Nomadic Tribe

The village as a whole is typically run by men who will make decisions in an assembly. Women may proffer their opinions but only in advance of debates, never during. Individual households, however, are run by women.

The sky god Tumu is the deity that the Surma people worship. Each Surma community has a priest, known as a komoru, who is their connection to Tumu and will lead religious rituals asking for his blessing.

There are many rich traditions among the Surma. The most noticable is how they adorn themselves; men and children typically don’t wear clothes; women wear large lip plates. They also engage in a spectacular form of stick-fighting, a tradition they still maintain. The size of the lip plate determines the bride's price with a large one in fifty heads of cattle.

The Surma speak their own language, although it has 80% lexical similarity to the nearby Mursi tribe's language with whom they also share a lot of other cultural similarities.

The Surma are renowned for their ornate self-decoration; painting, scarification and adornment with flowers and other natural objects.

Within this community, there is a diverse range of festivities which can include the slaughtering of animals, dueling competitions and religious rituals.