Tribes of the area

This page will give you an introduction to the tribes of the Lake Eyasi area that you will meet and that you will interact with. Please note that all of the members of the tribes that take part in our Stone Age Experience are already familiar to tourism. In no way are we taking them out of their natural behaviour or presenting them as relicts from prehistoric times.

In fact, there are safari tourist groups visiting them almost every day. As these are short-time visits, such encounters are limited to the points that the tribespeople are performing something for the visitors and posing for their pictures. This is different with the REBIRTH Stone Age Experience: The Hadzabe Bushmen, Tatoga, Massai and others really enjoy being part of it and having the chance to find individuals who appreciate their lifestyles and who are eager to learn from them.

The Hadzabe Bushmen

The Hadzabe are the last functioning hunter-gatherers in Africa. There are only just under 1000 Hadzabe left. Most of them live around Lake Eyasi, much as their ancestors have for thousands or even tens of thousands of years.

The Hadzabe are not closely related to any other people. Recent research has shown that their DNA is the most divergent from any other humans in the world, suggesting that they were the first, or at least among the first, surviving peoples to have split off the human family tree. Based on DNA analysis, in 2003 Alec Knight and Joanna Mountain of Stanford University suggested that the three primary genetic divisions of humanity are the Hadzabe, the Juǀʼhoansi (a tribe living in Botswana) and relatives, and everyone else.

The Hadzabe are moving around in small groups consisting of around 30 persons, which are 3-4 families. Like many predominantly hunter-gatherer societies, they are predominantly monogamous, though there is no social enforcement of monogamy. The division of labour between men and women is rather apparent: While men specialize in procuring meat, honey, and baobab fruit, women specialize in tubers, berries, and greens. However, women will also occasionally gather a small animal or egg, or gather honey, just as men will occasionally bring a tuber or some berries back to camp.

The Hadzabe groups typically stay at one place for around 2 weeks before moving to other areas. During the dry season they build very simple temporary shelters from branches and leaves, during the rainy seasons they still stay in caves.

Small groups of 2-4 men usually go hunting with bow and arrow in the very early morning hours around dawn. Although hunting is illegal in the National Parks, the Tanzanian authorities recognize that the Hadzabe are a special case and do not enforce the regulations with them, just as the Hadzabe are the only people in Tanzania not taxed locally or by the national government.

The Hadzabe get their arrowheads from members of the Tatoga tribe that are sharing ground with them. Whereas the Tatoga have learned how to recycle soft metals by smelting them and casting arrowheads, knifes and other metal tools, concerning their tool-making skills, the Hadzabe still live in the Stone Age. On their arrowheads, the Hadzabe use poison that they extract from the branches of the shrub Adenium coetaneum.

It is impressive to follow the Hadzabe bushmen on their hunt with bow and arrow. On bare feet, several Hadzabe men run through the savanna at impressive speeds, focussing the prey at large distance, taking into consideration the direction of the wind to approach the prey from various sides and then, without any further communication shooting their arrows at the animal while still running. Their archery skills are truely impressive just as their skills to predict animal behaviour, both of which are abilities that fathers teach their sons from early childhood.

While the arrow with the herbal poison can instantly kill small animals such as birds or a dick-dicks, the poison's effect will take longer with large animals such as kudus. As a consequence, the large animal which has been hit by a poisoned arrow can still run away several kilometers and it's then up to the Hadzabe to read the animal's tracks on the ground to find it once it's going down. The Hadzabe also use dogs to assist with hunting, however this is a custom only recently adopted from other local tribes.

When they successully hunt a larger animal, they usually butcher it right on the spot. They also start a fire using their traditional drill firemaking technique to grill and eat the inner organs which are considered the best parts of the animal. The other parts of the animals are then carried to the camp.

Women forage in larger parties, and usually bring home berries, baobab fruit, and tubers, depending on availability. Men and women also forage co-operatively for honey and fruit, and at least one adult male will usually accompany a group of foraging women. Women's foraging technology includes the digging stick, large fabric or skin pouch for carrying items, knife, shoes, other clothing, and various small items held in a pouch around the neck. Men carry axes, bows, poisoned and non-poisoned arrows, knives, small honey pots, fire drills, shoes and apparel, and various small items.

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 in the dry season, when game become concentrated around sources of water.

The Hadzabe speak their own language which seems unrelated to any other languages spoken by African tribes. It is a click language. Their life is full of mysteries and tales which are presented in a comprehensive way on Wikipedia.

Tatoga tribe

The Tatoga (also: Datooga, Datog, Tatog) are a pastoralist Nilotic people of north-central Tanzania south of the Ngorongoro Crater. They arrived in the area around 300 years ago, pushing away the Iraqw pastoralist tribe that inhabited these grounds before them, and being themselves fought by the Maasai who arrived only 100 years later. Still doday, in Swahili, they are called "Mang'ati", which means "enemy" in Maasai language. However, this is not considered offensive to the Tatoga, as there is a degree of pride in being the historic enemy of the Maasai.

Although they hunt wild animals using bow and arrow, their main food supplies come from agriculture. Like the Maasai they hold cattle, but unlike the Maasai, the Tatoga also engage in crop farming using ox ploughs. The Tatoga women wear traditional goatskin dresses and the men walk around with spears.

The life of the Tatoga is rich of rituals, including rain prayers and wedding, circumcision and burial ceremonies. For instance, the Tatoga have a process of mummifying their respected elders. But to get mummified after death and placed in a special clay pyramid called "Bung'eda", the person (only men!) must have died being at least 90 years old, must have at least one daughter, and be wise and honorable. For instance having beaten their wives or at one time having shed blood through killing or simply injuring others automatically disqualifies from the immortal honor, as well as having deceased through a strange illness, especially if it included diarrhea. A bad thing is also to die from a fire accident as flame accidents are regarded a punishment from the gods.

In the Bung'eda, rich gifts are placed alongside the mummified body such as beer, milk, tobacco, honey and dried meat so that the dead elders could ‘eat’, ‘drink’ and entertain themselves.

Maasai

Being one of the most famous tribes of Africa, there is plenty of information about the Maasai to be found on the internet. We recommend you start with the Wikipedia article.

--
More Resources: East African savanna | Stone Age life | Links