One of the remaining hunter-gatherers in Africa, the Hadza people/Hadzabe people are an ethnic group from Tanzania. They occupy the areas around Lake Eyasi in the central Great Rift Valley.
Their homeland lies on the edges of the great Serengeti plains, co-existing with the wild game. They are a small tribe of approximately 1,300 people.
Gathering of honey, wild fruits and root tubers and hunting of wild animals (zebras, giraffes, buffalos, antelopes) for food.
They generally do not take part in any form of farming or keeping domestic animals as food source, the environment is their source of food. The men do the hunting with bows and arrows while the women gather the fruits and tubers with digging sticks.
The Hadza are not permanent settlers. They often put up temporary shelters using tree branches which they bend to make huts and use dry grass to cover them up.
The Hadza people speak a language only known to them, called the Hadza or Hadzane. It is a click sound language that is so different even from their immediate neighbors.
Over the years as interaction between the Hadza people and those from other communities has generally increased, most of them now speak Kiswahili fluently, a widely spoken language in Tanzania as their second language.
This can be seen as a risk factor to the continuation of the vulnerable Hadza language as they have also borrowed some words from Kiswahili and other languages of their close neighbors.
For decades now, tourists, travelers, evolutionary biologists, archeologists and anthropologists have visited the Hadza camps. Around Lake Eyasi to immerse themselves in the indigenous way of living of the Hadza people. Studying their survival and traditional practices. Taking part in the hunting of wild game. Studying their social structure that doesn’t recognize final decision makers or leaders. Buy some crafts and also enjoy the Hadza traditional dance.
The traditional lifestyle of the Hadza people basically continues to be greatly impacted by tourism. And modernization from the fast-changing world around them. Their cultural and traditional practices provide insights into human evolution and history.
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