One of our activities during our 10-day safari in Tanzania was to go hunting with the Hadzabe tribe in the Lake Eyasi region. The day before our activity, we picked up Gichiro, the guide who would accompany us to the tribe. Since the Hadzabe are hunter gatherers, they are nomadic and Gichiro had arrived a couple of days in advance to ensure there was a Hadzabe tribe in the area. If the tribe had moved on, or shifted temporarily to a big animal kill site, Gichiro would have had to find another tribe who would be willing to do the tourist interaction or track this tribe to their temporary site. Gichiro was happy to find this tribe still here as they are friendly, and enjoy sharing their culture with tourists.
Gichiro speaks English, Swahili, and the Hadzabe’s unique click language, so in addition to getting us to the tribe, he served as translator during our activities.
We drove along a fairly well defined road until Gichiro instructed Issaya (our safari driverguide) to turn off (seemingly at a random spot) and start driving through the bush. After about 15 minutes of driving in this manner, we parked and began walking.First, we came across the women of the tribe … these two were building a fire for warmth.The women collect baobab fruit – these ones are for decoration as they’re dried up and no longer edible. When the baobab fruit are fresh and edible, the flesh will be white.The Hadzabe are an egalitarian society – men and women are equal, and decisions are made by discussion. If there is a conflict, one party will simply move to another camp. See anything odd about this picture?Continuing a little further, we come to a large clearing with a few huts, which is where the rest of the tribe are hanging out.The huts are made by the women, and they originally got the idea to make temporary shelters to protect their babies. This is a family shelter, which has the smaller addition for cooking and larger one for sleeping. In the dry season, the Hadzabe usually sleep outside. Sometimes, several teens will share a single hut (one without the cooking addition). Inside the hut – the Hadzabe own very few possessions, and do not grow or store their food. Women start the huts by transplanting sisal plants to use as a boundary (bottom of the hut) and tying poles tied together for strength. Grasses are then piled on top of the structure. The sisal is an ideal choice at the base as it repels snakes, especially the Black Mambas, an extremely venomous and aggressive snake in the area. We start meeting some of the men – he is wearing the skins of two animals he has killed. Baboon and warthog skins worn by other tribe members were also pointed out.Antelope horns from their kills. The corn husks on the end of those arrows indicate that this tribe interacts with other agricultural tribes in the area. We heard later that this tribe trades with a Datoga village nearby.
There were several groups around the fires, and they were organized roughly by age:
The older menThe younger groupCloseup of arrowheads. The video below talks about the different uses for each type of arrowhead.They take the wing feathers from birds they kill and use them to stabilize the arrows.This is the plant from which they obtain the poison to coat their arrowheads. They pound the roasted seeds with their saliva into a paste and smear it onto their arrowheads. The poison stops the heart and can kill large game in about 20 minutes. This tribe member is straightening an arrow shaft with his teeth – he’s already peeled the bark off and has heated the stick in the fire to make it easier to bend.After learning about their hunting tools and techniques, we headed out on the hunt. The dogs are strays who follow Hadzabe because of hunting scraps. The dogs did not accompany us on the hunt.Every hunter makes their bow and arrows. The bows are generally up to the chest of the hunter.The Hadzabe hunters carry their bundle of arrows in their hands, and simply place the bundle down or hold it in the hand drawing the bow when shooting. There are no quivers. Stalking, the typical hunting method hunting method for birds and small animals (for example, porcupines, monkeys, baboons, warthogs, and aardvarks) in the bushes, requires much effort but delivers the majority of their meat. The other method of hunting is ambushing, and is used mostly for large animals (for example, wildebeests, zebras, antelopes, and giraffes).The hunters forage while on the hunt. Berries and wild (and juicy) cucumbers were found, promptly peeled and eaten. Arrows are useful for foraging as well as hunting!This ten-year old boy is the first to shoot his snack. You can hear him talk about it in the video below.A second songbird was shot by another boy shortly after. The hunters are extremely accurate with these small birds at distances of 20-30 m.Our Hadzabe guide shot the third and last bird today. In addition to meat they hunt, the Hadzabe forage for honey, berries (including the baobab fruit), wild cucumbers, and tubers. They also either trade or purchase goods from the Datoga tribe from money they earn on tourist activities. This is how they carry their small carcasses home. What do they do for a large animal? “When a hunter shoots a big animal, he will return, sit around the fire, have a smoke pause, then when ready, get up, show direction and everyone will follow him. They will go to the animal, cut the meat and bring it home. Or if the meat is very big, the village may shift to the site of the kill and stay until all the meat is gone.”
The Hadzabe do not eat hyenas since they leave their dead in the open and hyenas would eat the corpses. So eating hyenas would be eating their ancestors. While some still leave their dead in the open, they now also bury them.
After the hunting excursion, the hunters demonstrate their bow skills. The boys get their first bows and arrows around age 3, and the hunters practice daily to achieve their precision (note how small those song birds were!).Of course, the kids got to have a try with instruction and encouragement from the hunters.When a hunt is successful, the whole tribe does a dance. Lara and Felix had bells tied to their ankles to add to the music.And then it was time to say good bye. The main hunter (far right) gestured to me that it was time for him to take a nap 😂
Enjoying hearing the Hadzabe click language and the hunter’s expressiveness in telling us about the hunt. His animal impressions are spot on!
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1 comments on “Hunting with the Hadzabe”
Wow!, what an amazing experience! I would like to sleep outside under the stars. I guess they don’t have the water to host mosquitoes? I can’t believe they would eat those tiny song birds. I wonder how they would do at the Olympics in archery!
Wow!, what an amazing experience! I would like to sleep outside under the stars. I guess they don’t have the water to host mosquitoes? I can’t believe they would eat those tiny song birds. I wonder how they would do at the Olympics in archery!