The Hadzabe are a modern hunter-gatherer people living in the northern part of Tanzania in East Africa. They are considered one of the last hunter-gatherer tribes in Africa, with approximately 1,300 tribe members.
This unique tribe remains an important study focus for anthropologists, as they represent a modern link to ways of human existence and survival largely abandoned by most of humanity.
There are a few hunter-gatherers left in the world, and the Hadzabe are often studied by scientists to help understand how humans of the past lived.
As a hunter-gatherer society, the Hadzabe have no domesticated livestock, nor do they grow or store their own food. The Hadzabe survive by hunting their food with hand-made bows and arrows and foraging for edible plants.
The Hadzabe diet is primarily plant-based but also consists of meat, fat, and honey. They created temporary shelters of dried grass and branches, and they own a few possessions.
Although the Hadzabe are one of the very few communities in the world that still live by hunting and gathering, their existence and survival as a cultural group are threatened by the impacts of climate change, and their plight has not received the attention it deserves.
A lot of climate change coverage and advocacy in defense of indigenous communities is largely focused on other parts of the world, such as the Amazonian and Andean communities, yet little attention is given to African indigenous communities like the Hadzabe. Without immediate action, the Hadzabe livelihoods and communities could gradually be wiped into extinction.
Africa has a lot of indigenous groups critically exposed to the dangers of climate change, with little support. These constitute the left behind in climate governance and the quest for climate Justice.
Studies show a positive correlation between climate change’s impacts on increased temperatures and declining biodiversity in sensitive natural ecosystems. This makes indigenous groups the first group to be directly affected and more disadvantaged by the negative impacts of climate change due to their direct reliance on the natural environment.
Moreover, the impacts of climate change are more severe, long-lasting, and socially disruptive on indigenous communities than on other population groupings.
The United Nations estimates that the total net impact of climate change on indigenous communities is in billions of dollars and intergenerational.
Despite being the least polluters, the indigenous communities are paying heavily for the climate change crimes and damages that they never caused. Their lands, dwellings, livelihoods, and cultures are being disrupted and wiped out. Their future generations may never exist or even live to enjoy their cultural heritage.
The rising temperatures and extended droughts have resulted in a loss of vegetation and negatively impacted gathering and hunting activities undertaken by the Hadzabe people.
Their hunting and eating habits have changed as they now have to turn to unconventional hunting methods and the eating of endangered animals such as monkeys, baboons, and rare bird species to compensate for the dwindling plant and animal species that previously provided food.
Increasingly, the Hadzabe are gradually becoming a danger to the animals and the ecosystem that they have protected for many generations.
Moreover, the health of the Hadzabe indigenous people is deteriorating as they no longer get their livelihood from nature. The Hadzabe are very well known to feed on meat from wild game, honey, and plants, including tubers, berries, and baobab fruit.
For the Hadzabe, the phrase “food is medicine” is applicable, and yet the increased climate impacts like heat waves, storms, and flash floods have wiped out their food sustenance. Because of climate change, the flower-bearing trees are rare, and the bees are dying or migrating to distant places in search of green forest cover.
The already inadequate access to health facilities, such as hospitals, amidst declining immunity, has caused more danger for the indigenous people who live in the wilderness and have to roam deeper in search of food. According to medical reports from the nearest medical facilities, such as the Haydom Lutheran Hospital, the morbidity and mortality rates amongst this small Hadzabe community in Yaedachini Valley have increased.
In order to rescue this community, the UN and other international agencies must dedicate a percentage of the Loss and Damage Fund to cater for indigenous groups, including the Hadzabe in Tanzania. During the COP27 in Egypt, the United Nations committed to setting up a climate loss and damage fund.
While the details of this Fund are still unclear, the framework for access to these funds is still being developed. This provides an opportunity for putting guard rails in place as to how indigenous groups, such as the Hadzabe, will benefit. Reports from climate champions indicate that a very small fraction of funding is currently directed towards Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC) for securing land rights and managing forests in tropical regions.
The Tanzanian government, on its side, must provide adequate infrastructure and social services like health, water services, and education for future sustainability. The Tanzanian government, in collaboration with other state actors or non-state actors such as CSOs, community-based organizations, must provide supportive socio-economic infrastructures, as well as boreholes and water tanks to the Hadzabe communities.
This will help provide the Hadzabe with access to clean and reliable sources of water and opportunities for learning and acquiring new skills to confront climate change. Alternative means of food must be equally provided to complement the dwindling wild sources.
