TENTATIVE AT FIRST



On our first day in the camp they knew we were coming, but didn't quite know what to make of us and whether they could actually trust or relate to us.

By the second day they had begun to relax and accept our presence:


By the third day they were as invested in our project as we were, determined to depict their culture and life style:









Popular posts from this blog

THE HADZABE

Image
Near Lake Eyasi in Tanzania there is an ancient tribe of about one thousand surviving members, the last hunter gatherers in the country. Ninety percent of their traditional lands have been encroached upon by neighboring pastoral tribes. There have been attempts by missionaries and the government to assimilate them, all of which have failed. It would be misleading to characterize them as "primitive" except in the respect that 90% of human history we have all been hunter gatherers. However, this is not a backwards society, but a thriving culture that wishes to continue to live in their traditional manner. They view "modern" society as detached, distracted and overstimulated; thereby "lost" from their roots and soul.
Read more

GROWING UP HADZABE

Image
There are many babies, and in a Hadzabe mother's lifetime she is pregnant an average of six times. Mothers who are nursing typically go topless, and allow their infants to nurse on demand.  Unfortunately, there is a very high infant mortality rate with one in five not surviving. In addition, 46% of children don't live past fifteen years old. They succumb to diarrheal illnesses, malaria, and accidents which, without access to modern healthcare, can only be treated with bush medicine. Childcare is shared among all the women and teenage girls, and it was sometimes difficult to tell who was the mother versus an auntie or sister. The Hadzabe do not have a written language, and by our standards are illiterate. However, given their environment, they are very literate in the subtleties of plants and animals. It is noteworthy that all the neighboring pastoral tribes have at some point experienced famine, but the Hadzabe have never gone hungry. They are also the only tribe tha...
Read more

HADZABE HUNTERS

Image
 Hadzabe men spend a majority of their time hunting, or making their bows and arrows. Due to the shrinking size of their hunting grounds they often have to travel away from the group to reach the game. Their favorite prey is baboons which they shoot in the trees during a new moon. They also use blinds near watering holes. Many of the men wear impala skins, another favored large game. They will, however, shoot game large and small including birds and bush babies. They are extremely skilled and accurate with bows and arrows.  They spend a lot of time fashioning arrows, straightening them with their teeth, and adding feathers and metal arrowheads they get from the neighboring Datoga tribe. Their bows are from the same branches, but thicker and shaped after being heated and bent in the crook of a tree. They can have a pull of 100 pounds. Arrowheads are made from old nails from the Datoga tribe, and are given to the Hadzabe in exchange for meat or honey, or thro...
Read more