Site visited in November 2022. During my trip to Ethiopia, I visited the village of Gamole, which is a living open-air museum and a monument to the culture of the Konso people. Within three lines of stone walls (once protecting against wild animals and invaders, today only of symbolic meaning) people live mainly engaged in farming on the terraces, which are a symbol of the region. Such terraces are commonplace in the Philippines, China or Vietnam, but in Ethiopia they are a real revolution - only the Konso have transformed the landscape in this way, other tribes have treated the mountains as a demarcation line, and only goats graze there from economic activities.

Our fixer arranged a guide with whom we safely explored the village. From the guide we know that the Konso people are divided into 9 clans, and marriage is allowed only with a person from another clan. The people are ruled by a king, and when he dies, everyone pretends to be sick. They embalm the corpse and keep it for 9 years, 9 months and 9 days, and only after this period they stop pretending and celebrate the coronation of the new king, the eldest son of the predecessor. What if there is no son? I don't know, we didn't go into details about Konso's succession rights.

The people are also known for putting so-called waka, wooden monuments in memory of rulers and other distinguished figures. And in the center of the village he puts like masts, tied with a hemp rope every one generation, that is, every 18 years. By counting the bonds, you can check how long a village has existed.

Despite a successful visit, we felt some distaste. Most of the locals posed willingly for photos, but demanded a tip almost immediately. The same with the swarm of children accompanying us everywhere. Konso is quite a well-known place on the tourist map of Ethiopia and, unfortunately, the inhabitants have learned to take advantage of the arriving tourists.

The Konso area is marked in red on the travel warning lists. Indeed, on the way we had a burnt village, located right next to the river separating one tribe from another. The tragic events took place less than two years ago and show that in Ethiopia ethnic tensions are a daily reality not only in Tigray. There were no tensions in Gamole itself, because the village is in the center of a territory inhabited almost exclusively by the Konso people. In 2022 however, as our very sensible driver assured us, this region is perfectly safe.