Butterfly Works

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

This October Butterfly Works supported a research trip that was undertaken by Oreteti Cultural Discovery to investigate a possible cultural centre to preserve Hadzabe culture and facilitate international promotion (Mongo wa Mono, Kenya).

Find below an extract from their report:

“There was a lot of enthusiasm for the project.

(..) On the subject of location, it emerged clearly that Mongo wa Mono is regarded as the ‘heart’ of Hadzabe land and that there are only a few Hadzabe families in Yaeda Chini.
(..) Community members explained that in Mang’ola, which we did not visit, the Hadzabe are more commercially oriented and try to ‘enact’ a traditional lifestyle that they do not really follow, for the purpose of attracting tourists. There is a lot of competition for tourists between different groups, with ‘touts’ from different camps trying to stop tour buses and attract the tourists to their particular show. Some of these may not even be Hadzabe at all but are just imitating a lifestyle that they have learned. There are a lot of problems in the Mang’ola area with alcohol and marijuana, which are also present in Mongo wa Mono but did not seem to have the same sort of impact. So in conclusion, I really think that Mongo wa Mono would be the best place for this project if it happens.

Another thing that emerged from the visit is that there is really a decline in the traditional and hunting and gathering activities, I did not see any of these actually happening while we were there. On the contrary, I met with a group of about 10 Hadzabe women, with their children, all sitting on a rock and pounding maize into flour with hand-held stones. It seemed to be an exceptionally time-consuming and labour-intensive way of producing food, as they were literally pounding the maize two or three kernels at a time. I couldn’t help thinking that if they have to eat maize, a solar-powered maize mill would bring about a great improvement in their quality of life! It is a big concern if they are just living on ugali (maize polenta) as it is not very nutritious on its own. They told me that they do have meat regularly and in the evenings we did see many dik-dik and a couple of impala, but in the short time that we were there we didn’t see anyone actually hunting, and some community members admitted that the men living around the village area itself have become quite lazy and don’t go out hunting much anymore. I asked whether it was against the law and was told that although they are not allowed to hunt large animals such as eland and giraffe, there is nothing stopping them from hunting the smaller animals. Apparently there are still some bands of Hadzabe out hunting ‘in the bush’ (to us, the part that they were calling the ‘village’ looked very much like bush, but there must be some difference!) and when they get a large animal, everyone comes to share it. On the subject of gathering it turned out that there are no fruits in season at the moment, except in an area that is quite far away, and the honey season doesn’t begin until November. There was no digging for tubers going on either, presumably because the people were too busy pounding maize.

We also had some interesting discussions with Hadzabe elders about the Four Corners Cultural Centre project that is being established in Haydom, about a two-hour drive from Mongo wa Mono. Some of the elders who attended the meeting have been appointed to a committee that is responsible for collecting, documenting and translating traditional stories for this centre.

We decided to take some time to visit the Four Corners Cultural Centre for ourselves, and found it very interesting. Briefly, it is being created as a resource centre for indigenous peoples themselves, rather than primarily targeting tourists (although tourists will also be welcome). The aim is to create a forum for dialogue between four different ethnic groups, each representing one of the major language families of Africa (Hadzabe - Khoisan, Isanzu - Bantu, Datoga - Nilotic, Iraqw - Cushitic). It is funded by Norwegian donors in association with the Haydom Lutheran Hospital (www.haydom.no). Representatives from the four ethnic groups have already built traditional dwellings at the site, participated in workshops on coexistence and land issues, brought seeds of medicinal trees for cultivation at the site, and begun the documentation of traditional stories. The construction of a central meeting place facility, classroom and toilets is also ongoing."

The Hadza that we spoke to in Mongo wa Mono and Yaeda Chini were emphatic that in addition to being part of the Haydom project, they also wanted their 'own' cultural centre that would be under the ownership of the Hadza community itself and would work alongside cultural tourism activities in the area. However, there might still be a possibility of sharing ideas and resources etc with the Haydom project.

In short, I do think that it is well worth going ahead and developing the proposal further. “