Introduction | African Tribes | Art & Craft | Music & Dance | African Weddings | African Festivals & Events | African Cooking and Recipes | People & Culture Books | People and Culture Posters | People & Culture Photographs | African Language Books |

TRIBES & PEOPLE GROUPS

AFAR

Location: The Afar people live primarily in Ethiopia and the areas of Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somaliacan in the Horn of Africa. Their land is mainly rocky and desert terrain. The Afar people also live in the Awash Valley and the forests located in northern Djibouti. There are approximately 3 million people that make up the Afar culture.

Language: Afar

Culture: There are only two hospitals in the region available to the Afar, the National Hospital and the Dubti Hospital. The Afar people in this area are usually found to be malnourished. Their diets consist mainly of bread and milk. There is no natural source of water for the Afar people. Water must be tanked in and as a result it is relatively expensive. Many of the Afar people have anemia and malaria, because of their inadequate diets.

The Afar nomads have a very unique culture. Their daily life consists of tending to livestock including goats, camels, and a few cattle located in this region. The Afar people are very dependent on the livestock for the economy. Religion is also a part of the Afar way of life. The majority studies the Muslim religion. There is although a small percentage that practices Orthodoxy

Information kindly provided by Emuseum - Written by: Sarah Bos

Books

Among the Pastoral Afar in Ethiopia: Tradition, Continuity and Socio-Economic Change
(amazon.com) - USA    (amazon.co.uk) - UK
The Ethiopian Afar are a pastoral people with a fearless reputation. They have roamed the Awash Valley for ages. How do they cope with the modern development of irrigated cultivation in the lowlands and the policy to displace pastoral communities from these lands by a coercive state that looks down upon them as 'backward', to say the least?

Other websites

Afar Pastoralists Face Consequences of Poor Rains

United Nations Development Programme (pdf)

CARE: Afar Health Program

Focus on the Afar people

Photographs : Afar Views