SafariLands.org: People & Culture: Can the Hadzabe survive without tourists

The Hadza, or Hadzabe'e, are an ethnic group in central Tanzania, living around Lake Eyasi in the central Rift Valley and in the neighboring Serengeti Plateau. The Hadza number just under 1000, Some 300-400 Hadza live as hunter-gatherers, much as they have for thousands or even tens of thousands of years; they are perhaps the last functioning hunter-gatherers in Africa. The Hadza are not closely related to any other people.

While traditionally considered an East African branch of the Khoisan peoples, modern genetic research suggests that they may be more closely related to the Pygmies. The Hadza language has clicks and appears to be an isolate, unrelated to any other

Concerns have been raised about the negative effect that visiting groups of tourists could be having on the survival of the Hadzabe community. It is feared that the corrupting impact of the first world culture, particularly its accompanying monetary largesse, will diminish Hadzabe reliance on their own survival skills. Left un-addressed this could lead to the point where they, like so many other minority cultures on this planet, become dependant on external aid for their survival

The Hadzabe in the Lake Eyasi area are one remnant of the very small number of surviving members of the hunter gatherer tribe - once numerous and widely dispersed throughout the African Savannah lands. They have been subject, over the past centuries, to a series of persecutions that has resulted in their current perilous state of existence. The invasion of their territory by tourists is, it can be argued, the least traumatic of the interactions they have experienced, and though currently perniciously degrading in nature could be, with suitable controls, the key to their survival.

There are broadly two types of tourism interaction - exploitive and community sensitive. It is very right and proper of visiting tourists to raise valid concerns over the type of visit they experience. It is equally right and proper that those responsible for arranging the interaction of tourists with Hadzabe should ensure that the impact of the interaction should leave the Hadzabe strengthened in their own culture and that appropriate care taken to ensure that any potential negative effects are identified and redressed.

The overriding concern is that there are real and very serious challenges faced by the Hadzabe community, which if not addressed could see them, as a distinct people, extinguished in our lifetime. Their predicament needs to be seen and understood by as many "outside" people as possible, and for those people to articulate their findings in such arena that might just lead to something positive being done.

To meet with the Hadzabe is to meet with a culture unlike any other on this planet - the open minded will gain a better and more grounded prospective on their own culture and the many privileges it bestows. To understand the Hadzabe is to be privileged into sharing an inkling of their phenomenal bush-craft skills, non-materialism and personal relationships so essential for their survival. To meet and to understand the Hadzabe does not necessarily mean that it is at a cost to their culture and their survival. That is totally down to the individuals concerned and, as importantly, the quality of guiding that brings about the meeting. Those from a majority culture have the opportunity, when meeting those from a minority culture, to show the right kind of respect and display the correct type of behaviour - leaving the minority culture with a sense of worth in their own lifestyle. Good guiding along with a good upbringing is all that is needed for this ideal to be achieved.

Those in authority, with the responsibility to administer the environment in which the Hadzabe depend for their livelihood, need to be sensitive to the plight of the Hadzabe Community and be moved enough to take informed decisions concerning their future survival. The opportunity that tourism brings for the survival of the Hadzabe is that perhaps one or more within a visiting group will be someone who knows someone or has access to the right media which might result in getting the right something done.

The Hadzabe

The Hadzabe live around Lake Eyasi to the south of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in northern Tanzania. They are the last remaining ancestors of the original hunter-gatherer tribes who first inhabited Tanzania, and their lifestyle has barely changed for millennia. They are skilled hunters, and use a number of methods to attract game within range of their arrows, including the use of the horns of an antelope, attaching them to their heads while mimicking the animal’s characteristic bobbing walk, which draws other curious animals closer. Another method is to hide under an animal skin, and wait for vultures to land, when they can easily be caught. The Hadzabe supplement their diet with roots and plants, and they have a particular liking for honey, which they trade with other tribes in exchange for arrowheads or tobacco.

The Hadzabe are not a Bantu race like the other peoples of Tanzania, but have more in common with the San Bushmen found in the Kalahari Desert of southern Africa, nearly 2000 miles away. They tend to be small in stature, physically slight, and have lighter coloured skin than most Africans. Their language too contains many of the same click sounds as that of the Bushmen, although the two are not mutually intelligible. Although a number of researchers have concluded that their DNA is totally unrelated to that of the Bushmen, the surface similarities of both languages would imply an ancient root.

Hunting and honey-gathering are predominantly male activities, while the women and children forage for roots or fruit. The Hadzabe are opportunists when it comes to hunting, but tend to avoid eating reptiles, and the greatest delicacy is considered to be baboon. Baboon fur is also worn by the men, while the women usually wear impala skins. The huts are made of grass, woven by the women, and can be constructed in a matter of hours.

It is thought that there are somewhere between 500 and 2500 Hadzabe, and their lifestyle is increasingly threatened as their traditional lands have been taken by commercial plantations and farms. This has had the effect of creating barriers along the seasonal migration routes of the animals, upon which the Hadzabe depend for hunting. In the 1970s the then socialist government of Tanzania attempted to resettle them in a newly constructed settlement with schools, a clinic and brick houses, but within ten years the Hadzabe had abandoned the settlement, going back to their traditional way of life in the bush. The pressures on them are immense, however, as the area of land they inhabit becomes increasingly constrained, and despite their resistance to formal education, a monetary economy and religious indoctrination by missionaries, they have increasingly come into contact with foreign tourists, which has brought problems of its own. Despite bringing in revenue for the tribe, this has proved to be a huge culture shock, and consequent problems such as begging and alcoholism have sometimes arisen.

Given that the Hadzabe are in such a precarious position, mainly due to the tourist industry, which has had such a devastating effect on their culture in recent years, the best thing that can happen to the Hadzabe is that they are left in peace. As such, Tribes feels that it is not appropriate to visit the Hadzabe as part of an itinerary, in the hope that this will prevent further damage to their culture and way of life.

Source: http://www.arushatimes.co.tz/