Key Afer – Market day

Key Afar lies on the road between Konso and Jinka, in the lower Omo Valley. The region belongs to the Banna people. The name of the town translates as “red soil”. Key Afar is a rather large, nondescript town during six days of the week, except for Thursdays. Thursdays is market day and it is one of the biggest markets in the South which attracts Banna, as well as Ari, Hamar, Tsamai and other peoples from the neighboring regions who come to sell and buy their goods. Displayed on the ground you can find household utensils, clothes, shoes, food, cereals, jewelry, goatskin-skirts, calabashes, metal tools, smaller livestock (the cattle market takes place at a different location), arts and crafts…it is all there. Banna women have the peculiar habit to wear the halved calabash they use for drinking as a kind of helmet when not needed. Key Afar is the most colorful, memorable market your can imagine.