Why Hadzabe ask govt protection in land conflict

ARUSHA: DRIVING around the east and south-west of Lake Eyasi in northern Tanzania, you will see the indigenous Hadza or Hadzabe (Wahadzabe, in Swahili) people leading a nomadic hunter-gatherers lifestyle in the rocky hills and arid valleys.

Their social structures primarily based in Baray, an administrative ward within Karatu District in southwest Arusha Region are communal and egalitarian, with no system of chiefs and strong obligations to share resources, particularly food.

The Hadza people rely on hunting and gathering as a source of livelihood, where they get adequate supplies of fruits, berries and tubers, as well as abundant gamemaking this way of life nutritionally adequate and ecologically sustainable.

They live primarily off plant-based food but supplement their diet with honey they have foraged and meat they have hunted using bow and arrows.

Their language, known as Hadzabe, consists of clicking, similar to that of the San Bushmen of Southern Africa, but also includes popping sounds and more familiar sounds.

There have been several attempts to introduce the Hadzabe to Christianity and farming practices, but these have been unsuccessful as the Hadzabe prefer to live their traditional way of life.

Through storytelling, it is thought the Hadzabe have lived in the areas around the Serengeti for thousands of years.

They have been pushed out slightly by invading Maasai, and nowadays encroaching farming practices threatening their lands once again.

Considered to be some of the last true hunter-gatherer tribes left in Africa, the Hadzabe have no livestock and prefer to live completely off the land, carrying everything they own on their backs as they move. Loss of land to farming continues to threaten the future existence of the Hadza people.

Nevertheless, Hadza are working with local NGO partners to secure communal land rights for all Hadza groups.

Recently, the Hadza have been partnering with social enterprise Carbon Tanzania so as to benefit from their long-term protection of community forests through the carbon offset market.

Companies and individuals buy carbon offsets and the funds are funnelled directly to the community for local projects and forest conservation.

The project aimed to protect 35,000 hectares of forest in 2016. However of late, their population is diminishing mostly as a result of cultural and land conflicts, where they face some farmers and herders competing for the same space for cultivation and hunting.

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Talking to some journalists, who visited them through the Media Aid for Indigenous and Pastoralists Communities (MAIPAC) with the funding of the Global Environment Fund (GEF) through the project program members of the United Nations Development Organization (UNDP) and the Office of the Vice President – Environment, the community asked for urgent help.

Through their Qang’dend Village leader, Ng’washambi Kusombi they said that using their natural knowledge, they were able to take care of the environment, forests and water sources, but now they are in danger of running out of food and other requirements, because of land conflict with farmers competing for the same land with them.. Kusombi said some communities of farmers and herders have invaded their areas for farming, grazing livestock and others cutting trees to burn charcoal, a situation that has started forces their population to decrease.

“In the past we used to find wildlife only in nearby areas, now we walk a long distance, we used to find fruits and roots locally, but now they have decreased because the trees shielding them are being cut by charcoal burners” he pointed out.

He said that even honey that they rely on for daily food has now started to disappear, because the trees have been cut down and some of the existing ones have also been owned by the communities of herders and farmers who invaded them.

“We had set places to get honey in these gourd trees but now if we want honey we are told it is not ours anymore, or we are forced to share the honey with those who claim that the trees are theirs,” he said .

He said there are some village leaders who have been selling their pieces of land secretly despite the district council telling them it is their property- even though they have not given them title deeds.

Nyambulu Njegela said that even the animals have fled further away because in their areas that had preserved the environment, trees have been cut down.

“Right now we are traveling long distances to follow animals and we usually only hunt one big animal to eat and we don’t hunt until all the meat is alive now we don’t find animals nearby” he said.

He said that if the current situation is not controlled, their lives will be in danger because even in the caves where they were living, they have already been invaded by other communities. Juliana Yohana said that women are facing a big challenge at the moment because they have to walk long distances to find water and roots for food and medicine.

“We are asking you to help us so that our land is not invaded more because we are having a lot of problems, you see we have small children, they stay all day without In response, MAIPAC Project Officer, Andrea Ngobole said that through the project by collecting natural knowledge, they have discovered that the Hadzabe community is in danger of disappearing and it is important for the government to intervene.

“This community has protected the environment, they don’t cut trees, they don’t farm or burn charcoal, now there are many invaders who farm in land, they cut trees for charcoal,” he pointed out.

Speaking to the journalists, Karatu District Council Head of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation, Donata Kimaro, said the council was investigating the invasion of the Hadzabes’ areas.

Kimaro said that the council had already prepared a plan for the best use of land in the areas of these communities, but it has been found that there is still a challenge of understanding for some village leaders and the citizens.

On his part, Karatu District Forestry Officer, Reginald Hallu said that the council has started arresting people who encroach on land to cultivate and cut charcoal against the law.

“Already we have several cases of people who invaded the Hadzabe areas and started burning trees for charcoal and some have paid fines and left, so we are warning that it is forbidden to invade the land reserved for the Hadzabe community,” he said.