.
APRIL 2013 BACK ISSUE
words by Joanna Eede
photographs by Joanna Eede, Jean du Plessis & Fiona Watson
Just south of the Equator, between the soda waters of Tanzania's Lake Eyasi and the ramparts of the Great Rift
Valley, live the Hadza, a small tribe of approximately 1,300 hunter-gatherers: one of the last in Africa.
The Hadza's homeland lies on the edge of the Serengeti plains, in the shadow of Ngorongoro Crater. It is also close
to Olduvai Gorge, one of the most important prehistoric sites in the world, where homo habilis - one of the earliest
members of the genus Homo - was discovered to have lived 1.9 million years ago.
The Hadza have probably lived in the Yaeda Chini area for millennia. Genetically - like the Bushmen of southern
Africa - they are one of the 'oldest' lineages of humankind.
They speak a click language that is unrelated to any other language on earth. Over the past 50 years, however, the
tribe has lost 90% of its land.
Picture © Joanna Eede
Until the 1950s all Hadza survived by hunting and gathering. The Tanzanian government has since made repeated
attempts to ‘settle’ the Hadza. Today, only 300 – 400 of a population of approximately 1,300 Hadza are still nomadic
hunter-gatherers, gathering most of their food from the bush; while the rest live part-time in settled villages,
supplementing locally bought food with natural produce.
“In some areas, the Hadza are living in poverty on land stolen from them by their agricultural and pastoral
neighbours, in a situation where there has been discrimination against them,” says anthropologist James Woodburn,
who has worked with the Hadza for decades. Picture © Jean du Plessis
During the last 5 years, increased worldwide awareness of their situation has led to some significant successes for
the Hadza. They faced eviction in 2007 when a foreign safari company won rights from the Tanzanian government to
a large hunting concession. The company were forced to withdraw from the deal following an international campaign
led by the Hadza themselves along with a coalition of local and international ngos. More recently, in October 2011, a
Hadza community of 700 people were issued with titles for land encompassing more than 20,000 hectares. It was a
historic moment: the first time a Tanzanian government had formally recognized a minority tribe’s land rights.
Metal from nails is hammered and shaped into arrow-heads, and the sap of the desert rose shrub used to coat the
tips in poison. Certain rules and beliefs govern Hadza hunting practices. If an animal is only wounded when shot, the
name of the species may not be mentioned directly; in uttering its name, the Hadza believe that the animal would
recover – and escape. Picture © Joanna Eede
Wild honey, which constitutes a substantial part of the Hadza diet, is shared. Hunters follow the honeyguide bird to a
wild hive. The bird calls to the hunters, who whistle back to it. It flits from tree to tree, stopping to wait for hunters to
catch up, so leading them to a bees’ nest often high in the reddish-grey boughs of an ancient baobab tree. The
Hadza have a very intimate relationship with the honeyguide bird, and they’ll whistle a certain way to attract it and let
it know they are listening says Daudi Peterson, Safari guide and Founder of the Ujamaa Community Resource Team
and the Dorobo Fund. Some trees have been harvested repeatedly by the Hadza for hundreds of years.
Picture © Joanna Eede
A young Hadza boy eats a honeycomb seconds after it has been removed from a hive. Picture © Joanna Eede
The Hadza make huts by bending tree branches into round structures, and covering with grass.
Picture © Fiona Watson
The Hadza are preoccupied with equality. Differences of power, wealth and status are systematically subverted.
And equality is, in a sense, generalised by them to all mankind. Picture © Jean du Plessis
On top of Mukelengeko, a rocky outcrop that is one of the Hadza’s most important ritual sites, Gonga looks out over
his homeland; the woodland is deep green from recent rains. Beyond lie the soda waters of Lake Eyasi and the red
earth of the Iraqw people. “This is my home. Our grandparents lived here. I am part of the land, this is where we feel
free,” says Gonga. “Without the land, there is no life.” Picture © Joanna Eede
“Land is our biggest problem,” says Richard Baalow, a Hadza man. “We need people like Survival to keep on
working for us. Loss of land deprives us of our cultural identity and the means to move with dignity into the future
world.” Picture © Joanna Eede
Back to
current
issue