KARIBU TANZANIA
Meru Next Level Adventure Safari arrange tours to meet the Hadzabe tribe (TheBushmen) and Datoga tribes in Tanzania, where our guests get the opportunity to visit, interact with them and experience their customs and daily life activities.
Hadzabe people living in Tanzania, however, only around 300 Hadzabe still survive exclusively based on the traditional means of foraging. Additionally, the increasing impact of tourism and encroaching pastoralists pose serious threats to the continuation of their traditional way of life.
Genetically, the Hadza are not closely related to any other people. While traditionally classified with the Khoisan languages, primarily because it has clicks, the Hadza language (Hadzane), appears to be an isolate, unrelated to any other. Hadzane is an entirely oral language, but it is not predicted to be in danger of extinction. Hadzabe is also considered the most important factor in distinguishing who is and is not actually a part of the Hadzabe people. In more recent years, many of the Hadzabe have learned Swahili as a second language, which is the national language of Tanzania.
As descendants of Tanzania’s aboriginal hunter-gatherer population, they have probably occupied their current territory for thousands of years, with relatively little modification to their basic way of life until the past hundred years
The Hadzabe men usually forage individually, and during the course of the day, usually feed themselves while foraging, and also bring home some honey, fruit, or wild game when available. Women forage in larger parties, and usually bring home berries, baobab fruit, and tubers, depending on availability. Men and women also forage cooperatively for honey and fruit, and at least one adult male will usually accompany a group of foraging women.
During the wet season, the diet is composed mostly of honey, some fruit, tubers, and occasional meat. The contribution of meat to the diet increases during the dry season, when games become concentrated around sources of water. During this time, men often hunt in pairs and spend entire nights lying in wait by waterholes, hoping to shoot animals that approach for a night-time drink, with bows and arrows treated with poison. The poison is made of the branches of the shrub Adenium coetaneum.
The Hadzabe are highly skilled, selective, and opportunistic foragers, and adjust their diet according to the season and circumstance. Depending on local availability, some groups might rely more heavily on tubers, others on berries, others on meat. This variability is the result of their opportunism and adjustment to prevailing conditions.
