Lake Eyasi
Lake Eyasi
Guest are invited to overnight in these tribal lands as well as witness how these people continue to hunt and forage for their food in the face of Tanzania’s continued development. Observing an early morning hunting display, gathering honey, and traditional dance performances are all part of the experience. Its cultural experience is not to be missed and all happens against the backdrop of beautiful lake Eyasi.
Lake Eyasi is situated at the southwestern end of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area between the Great Rift Valley Eyasi escarpment and Kidero mount, just 133km / 95mi west of Lake Manyara. lake Eyasi covers an area of about 1,050 square km / 400 square mi.
The lake is like all the other lakes in the Rift valley a soda lake. Lake Eyasi, which has one principal spring the Sibiti River, is enclosed by walls consisting of purple lava. The main attraction of Lake Eyasi is the Hadzabe bushmen, The indigenous inhabitants, and the last community of hunters and gatherers in Africa. Lake Eyasi is their homeland for over 10,000 years. They are still holding to their traditional way of life, hunting and gathering different kinds of fruits and honey
The Hadzabe live in caves and they don’t wear any kind of clothes but rather a skin to cover their private parts. The community is endangered because most of their land has been taken away from them for commercial production and they are forced to join the civilization.
Lake Eyasi is also inhabited by another Bushman community, The Tindiga, this community is also a hunters and gatherers community, but they are tired of kind of life and want to join the civilized world. They have been living for centuries from the forest and its product, hunting animals such as monkeys. The Tindiga people don’t have permanent houses and avoid building with iron sheets because they believe they cause blindness.
