Tanzania urged to save Hadzabe community from verge of extinction

Source: XINHUA 

ARUSHA, Tanzania, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania and other African countries have been urged to take serious actions to save indigenous communities, like Hadzabe who are on the verge of extinction.

President of the Working Group for Indigenous People of the African Commission for Human Rights and People's Rights (ACHPR) Soyata Maiga made the comments on Sunday in Arusha, the northern Tanzania's safari capital, where she attended the official launch of a film on the rights of indigenous people in Africa.

The Hadzabe are among a few hardy ethnic groups, usually known as bush people for their refusal to integrate with agricultural and semi-urban settlements nearby. Other such people are Khoisan groups in the Kalahari stretches of Namibia, spilling over into Botswana, and a few other enclaves which live along Lake Eyasi in northern part of Tanzania.
The Hadzabe culture has proved resilient to all encroachment, eschewing contemporary ways of life which even the once sturdy Maasai are beginning to succumb, or have all but lost their firm traditional anchors. In total Hadzabe are not more than 1,500 in their Yaeda Chini enclave.

Maiga expressed dismay over dangers facing indigenous people in the continent, and described the situation as caused by failure of some countries to put in place laws and policies which are friendly to such communities.

According to Maiga, indigenous people and communities in Africa suffer from a number of particular human rights violations that are often of a collective in nature; that in African Charter is an important instrument for the promotion and protection of the rights of the important segment in African societies.

She called upon countries to recognize the role of the minorities in their respective countries.

In Tanzania, Hadzabe community's population is reportedly decreasing in number because of a number of challenges including climate change.

"Hadzabe is just one of the communities, which are in danger of disappearing in Africa, and we need to put in place affirmative actions to address some of the challenges facing them," said Edward Porokwa, head of the Tanzania's Pastoralists Indigenous Non- Governmental Organization (Pingo's Forum).

He said right now in Tanzania there are no specific national policy or legislation on indigenous peoples per se in Tanzania.

"On the contrary, a number of policies, strategies and programs that do not reflect the interests of the indigenous peoples in terms of access to land and natural resources, basic social services and justice are continuously being developed, resulting in a deteriorating and increasingly hostile political environment for both pastoralists and hunter-gatherers," he said.

Porokwa cited some of the challenges facing indigenous people in Tanzania as policy discrimination, lack of representatives in the decision making bodies, forceful evictions, poverty and climate change.

"Because of lack of policies, people of that community are regarded as illegal hunters when hunting in their areas..so we need to work on this area," he said.

He further stated that Hadzabe, who survive on fruit-gathering and hunting of wild animals for food, are under serious threat of extinction as their natural habitats were being converted into conservation and agricultural areas.