#hadzabe

a few days after my departure from another field visit to lake eyasi, shopo hadza, one of my main research collaborators and guides, himself part of the Hadzabe community, reached out to me and to his social media following with the following message:

”Today I am reporting sadness from Home. The Hadza community has lived in their historical area for over a hundred years in the Mandegau area, Qangded-Mang'ola village. Today, the land tribunal have given Mr. Msemo a one-sided victory. The case went to Msemo to sue the child and his mother believing that suing son and her mother, it coukd be easier to him to win a cas.-where due to the right to life and poverty the family didnt appear before a court. And in the end the case was decided on one side. Dear friends and friendly organizations, we are asking for your help in anything so that the community can open a case and issue a quick stop order. sorry for any erros i mean typing error. I am skacking right now and i cant even do anythings (…)”

as an activist for his community, shopo shared emotional news of a recent land conflict affecting fellow Hadzabe: a portion of their ancestral land in the mandegau area of mang’ola has been claimed by a local farmer in form of a private dispute. this was followed by a legal case in which the targeted Hadza family—a mother and child—were taken to court on the premise of unlawful occupancy. furthermore, the Hadza family was absent from the hearing. their unfortunate absence helped the farmers case and the outcome was, for now, one-sided. when i asked a friend and interview participant on why the Hadza family did not show up to the court hearing they told me “because they are afraid”.

i believe this is not an isolated event and most probably not the first nor last of its kind on Hadza ancestral lands. it is an example of small, accumulative acts through which the processes behind dispossession come to light—not always through violence, or forced evictions (as has been seen in the Loliondo evictions of Maasai people in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area) but also through slow and systematic processes: misrepresentation, inaccessible institutions, and legal mechanisms that rarely account for the lived knowledge or relational cosmologies of those who have been on the land the longest.

nevertheless, land in Tanzania cannot be “owned”. so then what does it mean to have lived in a place for generations, and still be asked to prove belonging or have to fight for the right to exist on the land within the space that you already perceive as your “home” ? - Here I deliberately omit the word “country” or “Tanzania”, because I am not sure if the Hadza people see themselves as Tanzanians. What does “home” mean to them? and what does it mean to be Tanzanian? To be in the political, geographical terrain which resulted out of a colonial census? Do my research participants feel part of this nation state, this bordered space with its own constitution, history and land governance structures?

returning back to the land dispute of mang’ola, even more questions seem to arise. What does it mean when the absence of a people in the judicial process of a land dispute—due to material hardship, or fear—is used to justify the erasure of a community’s claim? this legal case invites us to look beyond the surface, to question the structural patterns behind the story. the subtle traces of exclusion and the way legal systems continue to prioritize documentation over embodied knowledge, property over relation, visibility over presence.

the hadza of mang’ola have now opened a court file to prevent further development on the land, and another to initiate a legal case against its invasion (for example by mang'ola's ever groing settlement of sedentary farmers such as Mr. Msemo). but time, as always, is not neutral, nor does resistance come free of charge. so far several Hadza have driven to the district capital karatu for multiple days in a row, to appear, organize, and gather the financial resources needed to make a stand for their claim of land, to defend on behalf of their community.

if the landscape of resistance is physical, legal, and temporal, here we see a rupture between ways of knowing. between a legal imaginary in which land can be owned, sold, and bordered—and another in which land is not an object, nothing to have to ask permission for, but a permanent memory, a right that transcends time, but nevertheless is still contested.

in essence, this story is applicable to many realities. many versions of it unfold across different geographies, with similar asymmetries regarding access, representation, and human rights. and yet, this story is unique to its local circumstances in tanzania. to the structures (and histories) within the tanzanian legal system regarding land ownership and rule of law, of representation and (human) rights.

the outcome of this case may set a precedent of how land struggles are handled in the future in the surrounding areas of mang’ola, on Hadza land, and perhaps across northern tanzania because the legislative decision in the case can show both local and national priority of land rights of indigenous people.

i share these thoughts not as a researcher alone, but as a critical mind and as someone asking: what are we willing to notice beyond the surface? what kinds of knowledge are believed in, seen as legally “relevant” and which are dismissed? what structures, in their multiplicity, lie behind the right to land, legitimacy of ownership and why?

Translated from Swahili to English:

Order: All people living in the area where Mr. Christopher Msemo built, are ordered to move out of this area within 14 days. Anyone who refuses will be forcibly removed.

(Picture credit: Shopo Hadza, facebook)

Things To Know Tanzania Tribes

Tanzania’s religious beliefs are as diverse and unique as its natural and cultural resources. Tanzanian tribes and religion has high influence upon Tanzanian culture. Religion of Tanzania One third of Tanzanians are Christians, another third are Muslim. The remaining third pursue one of the numerous indigenous religions. In rural places some people express their faith in an animistic religion.…

They are considered one of the last hunter-gatherer tribes in Africa with approximately 1,300 tribe members. Their native homeland includes the Eyasi Valley and nearby hills.

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