The impact of Western civilisation in Africa is enormous and documented, from culture and religion to political structure. But Africa isn’t a country.
Some societies and tribes, somehow, have remained unaffected by the reach of civilisation and thus making their dressing, custom, traditions and lifestyle uniquely peculiar.
Till date, some tribes in Africa still exist in an uncivilised bubble, maintaining traditions long left behind by the rest of the world and providing a wealth of information for anthropologists seeking to understand the way cultures have developed over the centuries.
The Hadza people, who call themselves the Hadzabe, are a culture of nomadic hunter-gatherers who live in Tanzania. Isolated through their remarkably steadfast tradition, they have changed little in 10,000 years. This Tanzanian tribe mainly rely on wild fruits, tubers, and roots for food. They are also avid hunters who use bows and arrows to hunt antelope, buffalos and birds.
They grow no food, raise no livestock, and live without rules or calendars. The
y are living a hunter-gatherer existence. They also speak a distinctive click language which has led to the belief that they are related to the Khoisan of the Kalahari Desert.
The Hadza language, called Hadzane by its people, is an endangered language isolate spoken in the region surrounding Lake Eyasi in northern Tanzania. Though it has persisted for thousands of years, threats to the future of the Hadza people are compromising one of the worlds most distinct and ancient languages.
Due to the Hadza’s rigorous language use and strong tradition, Hadzane
has an advantage over many other endangered languages in Africa. The Hadza people have proven to be an extremely resilient culture, persisting in isolation through the advent of pastoralism and agriculture.
Today, however, land use issues and cultural diffusion present more of a challenge to the future of the Hadza people and their language than ever before.
