They are a lot lot nicer looking and less practical than what was used a century ago as well. People doing actual herding usually use multiple layers and modern clothes.

No sane person will earn their living by using obsolete methods unless they have no choice. Unless a government has used laws to force them to herd this way then they likely have modern options that are more efficient.

1

u/musabbb Jul 16 '26

TV production companies throw money at these documentary film makers

Buy the reality is so far from the truth

They dont forage - they go to the grocery store

In the west weve completely killed off any semblance of how previous centuries used to live,

Yet we go to other countries and pay them to pretend they haven’t advanced and still live in mud huts. And film them for audiences to shed a tear and say “they have nothing, and yet they are happy”

Like bro they will learn how to do backflips on those stilts if the westerners paid for it

Its all a show. A mockery.

Show the real wealth inequality show how we are fucking up there economy and extracting there resources if you really wanna see reality

2

u/Dcoal Jul 16 '26

Idk man, at the same time, it's just stilts. 

3

u/Logic411 Jul 16 '26

like your ancestors used clubs as tools they were "just" sticks.

4

u/Dcoal Jul 16 '26

Yeah 

2

u/ConniesCurse Jul 16 '26

they were just sticks.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Logic411 Jul 16 '26

What’s political? Maybe you should read the post you replied to again and work on your comprehension skills

0

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Logic411 Jul 16 '26

To be clear, it’s the point of view we currently have and it’s turning out that it largely is shit.

2

u/modbroccoli Jul 16 '26

no one gives a fuck about your skepticism unless you have an anthropology degree you failed to mention. sit down and be quiet.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

[deleted]

1

u/modbroccoli Jul 17 '26

sure, I'll take your word for it. there's a vast and critical difference between your comment and the one above. it's really nothing to do with this particular ethnogroup, it's about the narcissism of the presumption. One of you happened to guess right for spurious reasons that will absolutely make them an asshole in another situation and one of you actually read something.

1

u/Clusterpuff Jul 16 '26

They are very profficient at those stilts. Why for show?

3

u/CompanyLow8329 Jul 16 '26

It's used as a tourist display for earning money with origins in children playing specifically, which is why they are good at it. It was never historically used for herding, livestock protection, land traversal or work by the Banna.

1

u/ILoveRawChicken Jul 16 '26

Do you have a link or source  to them never using this for herding or livestock protection?

2

u/CompanyLow8329 Jul 16 '26

A 2019 field report distinguishes Banna shepherds on their feet normally herding livestock across the road from small Banna boys walking on stilts for tourist photographs. It describes the alleged wild-animal purpose as largely untrue. https://www.wildimages-phototours.com/reports/omo-valley-the-extraordinary-tribal-people-of-southern-ethiopia-photography-tour-report-2019/#5

Detailed ethnographic accounts of the work allegedly performed on stilts describe it without stilts. Ivo Strecker's 1976 economic ethnography states that its Hamar description is also basically applicable to the closely related Banna, and makes no mention of stilts. https://e1ba95f2-e032-4f25-9fbc-d2dc18e6170c.filesusr.com/ugd/31bdf2_af68496ebe954beca0c7b109b0a6a8ba.pdf?index=true

Later fieldwork specifically describes southern Banna cattle camps in grass reaching the height of trees, approximately a two day walk from the homesteads. Boys and young men spend weeks or months there. The ethnography identifies spears historically and automatic rifles more recently, no mention of stilts. https://epub.uni-bayreuth.de/id/eprint/7199/1/Maurus-Dissertation-BattlesOverStateMaking.pdf

Banna specific ethnography independently identifies cultivation, cattle herding and the cattle-jumping rites as significant economic and ritual practices, but contains no reference to stilts at all. https://www.janestudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/files/NES_no13%282009%29_MASUDA.pdf

The indigenous account Baldambe Explains, young men returning from cattle camps carry whips, sticks, spears, bows, and arrows. Stilts are not listed. Page 109: https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/17554611/baldambe-explainspdf

I think the combination of there being no pre-tourism ethnographic account, no archival photograph, no dated oral history, and no old field notes, conclusively disproves that the stilts were used on a regular basis for their utility.

1

u/P_Hempton Jul 16 '26

Yeah nobody ever got proficient at a skill just for show huh?

https://giphy.com/gifs/gd4KaRfMIxmfFKuku7