Adventures in Africa: VISITING BUSHMEN

Our climb was only the first part of the journey! The second part we spent visiting the locales of Africa and seeing the sights and indigenous people!

Visited the Hadzabe tribe in the morning and just when we thought our Tanzanian journey cannot get anymore exciting and fresh, we were wrong. Being with the Hadzabe people felt like being transported to another dimension - they still wear baboon skin, their dogs are for hunting and not performing cute tricks, and they wield bows and arrows like Legolas minus the pretty face. Mainly nomadic hunter-gatherers, they live in a society strictly segregated by gender.

They eat all wild animals except for hyenas, because they feed their dead to the hyenas and thus do not eat them out of respect for their dead. They smoke marijuana and have an average life expectancy of 45. They obtain their metalware and marijuana by barter trading wild bushmeat with other tribes, mainly the Datoonga people who are skilled blacksmiths. Living with these people who have no use for money, whose education equals knowing how to hunt, who have no worldly concerns was a reality check for us.

Once again we were just reminded of how diverse human population is and how much of a bubble Singapore truly is.

Real bushmen, chilling under the rocks, wearing baboon skin as their clothing.

Not only is the blacksmith is involved but also the wife and son, working together hard as a family to achieve the highest productivity.

A baboon carcass. o.O

Marijuana joint. That’s right, you are looking at an illegal drug.

Our arrow practicing session. We could not hit a single target. The arrow has really high tension, yet the little boys had almost 100% accuracy. I guess mastery of the bushmen bow and arrow really takes time and training!

In the background is a balboa tree. It bears edible fruits which were really tasty(mix of sweet and sour). The bushmen were trying to use rocks to hit down the fruits. I'm holding an axe!