WALKING WITH THE HADZA a cultural exchange in the Tanzanian bush text by JUSTIN FORNAL images by CHRISTOPHER BEAUCHAMP A FELLOW OF THE EXPLORERS CLUB SINCE 2011, JUSTIN FORNAL IS A WRITER, FILMMAKER, AND LONG-DISTANCE SWIMMER. HIS WORK HAS APPEARED IN NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, VICE, AND ROADS & KINGDOMS. IN 2016 HE TRACKED DOWN THE ALLEGED SKULL OF NAT TURNER AND RETURNED IT TO THE TURNER DESCENDANTS. HE IS CUR- RENTLY ENGAGED IN SEVERAL OTHER RELIC REPATRIATION PROJECTS. IN 2017, FORNAL COMPLETED AN EXPEDITION TO SWIM AROUND ISLAY, SCOTLAND, WHILE FILLING AN OAK CASK WITH WHISKEY FROM COASTAL DISTILLERIES. WWW.JUSTINFORNAL.COM. THE EXPLORERS JOURNAL “Wake up quickly brother, they are leaving.” last true hunter-gather societies left on the Expedition member Allen Mollel shook planet. Traditionally, they do not farm. They me awake as the Hadza hunters started gain all of their sustenance from honey, to file out of camp and into the bush. Each tubers, berries, birds, and essentially any man grabbed his hunting kit consisting of a mammals they can kill. bow and roughly a dozen arrows. Within a Living less than 60 kilometers from minute all ten hunters had exited the village, Olduvai Gorge, an archeological site that which was perched atop an island of boul- holds some of the oldest known human ders, and had glided across the salt flats. hand tools, it can be argued that the Hadza There were minor conversations as each are the last living connection we have to our hunter filed through his collection of arrows ancient selves. It is believed that the mod- and tugged his bowstrings. One of the ern-day Hadza have been hunting at Lake men, dissatisfied with his arrows, sent the Eyasi for 10,000 years and estimated that youngest in the group sprinting back to get their ancestors were in the region for more another set. I was entrusted with the honey than 50,000 years. axe, a short rugged maul used to hack open With roughly 1,500 Hadza remain- trees and extract honeycombs. My sense ing, only about 300 are still living a true was that the honey axe holder is the Hadza hunter-gatherer existence. Governmental equivalent of a water boy. resettlement programs, Christian mission- Although low in the sky, the full moon aries, neighboring pastoral communities, still cast its pale lapis veil over the striding and a growing tourism industry have all had hunters. The group held a steady, brisk gait impacts on the Hadza’s ability to practice as we stepped off the sandy flat and onto their traditional lifestyle. the dry grasslands of the savannah. In a 2011 milestone decision, the The atmosphere changed and I felt as if Tanzanian government awarded the in- we had just entered a church. Suddenly the digenous group a CCRO (Certificate of Hadza men were transformed. Not only did Customary Right of Occupancy), granting their conversations quieten, but also their them permanent usage of 57,000 acres of very presence. The loud gregarious spirits land for hunting and gathering. Although smoking pipes full of cannabis around the most experts agree that CCROs are previous night’s fire were gone. Not only a great step in stabilizing the Hadza’s were their footsteps completely silent, but existence, others contend that profound also their very souls somehow seemed cultural damage has already been done muted. They were now phantom stalkers, and the group’s numbers will continue to spiritually synchronized with their sur- diminish until they are gone. Sadly, when roundings. They stared into trees, sniffed the last band of Hadza finally walks away down burrows, and listened to the air with from their land, they will take with them profound intensity. They investigated, look- a part of the human experience they can ing for any clue or whisper of life. For it was never again regain. life that provided what they set out to find every single dawn and dusk. Food. The Hadza (or Hadzabe) are a nomadic OPENING SPREAD: A BABOON SKULL AND A PILE OF HORNS people living on the land surrounding Lake MARK THE ENTRANCE TO THE HADZA CAMP. PREVIOUS SPREAD: Eyasi, a shallow saltwater lake just south A HADZA HUNTER WALKS TOWARD THE BUSH WITH HIS BOWS of Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. AND ARROWS. FACING PAGE: EVERY NIGHT THE FIRE IS THE The Hadza are thought to be one of the CENTER OF ACTIVITY AND STORYTELLING. 38 “I looked up again and saw three baboons, then ten, then twenty. I heard Allen whisper, ‘There are too many.’” I was visiting the Hadza as part of a own homemade Maasai power drink, a se- three-country expedition through Tanzania, lection of dried medicinal plants; olekidongo Rwanda, and Uganda with plans to docu- (Achyranthes aspera), olkiloriti (Acacia nilot- ment the traditions of several East African ica), and natua-enkongu (Pappea capensis) ethnic groups. We planned to meet that had been pulverized and dissolved in with Chagga, Maasai, Datoga, Abahutu, water. Although the Hadza speak their own Abatutsi, and Baganda peoples. tongue, an isolate click language, a number After American photographer and climb- of the tribesmen were able to communicate er Christopher Beauchamp agreed to join, with Allen and Greyson in Swahili. I reached out to my old friend Allen Mollel, Suddenly the hunting party froze. They a Maasai living in Arusha. Allen runs safaris cast their gaze upon a towering huddle of around Ngorongoro Crater, escorting tour- boulders almost identical to the one where ists and explorers alike to photograph the they had set up their village. One of the Serengeti’s Big Five—lions, leopards, Cape youngest hunters tapped me on the shoul- buffalo, rhinos, and elephants. Allen was der and pointed at a stoic gray dot staring excited to contribute his knowledge of the down from the 30-meter summit. Mbuzi region to the expedition and meet neigh- (baboon)! A lone baboon saw us, watched boring tribesmen he had only read about. us. The men grew focused and excited. They Convincing his wife to let us borrow the fam- broke us up into groups and took off in an ily minivan for the 4,800-kilometer round-trip attempt to surround the high cliffs. Chasing proved more challenging. Greyson Marealle, after two hunters, we crashed through sharp a member of the Chagga community from thicket and underbrush, the prickers ripping west Kilimanjaro, joined the team as well. deep into my arms. I looked up again and Now several days into the journey, our only saw three baboons, then ten, then twenty. I challenge was keeping up with the Hadza. heard Allen whisper, “There are too many.” We had been speed walking silently through As we sprinted clockwise around the island the bush for two hours and the blazing, un- of boulders, an entire army of angry male filtered sun had taken its official place in the primates started to scream and bark from morning sky. Allen quietly handed me the wa- atop the cliff in our general direction. We ter bottle. “Drink the dawa, it will keep your were drastically outnumbered and the troop energy up.” Allen never traveled without his of baboons clearly had the higher ground. The sprinting Hadza had the same simple tools they always had, wooden bows and FROM A DISTANCE THE HADZA PEOPLE APPEAR UNCHANGED BY poison-tipped arrows that were only accu- TIME. IT IS EASY TO IMAGINE A SIMILAR SCENARIO UNFOLDING rate when used at relatively close range. THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO. Clutching the honey axe tight in hand, I THE EXPLORERS JOURNAL “The altercation climaxed with a blurring cacophony of running Hadza, screaming baboons, and whizzing arrows.” realized this might very well be a dramatic the tree back up for our future use. fight to the death. For the Hadza, this kind Closer to camp, another hunter found a of high-stakes face-off was not unusual. second honey stash inside of a tree. Small This was an everyday activity. The baboons nonstinging bees produced this. He used are not enemies to the Hadza. They are not the honey axe to completely split open the trophies in waiting. The baboons are food, small tree, revealing dark amber comb filling they are medicine, and they are clothing. the majority of the hollow trunk. While we They are a means to survive another day. shared the contents and preserved some The altercation climaxed with a blurring for the village, I noticed small pegs that had cacophony of running Hadza, screaming been hammered into the voluminous trunk baboons, and whizzing arrows. When the of a nearby baobab tree (Adansonia digi- dust settled, it became clear that this time tata). Allen asked Shakwa if the pegs were the baboons had escaped. The intense there so they could get access to the fruit. moment left all outsiders adrenaline-surged The reply makes him smile. and chatty. For the unfazed Hadza men it “They say sometimes they might sleep up just meant it was time to look for honey. there. I think it is the honeymoon suite. You On the walk back to the camp, a hunter and I are too fat. We will break the ladder.” named Shakwa stopped and climbed a tree The foot pegs disappear high atop the that had a football sized rock jammed in a smooth trunk, a thick limb about the size and hole. He took the honey axe and chopped shape of a living room couch branches out the rock out. Reaching his entire arm into the over the warm savannah. The higher braches hollow trunk he pulled out a massive brick of conceal the limb, creating a natural tree dripping honeycomb filled with white larva.