Thread by @Gurdur

So that the threads don't get too long, new thread! Starting here.
Continuation from here:

External Tweet loading...
If nothing shows, it may have been deleted
by @Gurdur view original on Twitter

In fairness to me, although I passed on the offer of a spliff of elephant dung, I did try chewing a bit of psychoactive bark he recommended

It did absolutely nothing for me. He swore by it as antidote to bad side-effects of smoking elephant-dung, but I suspected hyperventilation.

If you wonder I was ready to do bark but not elephant dung, it was because less possible parasites. I blame my childhood for the paranoia.

Preparing the elephant dung for a spliff. It has been pre-processed by termites, and looks like shredded tobacco, left side.

After long to- and fro-, it's OK to show his face. But any names given here apart from mine are false. Reasons to come. Note this pic:

What is the huge glaring difference between this photo, and say a photo of a Hadzabe man up north? It's important.

John was of the Sandawe, aboriginal to the area way before Bantu, Cushitics or Nilotics came along. Traditionally nomadic hunter-gatherers

The Sandawe in all those aspects are very similar to the Hadzabe, who are much further north (tho still in Tanzania). Two huge differences

1/ Hadzabe fiercely resisted being forced into fixed housing, & still maintain a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle. One of my photos of them

Hadzabe long-dry-season (≈≈ summer) huts (far north Tanzania). This is how they vastly prefer to live. They hate concrete or mudbrick houses

If a Hadzabe man lights a fire, he does so with a hand-drill. Not even with a bow-drill. Since they have bows, I asked why.

I was greeted with blank incomprehension of why I should ask. The answer was, "Because we've always done it that way". Period, full-stop.

To me, a bow-drill is a nice improvement over doing it completely manually to light a fire. To them, it was unnecessary and suspect.

You may laugh but this is a point I want 2 come back 2 later. "Because we've always done it this way" is a big force

External Tweet loading...
If nothing shows, it may have been deleted
by @Gerrarrdus view original on Twitter

For John, incorporating what he found convenient, in his 're-creation' of ancient Sandawe ways, was fine. Including matches.

A Hadzabe man would never go to uni, because why? Or have all that much to do with tourists, only through a middleman of another tribe.

For John, I was incomprehensible, b/c I found wood-ash as covering quite normal, stalking animals normal, even allegedly psychoactive bark.

He was also mildly dumbfounded by my constant haring off to photo small things, like army ants:

... and a butterfly I met there:

The biggest argument was about magic and poaching. John told me of Matthias, who poached an elephant in the neighboring Selous National Park

But he did ask me why I photoed tiny things so avidly. On reflection, perhaps "Because I've always been that way" was not an adequate answer

The Sandawe now live settled, in fixed, mudbrick or concrete houses, in villages mostly. They have a network of poached-animals dealers

I was aghast. He was proud of this network, of bushmeat dealers on motorbikes. Of poaching. He explained, it was animist #ProsperityGospel

It was development of old beliefs, together with imported new superstitions - that body-parts of animals could bring luck, prosperity etc.

This to me was foreign, far more West- or Southern-African, rather than East African, most especially when it comes to human body-parts.

But for him the poaching & bushmeat trade was a point of pride, a blow against the Establishment, a victory for identity.

I was ... critical. I pointed out elephant numbers have dropped over 90% - ninety percent - over the last 15 years in the Selous.

I also pointed out Tanzania, including that area, was highly dependent on tourism income. Over 50% of GNP. Once the elephants are gone...

My points did not sway him. I am reminded of similar conversations w/ avid Brexiteers, certain Slymepit atheists, & some CofE like @Psephizo

John was determined to believe in this whacko animist #ProsperityGospel, because why? Certainly not despair; he was doing reasonably well.

Because identity, giving it to The Man, rage against the Machine, sticking two fingers up to the Establishment, buggered if I know.

To be fair to him, I don't think the utterly abhorrent human body-parts magic, with its murders of albinos, has yet hit south-east Tanzania

But I really don't know. A heck of a lot goes on in village life not seen by outsiders. Outsiders include anyone not from the villages

John straddled 4 worlds. Bantu city & uni, Sandawe village, Western tourism, recreation (actually more just creation) of ancient Sandawe way

New thread, starts here.

External Tweet loading...
If nothing shows, it may have been deleted
by @Gurdur view original on Twitter

to stop these threads getting too long

unroll