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Hadzabe tribe an endangered species...
2005-10-31 07:29:05
By Adam Ihucha, Arusha
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The Hadzabe family prepare food. |
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Social scientists have expressed fears that the Hadzabe ethnic group, a surviving relic of the hunter-gatherers on the African continent, 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 scrubland around Lake Eyasi in Arusha and Meatu in Shinyanga for over 10,000 years.
According to a just-concluded research by Oxfam, a international non-governmental organisation, the Hadzabe, who survive on fruit-gathering and hunting down wild animals for food, are under serious threat of extinction as their habitats have been converted into conservation areas and agricultural farms.
’’The situation is very critical for the tribe, whose population does not exceed 3,000, in Meatu district, Shinyanga region,’’ reads part of the Oxfam report circulated to stakeholders in Arusha recently.
’’The community is virtually under threat of extinction as the forests, which are their homes and the basis of their livelihood, have been converted into farms and conservation areas, the study added.
The researchers, however, blamed the situation on poor government policies, which they said favour conservation of huge chunks of land for wildlife hunting at the expense of indigenous people.
In their study on the problems facing farmers and livestock keepers in Shinyanga Region, researchers found out that foreign hunting companies were allowed to hunt in the Maswa game reserve while none of the locals had access to resources there.
’’The local agro-pastoralists cannot have access to the pastures in the game reserve nor can they graze livestock in the hunting block, to the detriment of their survival, the study notes.
According to researchers, the pastoralist Maasai in neighbouring districts face similar restrictions on account of licensed hunting activities in the Loliondo and Longido game reserves.
’’Equally affected by conservation and other competitive land uses are the hunter-gatherers, of whom the Hadzabe in Meatu district, are a telling example,’’ the study says.
Available records show that the Hadzabe live in the woodlands within Lake Eyasi basin and the surrounding hills in Meatu district, Iramba in Singida region, Mbulu in Manyara, Karatu and Ngorongoro, both in Arusha region.
Critics say that efforts to resettle them in permanent villages have failed.
Instead, they have attracted researchers from all over the world and sympathisers from the civil society organisations who insists they should have access to their habitats.
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