Empowerment is pretty worn, even frayed in NGO parlance. Those of you who know Maanda Ngoitiko - member of the Ujamaa Community Resource Team (UCRT); founder of Pastoral Women’s Council (PWC); District Govt Councilor; threat and friend to many – will agree that she embodies this word.

At the Hunter Gatherer Powwow in Tarangire, Maanda both inspired and challenged all but particularly, the women. She inspired by relating recent examples of how women voting as a block were able to positively influence the outcome of village elections. In one dramatic case, women in the last hour, overturned a candidate who had received a whopping $20k for his campaign from a particularly wealthy investor in support of a ‘pliable’ candidate.

She challenged by exhorting the women to take charge in these elections and ensure that  good, community first, me second leaders  were elected, “if you care about your children and their future  you have no option but to mobilize”.  Today and tomorrow there are community meetings being held as a result on each side of the Yaeda Valley.

Political mobilization is tough under any circumstances but with apolitical, non hierarchical Hunter Gatherers whose means of livelihood require flexibility and mobility, it is very, very difficult. How many Hadza wake up on Sept 28^th or whatever date and remember that it’s voting day and for those that do, how many decide to walk the 3 or 4 hours one way to the polling booth?  And someone has to gather the day’s berries, baobab fruit and dig the tubers.

Voting booth in Hadzaland

The other problem is once farming and herding immigrants (with higher fecundity) get their foot in the door, it is only a matter of two or three generations before they outnumber the original people. This election is the last one in which the numbers in Mongo wa Mono village, a village originally set up for the Hadza, allow even a chance for the Hadza to win at the voting booth. 

It is like being in a war where the battle line keeps moving but always backwards. After losing political control of the village, the line is control of a couple of sub villages. The next line (a good one) is using the new land regulations to demarcate and register the established conservation/traditional economy zones in the name of the Hadza rather than the village. Next is to use the progressive Forestry Act to establish a Hadza Community Forest Reserve overlaying the conservation zone. And pie in the sky perhaps, but the ultimate could be a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

An adaptive & flexible strategy is required as of course are resources – committed people and financial. The result can be layers of ‘Security and Protection’. This is not to say or advocate that culture and people will remain static. It is to advocate for choice and dignity with feet firmly on the ground. Formal education is essential for informed citizenry, representation and broader livelihood options. It does not however, preclude continuing education of the “Old Way”, time tested and true. Without land, the “Old Way” faces a certain death, with land, the “Old Way” will still certainly change and adapt but the world and all of us will be richer for it.