Hadza People

Our tour company arranged for us to visit a tribe of remote people who have lived the same way for tens of thousands of years. They live in the central Rift Valley (north-central Tanzania) and are among the last hunter-gatherers in the world.

National Geographic Magazine had an article about the Hadza in the December 2009 issue. I read it when I came home and felt like I was back in the camp again. Their language is called an “isolate”: Unlike any other studied language, it is comprised of soft sounds combined with tongue clicks and throaty pops (think about the movie “The Gods Must be Crazy”).

We arrived in camp just after the men had completed a hunting trip. The catch of the morning was some kind of cat – and I was chosen to help skin the cat!

Notice the modern shorts under the clothes made of animal skins. They trade for some “western” clothes when they meet other tribes who have more contact with a market culture. They cooked the cat after we skinned it and we all had a snack.

This is a Baobab tree and the chief is up in it. He noticed some significant signs in some of the limbs, hacked them, let them fall to the ground where the other men opened them to reveal honey made by ants. Of course we had to taste that too: it was so sweet and had a bit of crunch (ants) to it.

Dig in!      

As we continued our walk one of the men shot a bird and handed it to me on the arrow while he built a fire and cooked the bird. Wow…that’s fresh.

This is Jeff getting a hunting lesson

The Chief and I are getting cozy.

Our guide surprised us lunch after our visit

Tip: If you can arrange a visit with these people it is worth the time and trouble to get there. Be open minded about seeing, tasting, smelling, touching, hearing.

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