As well as gathering food from the land, the Hadzabe hunt game – everything from small birds and rodents, to giraffes, buffalo and larger monkeys are hunted whenever an opportunity arises. Hunting is an exclusively male occupation and groups of men and boys will head out whenever they are hungry. If successful, the hunters will cook and eat smaller animals on the spot. Only when a large animal is caught is meat bought back to the camp for the women and children.
A Hadzabe hunter carrying a bow and arrows on the shores of Lake Eyasi, Tanzania.
Even today, the Hadzabe use homemade bows and arrows exclusively. Arrow shafts are selected from straight, new-growth branches of a particular bush. After the bark is removed, the new shaft is left to dry and then straightened by biting down on the wood after being softened in the heat of a fire.
A Hadzabe hunter stripping bark from a branch that will be used to make a new arrow shaft, Lake Eyasi, Tanzania.
Hadzabe boy checking a new arrow shaft, Lake Eyasi, Tanzania.
Metal arrow heads are made by local Datoga blacksmiths. Traditionally the Hadzabe would trade hides – in particular, kudu hides used for clothing - for the arrow heads, but today are as likely to purchase new ones using money earned from the tourist trade. Different styles of arrow head are used for different prey; heavily barbed arrows are used for monkeys, whilst long, leaf-shaped blades are used for larger birds. Younger boys simply sharpen the wooden tip of the arrow shaft.
An arrow head with barbs made by a Datago blacksmith from a nail. Lake Eyasi, Tanzania.
Left – A selection of different arrowheads used by a hunter. Right – A Hadzabe boy sharpening a wooden arrow whilst holding the shaft with his toes. Lake Eyasi, Tanzania.
Bow and a selection of arrows, Lake Eyasi, Tanzania.
At the northern tip of Lake Eyasi, groups of Hadzabe settle in small camps and hunt in the surrounding scrubland and the forest at the edge of the lake. They target rodents, birds, small cats, bushbabies, dikdik and, whenever possible, monkeys and marabou storks.
Hadzabe hunters shooting arrows at a rodent hidden in a bush, Lake Eyasi, Tanzania.
Hadzabe boys with rodents caught in the scrub, Lake Eyasi, Tanzania.
Hadzabe hunters looking for birds in the forest along the shore, Lake Eyasi, Tanzania.
Hadzabe hunter with a pigeon caught in the forest along the shore, Lake Eyasi, Tanzania.
Young Hadzabe hunter with a bushbaby caught in the forest along the shore, Lake Eyasi, Tanzania.
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