The Hadza: Hunter-Gatherers of the Lake Eyasi Basin

Before sunrise, in the dry bush near Lake Eyasi in northern Tanzania, a group of men sit around a small fire, warming their hands. They check their bows and arrows, some tipped with poison made from plants. Soon they will walk out into the bush to hunt. Later in the morning, women will set off in groups with digging sticks to dig up wild tubers, and children will gather berries and baobab fruit. As they walk, a small brown bird may call to them, leading them to a bees' nest full of honey. This is the daily life of the Hadza, one of the last peoples in Africa to live largely by hunting and gathering.

Who are the Hadza?

The Hadza (also called Hadzabe) are a people of about 1,000 to 1,300, living in the region around Lake Eyasi, in Tanzania's Arusha, Manyara, Simiyu and Singida regions, near the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro highlands. Only a minority still live almost entirely from foraging; others combine foraging with other work, schooling, farming or tourism.

The Hadza have probably lived in this region for a very long time. Archaeological evidence suggests that people have hunted and gathered in the Eyasi basin for tens of thousands of years, though we cannot know how directly today's Hadza are connected to them.

A unique language

The Hadza speak Hadzane (Hadza), a language that uses click consonants, like the Khoisan languages of southern Africa and the language of the Sandawe, another Tanzanian people. Despite the clicks, linguists consider Hadzane a language isolate: it does not appear to be related to any other known language. Most Hadza today also speak Kiswahili, and many speak other local languages.

Life in the bush

The Hadza diet varies with the seasons, but includes:

• Meat from animals hunted with bows and arrows, including antelopes, zebras, giraffes, wild pigs and birds.
• Honey and bee larvae, a very important food, especially for men.
• Tubers, dug from the ground by women, which provide a reliable source of food.
• Berries, baobab fruit and other wild plants.

The Hadza live in small, mobile camps of around 20 to 30 people, who move several times a year in search of water, game and food. Membership of camps is flexible; people move between camps to visit relatives, avoid conflicts or follow food.

The honeyguide

One of the most remarkable features of Hadza life is their partnership with the greater honeyguide, a bird that feeds on beeswax and bee larvae. The bird leads people to bees' nests; the people use smoke and axes to open the nest, take the honey and leave wax for the bird.

Hadza honey-hunters use a special whistle to call the birds. Studies by anthropologist Brian Wood and colleagues, and later work comparing the Hadza with the Yao honey-hunters of Mozambique, have shown that the birds respond to the specific calls used by local people, a rare example of cooperation between humans and wild animals.

Sharing and equality

The British anthropologist James Woodburn, who worked with the Hadza from the 1950s, described them as an "immediate-return" society: people eat food soon after getting it rather than storing it, and share it widely. Meat, especially from large animals, is shared throughout the camp. There are no chiefs with power over others, and people place high value on equality and independence. Woodburn's work made the Hadza an important case in debates about human societies and inequality.

What scientists have learned

The Hadza have been studied by many researchers, including the anthropologist Frank Marlowe, who worked with them for many years. Research has explored:

• Diet and health, including the Hadza's rich and diverse gut microbiome, which has helped scientists understand how modern diets may affect human health.
• Energy and activity: studies found that Hadza adults are very active but burn a similar number of calories per day as people in industrialised societies, which challenged ideas about obesity and exercise.
• Sleep, cooperation, child-rearing and ageing.

Some Hadza and others have raised concerns about the large number of researchers and tourists, and about whether Hadza people benefit fairly from this attention.

Land under pressure

The Hadza's biggest challenge is the loss of land. Over the past century, their territory has shrunk dramatically as farmers, herders and wildlife conservation areas have expanded. Grazing livestock and farming have reduced the wild foods and animals the Hadza depend on.

In 2011, with the help of the Tanzanian organisation Ujamaa Community Resource Team, the Hadza of the Yaeda Valley received Certificates of Customary Right of Occupancy, legal titles giving them collective rights over part of their land, a significant step. Hadza communities have also been involved in carbon-credit projects to protect their forests. Land disputes continue, however.

Tourism

Tourists visit Hadza camps to see hunting and traditional life. This can bring income, but it also raises difficult questions about authenticity, respect and who benefits. Visitors are encouraged to go through community-run initiatives and to respect Hadza privacy and decisions.

Like the San

The Hadza are sometimes compared with the San peoples of southern Africa, another group of hunter-gatherers with click languages and a long history in their land, whose story we told in our article on the San. Both peoples have faced loss of land, discrimination and pressure to abandon their way of life.

Why it matters

The Hadza remind us that hunting and gathering is not a "primitive" stage of human history but a sophisticated way of life, based on deep knowledge of the land, cooperation and equality. Their future depends on their right to decide how to live, and on the protection of the land that sustains them.

Further reading

• Frank W. Marlowe, The Hadza: Hunter-Gatherers of Tanzania (University of California Press, 2010)
• Brian M. Wood et al., "Mutualism and manipulation in Hadza–honeyguide interactions," Evolution and Human Behavior 35 (2014)
• Ujamaa Community Resource Team (UCRT) — land rights for the Hadza
• James Woodburn, "Egalitarian Societies," Man 17, no. 3 (1982)