fPcN interCultural:

friends of Peoples close to Nature

Signs of Hadza extinction now evident
Just a few weeks after the Arabian hunting firm officially pulled out of Yaeda, a new monster is reported to have moved into the vast valley and intends to unleash even worse destruction.
Yaeda valley lying mostly within Mbulu District in Manyara, with part of it extending to Singida region is currently being visited by hordes of people interested in starting mining activities in the area.

The vast untamed land had since creation been home to a number of indigenous tribes among them the rapidly shrinking population of the Hadza (Singular Hadzabe) bush people.

Measuring around 3975 square kilometers, the Yaeda valley and the stretching Eyasi escarpments much of which lies in the Eastern division of Mbulu District, is believed to hoard a number of valuable minerals and already teams of geologists have been dispatched to the vicinity to conduct feasibility studies.

The Hadza people are aghast; they feel that once mining activities start in the valley they will be totally annihilated from the location. Either that or be subjected to vacate the valley in search of other places of abode.

Officials at Mbulu District headquarters however, are not aware of the new activities taking place in the valley.

Shiri Magembe is the chairman of Elimunguri Village in Mwangaza ward at Kipampa location of Yaeda, he admits to be receiving groups of curious visitors all claiming to be researchers and geologists doing feasibility studies on the area’s mining potential.

“They are all very confusing, some claim to be searching for red garnets, others green garnets while of late there those who are sure that they can extract gold from here,” said the Hadzabe chairman adding that the valley is currently full of assorted vehicles installed with large, curious looking equipment and drilling machines.

The Lutheran Diocese of Mbulu does a number of outreach services to the communities living in Yaeda and its General Secretary, Reverend Lazaro Rohho agreed that of late strange teams of people riding in even stranger vehicles have been making several tours within Yaeda on some unidentified missions.

At an extremely remote location in Kipampa, one of the groups has set up camp. The place comprises three tents, a temporary kitchen, a store and about 20 bags full of soil samples and rocks. The camp was deserted by the time we got there, but local residents say the owners normally return at dusk and leave before sunrise.

It is the only group that has pitched camp there, others go into the valley, conduct their studies and leave. Recently a new group even reported to the chairman’s house and signed their names in the brown-paged, old visitors’ book.

The page revealed names of Famida Rajab who filled in as a geologist, Zelothe Lazarus Ayoub a driver and Graham Kazimoto who signed as an assistant driver. According to the chairman these visitors hailing from mostly Arusha and Dar-es-salaam, professed to be conducting mining potential studies in the area.

Other groups apparently, never bother to report to officials, they simply drive into the valley, do some series of drilling, digging and soil shoving then leave only to return after two or three days.

A lady who was recently hired to perform an errand for one of the ‘researching’ teams said the people in the group, two men and two women said they were working for a company known as Green Hills Mining Limited which was interested in extracting ‘red garnets’ from Yaeda.

“And what exactly makes you think there could be minerals in Yaeda?” Mbulu Member of Parliament, Philip Marmo retorted over the phone.

An outspoken Hadzabe old man, Magandula Kizali is suspicious of this new development; “They will chase us from our valley once mining activities begin here,” he said. “If we are to choose, then it is better to have the Arab hunters than mining companies in Yaeda.”

The Tanzania United Arabian Emirates Safaris Limited, which recently bowed out of Yaeda after what the firm’s spokesperson described as ‘constant media pressure,’ had initially planned to introduce both commercial and sports hunting activities in the valley.

For the Hadzabe people the situation is like jumping from a frying pan into a raging fire. The bustling mining activities that threaten Yaeda could be more deadly than the Arabian firm’s proposal to convert the virgin land into a hunting playground for the rich.

By: Valentine Marc Nkwame/Arusha Times

Region

• East Africa

Tribe

• Hadzabe