When I first dropped into the Omo Valley in southern Ethiopia nearly two decades back, it was as though the world had stood still for thousands of years. There were no tarmac roads or cell towers. Along the road, walking was tribes’ people, timeless, and unchanged. Visiting their villages was like stepping into another world.
I was enthralled with the sense of community and how they lived in harmony with the natural world. They had their own structure of governing, which worked beautifully. The structure in this photograph is the parliament of the Karo tribe. Although life is physically harder it appears much richer than the more isolated modern world.
With the advent of the smartphone, more resources coming into developing countries and education, the old traditions and old way of life began to fade quickly. The transition has been so accelerated that many stories of the elders will remain untold.