Tanzania Culture Featuring the Hadzabe Tribe

The Hadzabe Tribe in Northern Tanzania with guests

Northern Tanzania is home to the Hadzabe, one of the last remaining hunter-gatherer tribes on Earth. Known for shunning material possessions and social hierarchy, the Hadza roam as needed to find game, tubers and wild berries. Hunter-gatherer societies understand that their survival depends on natural resources. The Hadzabe are known for avoiding material possessions and social hierarchy. They roam to find game, tubers, and wild berries, and have a deep knowledge of nature. The Hadzabe's ancestral territory has been shrinking due to agriculture and pastoralists. They have no formal claim to ownership of their land. The Hadzabe live around the Lake Eyasi basin in the central Rift Valley and in the neighboring Serengeti Plateau. They are thought to have lived in their current territory for about 10,000 years. Genetic studies have shown that the Hadza are not genetically related to any other people on Earth. Their language is also not connected to any other languages, even in the region. The Hadzabe are nomadic hunter-gatherers living in the rocky hills and arid valleys to the east and south-west of Lake Eyasi. They speak a language currently unrelatable to any other. The Hadzabe's ancestral territory has been shrinking due to agriculture and pastoralists. The increasing impact of tourism and encroaching pastoralists pose serious threats to the continuation of their traditional way of life