The African Madonnas – Woman with Crying Child

This piece is part of The African Madonna series.

The mother and her tearful baby are members of the Mursi tribe of southern Ethiopia.  The Mursi women wear lip plates made of fired clay to enhance their beauty.  The story they told me (via an interpreter) is that many generations ago the Mursi women were so beautiful they were constantly being stolen by the men of other tribes.  To stop this theft the men asked their women to make holes in their lips to make them ugly to other men and to show their commitment to their husbands,  The women use fired clay discs to keep the holes open.  Each time the hole heals the plate was replaced with a larger one.  Supposedly these lip holes make them undesirable to other tribes but for the Mursi the bigger the clay (or wood) plate (the bigger the lip hole) the more beautiful the woman.  The plate is removed after the husband's death because his death results in the wife's beauty fading.

It's a good story but I have to note that while I was visiting the women showed a more pragmatic side.  It was an extremely hot day and the clay plates were apparently getting very hot so after their photos were taken (and they were paid) the women removed the plates quickly, expressing relief because their lips were getting burned.

I stopped taking photos so they could all get the plates out of their lips without worrying about losing out.

I find it interesting that Haida women also wore lip plates or labrets originally to indicate a girl's eligibility to become a wife.  In the 19th century this use had become exclusive to high ranking women.