Link: Recent Sandawe Updates
Population: 45-50,000
Location: North central, near the town of Kondoa; between the Mponde and Bubu rivers.
GENERAL INFORMATION
The Sandawe are racially different than their surrounding tribes. Whereas most of the tribes in Tanzania are Bantu people, the Sandawe are Khoisan. This means that they have lighter skin and certain other distinct physical characteristics. The Sandawe speak a click language. Apart from one small tribe further north, all the other click language tribes are in southern Africa. The Sandawe, therefore, are very different linguistically and in other ways from the surrounding peoples in Tanzania. Their population is approximately 45-50,000. There are 33 Government recognised villages in the Sandawe area, but some Sandawe live in the wilderness away from the villages.
Traditionally, the Sandawe are hunter-gatherers. They are still experts at hunting with bow and arrow, trapping wild animals and surviving on wild plants, herbs and honey. Over the past 30 years, as the wildlife population has decreased and the Tanzanian Government has attempted to facilitate modern development, the Sandawe have begun to depend more and more on farming. Now every family farms millet, corn, ground nuts and other crops.
The people are friendly and, as one anthropologist has described them, “happy-go-lucky”. The Government has sponsored many primary schools in the area, but parents are often complacent about sending the children to school. The level of education is probably somewhat lower than the national average. Locally brewed beer or ‘moonshine’ is made daily and drunkenness is commonplace. Some parents even feed their infants beer and encourage drunkenness among their children.
RELIGION
Long ago, Omani Arabs established a stop on their trade route in the Sandawe area. Through this contact there is now a considerable percentage of Sandawe who consider themselves Muslim. In the 1930’s a band of Italian Catholic Fathers moved into the area. Through their influence there are even more who consider themselves Roman Catholic.
However, almost all of the Sandawe continue on with their traditional beliefs. These beliefs include a strong involvement in witchcraft and constant interaction with what they believe to be the spirits of their deceased ancestors. The height of this involvement is a possession cult in which the participants become demon possessed and bathe in hot coals without being burned. Every aspect of a typical Sandawe’s life is permeated with an awareness of spirits and the supernatural.
CHRISTIAN WITNESS
Prior to 1990 there were only two Protestant churches in the area, but they were made up of people from neighbouring tribes, not Sandawe. Since 1990 there have been three new churches started with Sandawe believers. There are 26 baptized believers and about 50 adults who attend these churches.