By ADAM IHUCHA
Minority groups now have a reason to celebrate, thanks to
the first draft of a new constitution for the Federation of the United Republic
of Tanzania that has recognized them.
Article 45 of the draft, unveiled in June 2013, recognizes
minority groups such as hunter-gatherers — mainly the Hadzabe and Akiye ethnic
groups — for the first time since Independence, over 50 years ago.
The Hadzabe and Akiye, whose combined population in the
country does not exceed 2,000, live in northern Tanzania and their livelihood
depends on wild fruits, honey, and wild meat.
Article 45 specifically provides that the state shall put in
place an affirmative legal framework designed to ensure that minority groups
participate and are represented in all governance structures.
Other rights provided include special opportunities in
educational, employment and economic activities.
Also granted are opportunities for self-development and
employment, a radical departure from the current Constitution.
The draft laws also provide that land that such groups
traditionally make use of as their domicile and source of livelihood, be
reserved, while they are to be allowed to practise their cultural values.
Experts say the article means that the nearly 1,500 Hadzabe
in Yaeda Chini valley in Mbulu district, Arusha region and an estimated 500
Akiye in Kiteto, a remote district in Manyara region, are now recognised like
other groups such as farmers, pastoralists and fishermen.
“A unique aspect of this new draft constitution is the fact
that it has a provision recognising rights of minority groups, which was not
the case in the previous mother law,” explains Edward Lekaita, a lawyer.
Mr Lekaita said under the current Constitution, farmers are
given high priority in development plans, while pastoralists and fishermen have
received scant attention from the government and the existence of
hunter-gatherers has never been recognised at all.
Now, the Hadzabe and Akiye will be included in any
government development plans, policies, laws, and the Constitution.
Article 45, Section 2 proposes that the government and its
institutions take measures to expand economic activities and put up
infrastructure for human settlement, education and health services for the
current and future generations of the Hadzabe and other minority groups in the
country.
Richard Baalow, a Hadzabe elder, says that the draft
constitution come as a relief to one of Africa’s last hunter-gatherer tribes.
“We as a community are very happy with the news that the
draft constitution recognises us. We are also grateful to the commission for
taking into consideration our opinions,” Mr Baalow said in a telephone
interview.
He demanded that parliament enacts specific laws to protect
their interests in land and more importantly, their right to perpetuate their
traditional way of life without restrictions.
At the moment, the biggest enemy of Hadzabe hunter-gatherers
of Yaeda Chini is the Wildlife Act of 2009, which has criminalised them as
poachers because the law does not allow anybody to hunt without a licence.
Like the Bushmen of Southern Africa, the Hadzabe and Akiye
are hunter-gatherers in Tanzania.
Their ancestral homelands originally covered large parts of
northern Tanzania and included the world famous Ngorongoro Crater and the
Serengeti Plain.
Now, the Hadzabe exploit a far smaller territory to the
south of Ngorongoro, in the escarpments of the Rift Valley and the valleys
around Lake Eyasi, while the Akiye live south of Ngorongoro in Kiteto district
in Manyara region.
These areas are home to a wide array of wildlife and to a
range of flora that include the magnificent baobab trees of Africa — home to
the bees from which they collect wild honey.
Despite this environmental diversity with its rich
resources, the Hadzabe are facing severe threats to their traditional way of
life.
Scientists have already raised the red flag over the Hadzabe
ethnic group, a surviving relic of the hunter-gatherers on the African
continent, saying they could become extinct in a few years as a result of
pressure on their natural habitat.
In Tanzania, the Hadzabe have inhabited the acacia forests
and scrublands around Lake Eyasi in Arusha and Meatu in Shinyanga for over
10,000 years.
“The situation is critical for the tribe, whose population
does not exceed 2,000, in Meatu district, Shinyanga region,’’ says an Oxfam
report.
“The community is virtually under threat of extinction as
the forests, which are their home and the basis of their livelihood, have been
converted into farms and conservation areas,” the report adds.
Critics say efforts to resettle them in permanent villages
have failed. Instead, they have attracted researchers from all over the world
and sympathizers among civil society organisations who insist they should have
access to their habitats.
The Hadzabe survive using the most ancient subsistence
practices and technology known to human beings.
They hunt animals with bows and arrows and gather wild fruit
and plants.
They hunt all manner of game from small animals such as dik
dik, bush pig and antelope, to large creatures such as wildebeest and giraffe,
using arrows with poisoned tips.
The Hadzabe women and children gather fruits, honey and
tuber roots that make up a large and important part of their diet.
Pushing these people out of their traditional habitat and
attempting to settle them permanently or further integrate them into society
may have tragic consequences, experts warn.
“Their rich culture could be lost forever. Not being in a
position to fight for their own rights, the Hadzabe are a people in need of
protection,’’ analysts argue.
While Tanzania was taking steps to recognise the rights of
minority groups like the Hadzabe, in South America the Brazilian government was
forced to use an air force plane to fly Munduruku Indians out for negotiations
over a new dam that the government wants to build in their homeland.
The Munduruku (Mundurucu or Wuy Jugu) are an indigenous
people of Brazil living in the Amazon River basin, who in 2010 had an estimated
population of 11,640.
Tanzania recently announced sweeping changes in a draft
constitution that proposes that the country have three governments — one for
Zanzibar, another for the Mainland, and the Union government.
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