We Are What We Eat: Tanzania
(Part 7 of 7) Photographer Matthieu Paley joins the Hadza of Tanzania--the world’s last full-time hunter-gatherers. The Hadza work hard for their food and reward themselves generously with marijuana.
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Transcript
I went to Tanzania and I went to an area in Tanzania near
Lake Eyasi, where there's Hadza people. It is the oldest diet remaining on
Earth. And the Hadza are about 1,300-1,500 and out of these 1,500 there's 300
that are living a real... last full-time hunter-gatherer, full-time meaning
there's no back-up option. There's no little bit of agriculture-planting
whatever. There's no herding of something. They live strictly off hunting and
gathering food.
Africa is, you know, difficult. You need to coordinate
everything. I was going really deep in the bush I need to have all the food with
me, all the water with me. And then I meet with the Hadza. And in front of me these
guys show up. Band of brothers, you know, they are like “wow” So they are 100
percent hunter-gatherer and they go around every day looking for food every
morning.
This guy is like this... what they like most is honey. They
gather a lot of it. And to get honey they make fire first. They don't have light
or matches, they don't have this stuff. They live really self-sufficiently in
the bush, at least these guys. Some other guys, you know there's other areas of
Hadza land where there is more touristy area but these guys were really the
real deal. They make fire, then they smoke the beehive and then they get the
honey in it. Some time there is a bird called the Honeyguide, that would bring
them to the honey, to the beehive. And then they-- everybody is really excited.
They don't store stuff. They get too excited. They get bitten, they get stung. I
got stung too. These are killer bees so bit scary, you know... Honey is
incredible. It's like the power-bar, the ultimate power-bar. There's so much
energy in this. And on top of it they often eat it like this straight with
larva. You can see the little white spot, these are larva. So you get this
sweet and sour mixture in your mouth. It's just-- you feel like “wow, this is
so powerful.” There's protein and there is this incredible amount of energy coming
into you. They share it with the women there. They sometime put some on the
side to bring to the elderly that's their camp or their real babies. But they
eat everything on the spot more or less otherwise.
One thing I have to tell you right about the Hadza is they
smoke a lot of marijuana. And so they trade this stuff and this is after they
smoke. This goes on for five minutes, I had to cut it short. But then this goes
on like this. So, they do that, you know, they are really living in the moment it
doesn't matter, you know, it's just whoo. It's difficult for me to coordinate
things. “Can we do that in ten minutes?” “Ah, yeah, it's alright man. Take it
easy, yo!” I had to kind of Zen-out. So, now you know in what state they are
when I am photographing them. Just so you know.
That's Mokoa and his wife Wande. And in the morning Mokoa
goes hunting and Wande goes foraging. Often the woman looks for tubers. There's
this vine coming out of the trees, they locate them, dig they find the root,
they cut out the root with a knife and they keep the root, and then it's a
little bit like potato. When they move around and they pass something edible they
will just grab food. And some time they are looking straight but they see food
on the corner of their eye, and they just go like this. It's quite amazing. They
just keep in movement but eating, feeding themselves. This is Kongolobe, it's a
special berry that grows there. And then they go back to the watering hole drink
up and go back to camp.
Camp is these beautiful houses that are like upside down
nests. The women always do them. Inside, you know, it's quite beautiful at
night. This woman was cooking stork. And outside the men are yapping and
yapping like they always do everywhere, anywhere. And they are telling hunting
stories. Mokoa goes in the morning hunting and I follow him around. They take
all different kind of arrows. There's the arrow for the bird, there's the
poison arrow for the big animals, there's the other one, you know, for medium
animals. And then there is the one on the right to finish up a wounded animal. They
walk for hours, it's very hard, it's very exhausting. Some time they only get these
tiny little birds. They don't get many animals. It's quite rare. There are
animals but, you know they are used to being hunted for thousands and thousands
of years and they hear you coming from so far away and I was with them. And you
know, so it was even extra challenging.
The ancestors of the Hadza have been living in Hadza land
for about 40,000 years. That's what anthropology tells us. It's incredible,
they have left no impact on their environment. So they go around with bow and
arrows. They often miss their target. This is Kampala. He had missed a... just
a bird there. And whenever there's a higher viewpoint like this they climb up
on top of trees to look for wildlife. They usually get up early morning and hunt
until noon or something like that. Below trees they make these blinds to hunt
from blinds. They some time, they get stork, this migratory bird that comes
from Europe. The hunting process is very meditative. You know, you're getting
really into the rhythm because nobody talks. They talk very quietly and you
walk and you walk. It's very beautiful. It's not like hunting with rifle because
the bow don't make any noises when they're hunting. But then when they see
animals it becomes very hectic and they start running around. They eat
everything they can find except snake and elephants. Elephants, the arrow can't
go through their skins and snake, they're just scared of them. This is a little
baby bush that they got that day. And then they, you know, have a smoke break. I
couldn't believe it. I was like, oh, unbelievable. They roll in newspaper, there's
no... You know, they get newspaper and they roll straight in there. And then,
you know, it doesn't matter right after that they are running around they're
incredibly flat. When they run they have their upper body that is kind of--
back like this. It's quite impressive to see them running. And then get dik-dik
like this. This is the smallest gazelle can be found in Africa. And then
Mokoa's like we'll get up to a higher point of view. He will point and see, something
there and it was really intense. And we run there, and you know, two hours,
three hours later, after much tracking and stuff they get this vervet monkey that
fell off that tree. It was very powerful.
I love my time with the Hadza. You know, they know how to strike
a pose too, This is Mokoa. And you know, this is a left camp. This is what they
leave behind. This stack of branches, the grass has fallen off, this is all
that's left. Think about that. They have lived for 40,000 years in that area
and there's no tracks. You know, there's nothing left behind from their times. The
thing with their story that really strike me is that wherever you eat local and
you spend energy to get your food you are for the better. And this would be the
message that I want to hope and give to that... through that, you know through
my experience living with these people in all this. If you can do anything to
enforce yourself to grow something or if you eat meat, you know, learn to kill
a chicken. I mean, you know, if you're going to eat meat you should learn once
in your life... I've killed a goat once since I've seen that because I eat meat
every day, not every day, you know but every three days maybe. And so I think
it's important to understand where the food comes from. And to do everything
you can to eat local. Well, that's my point through that experiences. Thank you
very much. Thank you.