Lake Eyasi

I visited a remote region of Tanzania that borders on the southern fringe of the Ngorongoro conservation area. This is off the beaten track for me both literally and figuratively. This is not exactly a wildlife area. I’m here to try something called “Cultural Tourism” Now in Europe, that might entail going to museums, symphonies and operas. But in Africa, it means that I’m to hanging out with a nomadic Bushman hunter/gather tribe for a day of activities. They possess nothing that they can’t carry with them when they move form one place to another. They don’t have any permanent homes, just temporary lodgings that they leave behind when they move on. Hey, tht sounds a lot like me!

So what did I do, well first I sat with a group of women around an early morning campfire while a special local guide told me all about their customs, The we moved over to the men’s campfire for some info on their hunting activities and a look at their bows and arrows. They also demonstrated how to start a fire by spinning a hardwood stick in a softwood block (surprisingly effective), and they shared a bit of game with me that they were cooking for breakfast over the campfire. I’m saying “game” it the most liberal usage of the term because in this case they were cooking mice. I can tell you that mouse isn’t the worse thing I’ve ever tasted, but it’s pretty far down the list. I think it would be better served with cheese. Then we went out “hunting” for real game. They like to get something like an antelope, but their favorite meat is Baboon. We were able to keep up with them for about a half hour while we were on fairly flat and open terrain. They they started taking odd uphill through little tunnels under the brush and we lost them in a minute or two. I’m in fairly good condition, but I’ve never trained for duck walking under thorn bushes. Most of it is low thorny acaicia that they call “wait a bit Acacia”. They call it that because every time you get snagged by it , the person behind you says “wait a bit” while they untangle you. After awhile we just gave up trying to catch up with them and headed back down toward camp. We also visited the local blacksmith that makes arrowheads and spear points out of scrap metal. It was a unique and interesting day.

This is Lake Eyasi. It is a soda lake and some years it dries up completely if there is not enough rain:


This is the Women’s fire. They hang out here before going off to a hard day’s gathering of roots, nuts and berries:


These are decorated Baobab seeds that the women make:


This is a temporary shelter. They don’t have many of them, and only use them when it’s raining. The rest of the time they just sleep outside on the ground. When they move on, this is just abandoned.


The Men’s fire. The men gather here in the morning for breakfast (mouse today) and then to prepare for the days hunt. I guess if you start with mouse for breakfast, just about anything you get on the hunt would be an improvement, even if you get nothing. They like to wear Baboon skins when they hunt.


They stash trophies of previous hunts in the crooks of the trees:


Looks like there is a tagger in the neighborhood carving graffiti into the trees:


These are the arrows they use for hunting. The black one is poisoned and used for large game like antelope or buffalo. The one without a point is for small game, hopefully larger than a mouse. The one with the bit of corn cob is for birds, The barbed, but not poisoned is for Baboons. The one that looks like a spear point is for large game.


This is a bow. It has a sinew string (the women make them). The bands of skin wrapped around the bow are commemorations of “kills” the bow has made:


Ok, this takes some explaining. This is a pipe that is carved of soft stone. It is the tribe’s prized possession because this is what they smoke Marijuana with. They don’t grow the weed, but a local village does (probably Jamaicans) and they sometimes trade for meat, They smoke before going out on a hunt. Well, that’s not entirely accurate because they smoke all the time, but especially before a hunt because there’s nothing that will urge you to hunting success like the munchies. To light the pipe, the use a fire starter. It consists of a block of soft wood and a long thin stick of hardwood. They spin the hardwood in a groove in the softwood block by rubbing it between their palms. The friction generates heat which sets the tinder on fire. They use dried donkey dung for tinder. Then they place the glowing donkey dung on top of the weed in the pipe and puff away. I wonder if this is where the term “smoke some shit” came from? Though they smoke it all the time, when they take a toke on the pipe, they cough like they’ve never done it before.


Here is the group passing the pipe around before the hunt. The women don’t use the pipe. They just roll a regular doobie. I think I’m a little miffed that they offered to share a mouse with me, but didn’t offer a toke on the pipe: