Tribe Markings

I noticed that several of the men at IITA and others we met in the markets had marks on their faces. At first, I thought it was a scar from an accident, but since so many men (and a few women) had the markings, I was curious. Not wanting to be rude, I was afraid to ask about it. While Maria and I were relaxing at the pool after our day of touring, we ran into Christian from IITA. He had picked up a friend from the airport and was enjoying the afternoon at the hotel pool. Christian is originally from the Netherlands, so while we were talking, I asked about the marks on the faces. It turns out that the lines on their faces are to indicate which tribe they belong to. Every tribe (there are thousands) has a different mark and it will vary in length, shape, size, etc. It's done when they are very young. I thought it was very interesting. If you didn't like your family, it'd be awful hard to pretend you didn't know them! HA!