The Hadzabe or Hadza tribe

The Hadza or Hadzabe are a people from the Bushmen ethnic group who have lived in Africa for over 20,000 years, predominantly in Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. They have also lived in Tanzania for 10,000 years, with about 1,000 people across the country. They used to live in the high mountains of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, but today they are mostly near the shores of Lake Eyasi and its forests.

The Hadza are nomads, they live by hunting and gathering fruits, berries, seeds, and pods that they find in the forests of the place where they live. They also collect honey. They hunt with poisoned bows and arrows that they make themselves. They usually hunt animals such as rats, birds, dick-dick, monkeys, impalas, cudús, buffaloes… Usually, men hunt and women gather.

The Datoga tribe

The Datoga have their origins in South Sudan and Ethiopia, about 3,000 years ago. They moved south to the mountains of Kenya and Tanzania. There are currently about 3,000 people left in Tanzania.
They are shepherds and their whole life revolves around their herds. They have cows, goats, or chickens. They also grow corn or beans. They dress in the skins of their herds, usually in red leather tunics.

The Datoga makes handmade metal bracelets and necklaces and then sells them at the market. They get the metals of any piece (nails, car parts, scraps…) before crafting it into a piece of jewelry. To do this, they first place the metal pieces in a container to melt them in the fire. Once they have the metal melted, they put it in a cylinder-shaped mold and let it cool. Once they have a few metals, they place them underground with cow dung to soften them a bit; and thus be able to give different shapes and patterns to the new metal they have created. In this way, they create the bracelets that will later be sold in the market. They also create other elements such as the arrowheads and do so by chopping the metal cylinders made to give it the shape they want. It is an ancient art where only with fire, air, and stones can many of the ornamental elements of the Datoga be made, as well as achieving exchanges with other tribal groups and an economic benefit.