Turmi is a

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

in south-western

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. Located in the

Debub Omo Zone South Omo Zone is a List of zones of Ethiopia, zone in the Ethiopian South Ethiopia Regional State. South Omo is bordered to the south by Kenya, to the west by West Omo Zone, to the northwest by Keffa Zone, to the north by Ari Zone and Gofa Zon ...

of the

South Ethiopia Regional State The South Ethiopia Regional State (Amharic: ደቡብ ኢትዮጵያ ክልላዊ መንግስት) is a region in southern Ethiopia. It was formed from the southern part of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region (SNNPR) on 19 A ...

, the town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 925 metres above sea level. Home to many of the

Hamer people The Hamar (also spell as Hamer) are rural-agropastoral community located in the mountainous and lowland areas of the Lower Omo Valley in Southern Ethiopia. They speak Hamar language, a South Omotic language.Amzaye, Awoke (2007). ''Mosaic Cultur ...

, Turmi has a weekly market on Mondays. One product available at this market is incised

gourd Gourds include the fruits of some flowering plant species in the family Cucurbitaceae, particularly '' Cucurbita'' and '' Lagenaria''. The term refers to a number of species and subspecies, many with hard shells, and some without. Many gourds ha ...

s, used by local women as shopping baskets. Turmi is also notable for its

traditional dance A folk dance is a dance that reflects the life of the people of a certain country or region. Not all ethnic dances are folk dances. For example, ritual dances or dances of ritual origin are not considered to be folk dances. Ritual dances are us ...

s and the Jumping of the Bulls. In January, 2005, Turmi was the location for global conference of pastoralists. This was the largest meeting of its type, attended by about 200 pastoralists, government representatives and UN and donor organisations from 23 countries on four continents. Conferees discussed common problems and possible strategies for continuing their way of life in an evolving world.

Demographics

Based on figures from the

Central Statistical Agency The Central Statistical Agency, also known as the Ethiopian Statistical Service (ESS; Amharic: የኢትዮጵያ ስታቲስቲክስ አገልግሎት), is an Ethiopian government agency designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that ...

in 2005, Turmi has an estimated total population of 1,087 of whom 576 are men and 511 are women. It is the largest settlement in Hamer

woreda Districts of Ethiopia, also called woredas (; ''woreda''), are the third level of the administrative divisions of Ethiopia – after ''List of zones of Ethiopia, zones'' and the ''Regions of Ethiopia, regional states''. These districts are f ...

. The 1994 census reported Turmi had a total population of 600 of whom 319 were men and 281 were women. The five largest ethnic groups reported for this town were the Amhara (33.33%), the Hamer (12.5%), the

Goffa The Goffa is a traditional hairstyle or headwear deeply embedded in the cultures of the Songhai and Tuareg people, particularly in northern Mali and Niger. Exclusively worn by married women, it serves as a cultural identifier during significant e ...

(12.17%), the Gamo (9.83%), and the

Oromo Oromo may refer to: * Oromo people, an ethnic group of Ethiopia and Kenya * Oromo language, an Afroasiatic language See also * *Orma (clan), Oromo tribe *Oromia Oromia (, ) is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in Ethiopia and the homelan ...

(9.5%); all other ethnic groups made up 22.67% of the population.

Amharic Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amhara people, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other metropolitan populati ...

is spoken as a first language by 52.67%, 11% Hamer, 7.17%

Oromiffa Oromo, historically also called Galla, is an Afroasiatic language belonging to the Cushitic branch, primarily spoken by the Oromo people, native to the Ethiopian state of Oromia; and northern Kenya. It is used as a lingua franca in Oromia and n ...

, and 6.67% spoke

Konso Karat is a town in south-western Ethiopia and the capital of the Konso Zone in the new South Ethiopia Regional State. Situated 20 km north of the Sagan River at an elevation of , it is also called Pakawle by some of the neighboring inhabita ...

; the remaining 22.49% spoke all other primary languages reported.''1994 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia: Results for Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region'', Vol. 1, part 1
Tables 2.4, 2.13, 2.16 (accessed 30 December 2008).

Notes

External links

"Rain, Prosperity and Peace, Reporting from the Global Pastoralist Gathering"
UN OCHA-PCI and the Institute of Development Studies, 2005. Report on the Global Pastoralist Gathering at Turmi {{Districts of the South Ethiopia Regional State category:South Omo Zone Towns in South Omo Zone