Do you recall the movie, The Gods Must Be Crazy? Well, the tribe in this movie is very similar to the Hadzabe Tribe. They are the most unique tribe we visited in my opinion. We called them the Click Click tribe. The tribe in the movie speaks w/ clicks and clucks and pops in their words. This tribe does the same thing, they have words like any other language but they click, cluck and pop as they speak. It is the coolest thing to hear.
The Hadzabe are a dying people, they are becoming extinct, there are only 350 people left in the whole tribe. The small family tribe we visited had about 12 people total. They are absolutely fascinating. The Hadzabe are truly bushpeople. They build no mud huts or wooden structures, they are nomadic and follow the hunt. They have hardly any possessions, only the clothes on their backs, some primitive bows and arrows, knives, beads, one pot, skins of their kill. They sleep on the ground under the trees or brush. The men and women sit separately most of the time. The man will marry one woman, but they wife swap I guess when the mood strikes. They share food, babies, women, chores...everything. If a child dies, they don't really grieve, they will eventually have another. The average lifespan for these people is 35 years. They don't read or write and have no comprehension of where Tanzania is, where Africa is, where America is. All they really wanted to know about us is what tribe we were from. We told them we were from the American tribe.
They are very gracious and funny people. I don't think they have ever showered and they had terrible body odor, but that's how they roll. We had an additional guide w/ us that day to help us locate them since they are on the move all the time. If the men kill a large animal, leopard, buffalo etc. One hunter will return to the camp and tell the women to pick up and they move to the location of the kill where they skin and cook the meat. Nothing left over and nothing left for later.
Our itinerary was to have a morning hunt w/ these men. We woke up early, 5:15 in order to meet them before they left. They have wooden arrows for birds and small kill then a few metal arrow tips that they dip in some sort of poisonous sap for the larger kills. They handed Travis a bow and arrows and we kidded him to make sure he had the wooden arrows, not the metal poisoned tips. We trailed them on the hunt and we hiked into the bush w/ them. We did slow them down I am sure, but they didn't seem to mind. When the hunters split up in the bush, they whistle back and forth to keep track of each other. The one man w/ a baboon fur on his back was the joker of the tribe, we called him Baboon Man.
Not only do they hunt birds and larger game, they will dig and dig in the dirt for a small mouse. They stomped on the ground and tried to scare out a porcupine. The fowl they killed are Guinea birds. The day before we arrived, they had no kill on their hunt. No meat to eat. When that happens, the men return to the tribe and the women go looking for fruits and roots. This is much harder to do during the dry season. So it is important they have a successful hunt. The little boy wanted to wear my watch so I let him. I guess he thought it was a gift, so we tried to be really sensitive when I needed it back.
Speaking of gifts....this is where I really have to applaud Shauna. Before our arrival in Tanzania she had emailed our agent for this tour as to what gifts we could bring for the tribal people as a thank you. This was an excellent idea and one I would not have thought of. We were told this tribe needed board shorts type of clothing for the men to hunt in, leather belts, knives....I was able to get affordable clothing and belts in Thailand so at the end of our hunt we gave these to the men. They were very grateful and put them on right away.
The women typically don't wear tops and have their breasts exposed. When visitors do come to visit they cover up, we told them that wasn't necessary and just to be at ease how they usually are.
We could tell our guide for this trip really cares about these people. The government brings this man along w/ them when they come to visit. A time ago the government tried to round up these people and put them in huts/houses in town. That lasted about 3 months and in the middle of the night, the Hadzabe people abandoned their homes and went back out to the bush.
On the hunt, three guineas were killed and one was cooked on the spot. They build a fire buy using a long slender pole which starting at the top, you rub your hands back and forth while pushing down on it. The man kneeling holds a knife flat and a notched piece of wood on top for the pole to fit into, the friction lights a small ember, the ember is put into a handful of dry shrubbery and waived back and forth still it smokes, then put under the kindling for the fire. Very effective.
Shauna wanted to taste the guinea to really get the full affect and take part in their hunt. I was not so interested in eating this bird but participated anyway. Actually I didn't want to do it all. The Hadzabe believe that by sharing with others it is like good karma for a successful hunt next time. They built the fire, put the whole bird on top, feathers and all. The feathers burn off, the bird is pulled apart and then the meat placed directly on the fire, dirt, ashes and all. It tasted like fresh turkey actually very moist, but it wasn't cooked enough for my taste and I gave my share to Missy who basically choked it down. Thank you Missy. We didn't want to be rude by not accepting the gesture.
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