This post combines with the last post about Ngorongoro to complete the summary of my last week in the field.
From Ngorongoro we drove back through the countryside and bumpy roads to another campsite in the ‘Maasai landscape’ of Lake Eyasi. After setting up our tents, we chilled and enjoyed the comfort of the shade trees and the lush greenery of our campsite. Later we went with our guide to visit a branch of the indigenous tribe known as the Datoga. This branch of the indigenous tribe supported themselves by being blacksmiths. As we all sat on benches set inside a goat corral made out of thorny trees, we watched as a brass lock was hammered, melted the lock down by putting it in a dirt pit with hot coals that was fanned by an old man with double bellows made out of cow lungs, poured the hot metal into a mold, cooled it by dousing it in water from a calabash and then formed it into a bangle and hammered designs into it with a chisel and wooden hammer. It was very neat, to say the least. After interacting with the Datoga, we went on a walking tour of the area with our guide which included seeing a natural spring, massive fields of onions (this area of Tanzania is the main region for onion production in the entire country), and a walk through the forested area back to our campsite.
The next day, we went with Dr. Mabulla to a place called Mumba Rock Shelter where we climbed up to the top of the rock shelter and he lectured us on the history of the land and its people throughout evolutionary time. After the lecture, we dug around in the dirt to find more bone fragments and looked at some of the ancient rock paintings.
After Mumba rock shelter, we went to Lake Eyasi, a soda lake that is dry at this time of the year. We walked around the area and dug in the dirt to find fragments of ancient ostrich egg shells, pieces of pottery, bone fragments, and beads made out of ostrich egg shells. Although we were only pretending to be archaeologists, it was still insanely fun being hunched over, digging in the dirt to find artifacts that we treated like pieces of buried treasure.
When we got back to the camp, we had a lecture by some Tanzanian ladies who are very familiar with the other indigenous tribe that we were to see, the Hadza, or Hadzabe The Hadza are an indigenous tribe in great danger of extinction in that there are less than 1,000 members left in Tanzania. They are the last big-game hunter-gatherers left in the entire world. In this area, they used to be a great people, free from outsiders imposition onto their land. Because so many non-hunter-gatherers have encroached upon their land and moved into their area, their prey (cape buffaloes, lions, elephants, large ungulates, and other animals) have migrated out of the area, leaving them to hunt the only prey left in the area (bush babies, baboons, small cats, etc). They have also been affected by cultural tourism: because the Hadza have no leader or government of their group, hence no system for the distribution of the funds that they get from tourism. Because of this, the Hadza have developed a propensity for alcohol and tobacco - even children as young as 10 years old are alcoholics and addicted to tobacco. The Tanzanian government is literally doing nothing, or very little, to aid the Hadza and stop people from encroaching onto their land.
The next day, we visited the Hadza and insisted that our director use the money to establish a fund for the Hadza youth that want to go to school. Most of the girls went with the Hadza women and girls to gather berries and fruit and dig for tubers and roots. Many of the boys went with the Hadza men to hunt game with bows and arrows. We went around the land around the campsite and gathered three types of berries, tamarind fruit, and dug with digging sticks at the roots of the ‘wait a bit’ plant. The wazungu were aptly suited for helping to gather berries as all of us were at least a head taller than all of the women. When the women were digging for roots, one found a scorpion. We gathered that it wasn’t yet poisonous, so she picked it up and chased around her family members with the scorpion. When we got back to the camp, we helped crush the berries, peel the tamarinds, and prepare a berry/tamarind sludge. When the men got back, we learned that they had killed a dove and a bushbaby. When they were out in the field, they shot the bushbaby with their arrows and then built a campfire to cook it. Unfortunately the bushbaby wasn’t yet dead from the arrow blow, so a Hadza man took the bushbaby and snapped its neck with his teeth and jaws. After the bushbaby had stopped kicking, they put it on the spit and roasted it to eat in the field. While they were eating the meat, a Hadza man took out his stone pipe and proceeded to light up some marijuana for everyone to smoke in the pipe as an offering in thanksgiving for the kill. While the men were out, those who had helped gather played with the children and helped the women bead. When the men got back, we all got lessons on how to shoot their bows and arrows and joined the Hadza in dancing.
That night, we celebrated our last night in the field by going out to a local bar for some drinks with all of the staff of our outfitter company. It was a wonderful night and full of memories and laughing.
We drove the next day to Arusha where we ate lunch at a ritzy place and went to our hotel to relax. Some of us then went to the Maasai market before we all went out to a beautiful restaurant for our last meal when we were all together. We ate by candlelight and a few ambient lights in a room resembling a giant tent. It was a lovely night that was punctuated by good drinks, tasty tapas, and wonderful company. We all said ‘kwaheri’ to the staff of our outfitter company.
The next day we departed Arusha to return to Dar es Salaam for the last three weeks of our time in Tanzania.
