Lifestyle's : Tanzania’s Forgotten Indegenous Tribe Win Rights

Hadzabe youths at Lake Eyasi in Mbulu, northern Tanzania.

By ADAM IHUCHA

Minority groups now have a reason to celebrate, thanks to the first draft of a new constitution for the Federation of the United Republic of Tanzania that has recognized them.

Article 45 of the draft, unveiled in June 2013, recognizes minority groups such as hunter-gatherers — mainly the Hadzabe and Akiye ethnic groups — for the first time since Independence, over 50 years ago.

The Hadzabe and Akiye, whose combined population in the country does not exceed 2,000, live in northern Tanzania and their livelihood depends on wild fruits, honey, and wild meat.

Article 45 specifically provides that the state shall put in place an affirmative legal framework designed to ensure that minority groups participate and are represented in all governance structures. 

Other rights provided include special opportunities in educational, employment and economic activities. 

Also granted are opportunities for self-development and employment, a radical departure from the current Constitution.

The draft laws also provide that land that such groups traditionally make use of as their domicile and source of livelihood, be reserved, while they are to be allowed to practise their cultural values.

Experts say the article means that the nearly 1,500 Hadzabe in Yaeda Chini valley in Mbulu district, Arusha region and an estimated 500 Akiye in Kiteto, a remote district in Manyara region, are now recognised like other groups such as farmers, pastoralists and fishermen.

“A unique aspect of this new draft constitution is the fact that it has a provision recognising rights of minority groups, which was not the case in the previous mother law,” explains Edward Lekaita, a lawyer.

Mr Lekaita said under the current Constitution, farmers are given high priority in development plans, while pastoralists and fishermen have received scant attention from the government and the existence of hunter-gatherers has never been recognised at all.

Now, the Hadzabe and Akiye will be included in any government development plans, policies, laws, and the Constitution.

Article 45, Section 2 proposes that the government and its institutions take measures to expand economic activities and put up infrastructure for human settlement, education and health services for the current and future generations of the Hadzabe and other minority groups in the country.

Richard Baalow, a Hadzabe elder, says that the draft constitution come as a relief to one of Africa’s last hunter-gatherer tribes.

“We as a community are very happy with the news that the draft constitution recognises us. We are also grateful to the commission for taking into consideration our opinions,” Mr Baalow said in a telephone interview.

He demanded that parliament enacts specific laws to protect their interests in land and more importantly, their right to perpetuate their traditional way of life without restrictions.

At the moment, the biggest enemy of Hadzabe hunter-gatherers of Yaeda Chini is the Wildlife Act of 2009, which has criminalised them as poachers because the law does not allow anybody to hunt without a licence.

Like the Bushmen of Southern Africa, the Hadzabe and Akiye are hunter-gatherers in Tanzania.

Their ancestral homelands originally covered large parts of northern Tanzania and included the world famous Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti Plain. 

Now, the Hadzabe exploit a far smaller territory to the south of Ngorongoro, in the escarpments of the Rift Valley and the valleys around Lake Eyasi, while the Akiye live south of Ngorongoro in Kiteto district in Manyara region. 

These areas are home to a wide array of wildlife and to a range of flora that include the magnificent baobab trees of Africa — home to the bees from which they collect wild honey.

Despite this environmental diversity with its rich resources, the Hadzabe are facing severe threats to their traditional way of life. 

Scientists have already raised the red flag over the Hadzabe ethnic group, a surviving relic of the hunter-gatherers on the African continent, saying they could become extinct in a few years as a result of pressure on their natural habitat.

In Tanzania, the Hadzabe have inhabited the acacia forests and scrublands around Lake Eyasi in Arusha and Meatu in Shinyanga for over 10,000 years.

“The situation is critical for the tribe, whose population does not exceed 2,000, in Meatu district, Shinyanga region,’’ says an Oxfam report.

“The community is virtually under threat of extinction as the forests, which are their home and the basis of their livelihood, have been converted into farms and conservation areas,” the report adds.

Critics say efforts to resettle them in permanent villages have failed. Instead, they have attracted researchers from all over the world and sympathizers among civil society organisations who insist they should have access to their habitats.

The Hadzabe survive using the most ancient subsistence practices and technology known to human beings. 

They hunt animals with bows and arrows and gather wild fruit and plants.

They hunt all manner of game from small animals such as dik dik, bush pig and antelope, to large creatures such as wildebeest and giraffe, using arrows with poisoned tips. 

The Hadzabe women and children gather fruits, honey and tuber roots that make up a large and important part of their diet.

Pushing these people out of their traditional habitat and attempting to settle them permanently or further integrate them into society may have tragic consequences, experts warn.

“Their rich culture could be lost forever. Not being in a position to fight for their own rights, the Hadzabe are a people in need of protection,’’ analysts argue.

While Tanzania was taking steps to recognise the rights of minority groups like the Hadzabe, in South America the Brazilian government was forced to use an air force plane to fly Munduruku Indians out for negotiations over a new dam that the government wants to build in their homeland. 

The Munduruku (Mundurucu or Wuy Jugu) are an indigenous people of Brazil living in the Amazon River basin, who in 2010 had an estimated population of 11,640.

Tanzania recently announced sweeping changes in a draft constitution that proposes that the country have three governments — one for Zanzibar, another for the Mainland, and the Union government.