Help out the Hadza!
What’s happening to the Hadza, their forced displacement for the most absurd reason ever, is for the lack of a better term really messed up. I personally can’t help but think that it is inhumane to be selling their lands, homes, and lifestyles to Arabs who want to go safari where they used to live. And for the Tanzanian government to be such a massive sellout to their own people is a disgrace. Makes me wonder if they have any morals?
In reaction, some of us have blogged about it and also been trying to contact international agencies to help do something. We do not want to see the Hadza lose their land.
One of the best things we can do, I can think of at this time, is good ole arm waving and hollerin’ to bring attention to the matter. Since Christopher O’Brien’s excellent and emphatic post really transfered a personal attachment to this issue, I’ve submitted it to Digg to get more people alerted. I urge you to help start saving the Hadza and their culture by raising awareness to this violation and at least help digg up Chris’ post — it is the least we can do as anthropologists, in my humble opinion.
What can I do personally? Is there a petition to sign? Would a letter to the Tanzanian Embassy help?
D. Keeting-Hansen
Sequim WA
deborah keeting-hansen
July 20, 2007 at 10:34 am
Hi Deborah, thanks for your query – if you check my post of July 15th, namely ‘Hadzabe Alert/Protest Letter, there are a couple of email addresses to which a downloadable letter can be sent, originally penned by Steffen Keulig, whose website, fPcN-global.org can be accessed through a link in the post.
He seems to be well on the case as far as this issue goes, and you might find it worthwhile contacting him for further pointers. For the time being, there’s as yet no high profile public campaign in progress, but maybe that will change.
Tim
timaeolithic
July 21, 2007 at 2:00 am
I totally agree leave them alone. They don’t want to move. The exact same thing happened with the “bushmen” San people of Botswana. Their land taken away for goverment and enterprise hunger for diamonds. Now they are lost, resettled and unhappy, i wish this not to happen with the last true hunter gathereres of mother Africa.
Fouche
January 17, 2009 at 7:10 am
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