Why the Surma People of Ethiopia Wear Lip Plates and What They Mean

Summary

• Cultural Significance: Lip plates among the Mursi and Suri tribes symbolize beauty, fertility, and social status. Traditionally, they were thought to deter slave traders.
• Rite of Passage: The process begins at age 15, involving lip piercing and stretching for clay or wooden plates. Larger plates can increase dowries, making them a sign of higher status.
• Debate on Tradition: The practice faces criticism for being harmful, with the Ethiopian government and some community members advocating against it. However, others argue it's a dignified cultural tradition that should be respected and preserved.

Deep Dive

Every year, at least hundreds of tourists journey down to Omo Valley in southwestern Ethiopia to observe the Mursi and Suri peoples, two Surma tribes with the most intriguing of appearances. The Mursi and Suri are known for their body scarring and painting, but most uniquely, for their women’s lip plates.

The Suri live in the Upper Omo Valley (close to the border of South Sudan) while the Mursi live in the Lower Omo Valley.  Though both tribes are very closely related in both language and culture, they are quite isolated from each other due to the mountainous terrains of the region. The Mursi tribe are visited more frequently by tourists due to their proximity to the Omo Valley market town of Jinka.

According to oral tradition among the Surma, the practice of wearing lip plates was started to discourage slave traders from stealing their women. However, many Surma natives say they do not know when the practice actually originated. Now, the lip plate, which is called ‘dhebi a tugoin’, is seen as a sign of beauty, fertility, strength and steadfastness within the Surma community.

When a girl turns 15 years old, she is said to go through ‘bansai’, a transition from girlhood to womanhood. To mark this, the girl’s mother or female relative initiates the process of inserting the clay or wooden lip plate. Her bottom incisors are knocked out and the bottom lip is pierced with a sharp stick. It is then stretched until it can hold the first plate, which usually has a standard diameter of 4 cm.

Care has to be taken so that the lip does not get infected or break from getting stretched too quickly. The girl’s lip is left to heal for a period of about two weeks before inserting a bigger lip plate. To aid the healing process, the women usually apply a white or black paste made from a tree- and plant-based substance, called ‘lommai’.

After the lower lip has healed, the process of stretching it further does not hurt significantly and so the lip can be stretched to accommodate plates as wide as 25 cm in diameter. It is said that the larger the plate a woman has, the higher her dowry is. The dowry is typically paid in cattle, and a woman with a very large lip plate can get up to 60 cattle as her dowry.  

The lip plates can be removed, leaving a long dangling lower lip. However, they must be worn on special occasions like weddings or donga, a contest in which men duel with long wooden poles. The women must also wear the lip plates when they are serving men food.

Lip plates are worn more frequently by young ladies and newly married women than older married women. Additionally, when a woman is widowed, the lip plate is removed as it is believed that a woman’s external beauty passes on along with her husband. The wearing of lip plates is a voluntary practice which many Surma women take pride in.

However, the younger generation are increasingly opting out of the practice by choosing not to perforate their lips in the first place. Some even go as far as sewing their lower lip back up to have a more conventional appearance, especially when they want to leave their homelands.

The Ethiopian government is also putting pressure on the Surma to stop, tagging it as a harmful traditional practice. Moreso, according to a study by Shauna LaTosky, there are some men who believe women should stop the practice if they are not going to adhere to the wearing of the plates. This is because without the plates, the women tend to drool and the men find this unattractive. Nonetheless, the wearing of lip plates is still prominent among the Surma people, and there seems to little resistance to this practice.

Another African ethnic group that has historically been known to wear lip plates is the Makonde people, of Northern Mozambique and Southeast Tanzania. Unlike the Surma, they would wear their own lip plates on the top lip. The plates, which were made from ebony, a dense, dark hardwood that is highly prized for its deep black color and fine texture. They were used as a distinguishing sign of social status. However, the lip plate tradition among the Makonde died out decades ago.

When considering extreme forms of beautification among African peoples, it's easy to dismiss them as primitive or unappealing. However, it's essential to recognize and question the influence of a Western lens on our perceptions. While concerns about health risks may be valid, who’s to say that practices like lip plates, scarification, or head elongation are any less dignified than the West’s own body modification traditions? Only when we try to break free from our colonial lens can we truly appreciate our African culture for what it is.