Filming the Hadzabe In East Africa: The Hadza are an an indigenous ethnic group located near Lake Eyasi in the Rift Valley in the neighboring Serengeti Plateau. They are descendants of Tanzania’s aboriginal hunter-gatherers and have occupied their land unchanged for thousands of years – a Tribe that is similar to none in Africa.
The Hadzabe (Sometimes called Hadza), are an indigenous ethnic group in north-central Tanzania, living around Lake Eyasi in the central Rift Valley and in the neighboring Serengeti Plateau. While there are about 1300 Hadza people still existing in Tanzania, only 400 still survive exclusively on the traditional means of foraging. They speak in the distinctive click-based language which they share with their distant southern cousins. But they are considered to be completely isolated and not genetically connected to any other group. A small minority still keep to their original ways and you can join them as they go hunting or forage for plants to eat. Yes, this intersection between tourism and a way of life is not completely natural. But it does allow them to earn some money to supplement their traditional way of life in the 21st century.
Like the Bushmen of southern Africa – they are one of the ‘oldest’ lineages of humankind.
Best Place to Film the Hadzabe in East Africa
The Hadza are to be found in two populations around Lake Eyasi, a salt lake at the base of the Serengeti Plateau in Tanzania. The southern is more accessible and thus often visited by tourists on a Tanzania Safari, which means that the northern offers a much more authentic experience of unspoiled Hadza culture – with less or completely no crowds.
- The Hadza of Lake Eyasi
South of Karatu and the Ngorongoro crater lies Lake Eyasi the home of the remaining Hadza people and is arguably the best place to visit, see, photograph, and film the Hadzabe people in East Africa.
Lake Eyasi is located in the south-eastern highlands of Ngorongoro and the surrounding region is the home of the Hadzabe bushmen, an interesting ethnic group and the last survivors of a civilization that knows nothing of agriculture, livestock, pottery, and metals. They live by hunting with bows and arrows and gathering wild berries and fruits.
They are the last heirs of the homines sapientes who took their first steps right here, along the Rift Valley, about two hundred thousand years ago. Their way of life has remained unchanged over the millennia and they live in small wandering groups of about twenty individuals.
Meeting the Hadza people is fascinating and they are happy to take you hunting with them in the early morning.
- The hadzabe of the Serengeti Plains
The Hadza’s homeland lies on the edge of the Serengeti plains, in the shadow of Ngorongoro Crater. It is also close to Olduvai Gorge, one of the most important prehistoric sites in the world, where homo habilis – one of the earliest members of the genus Homo – was discovered to have lived 1.9 million years ago.
Requirements for Filming the Hadza of East Africa
