Hadzabe Girl

I spent time with the Hadzabe tribe in Northern Tanzania, as part of an ongoing project documenting indigenous peoples. There are only 1500 Hadzabe left today and the majority live in the Lake Eyasi district, where I stayed with a group of families in a boma. This young girl quickly became a favourite of mine. From a distance she appeared Dickens-esque with something smeared around her mouth. Then I realised it was the only clean part of her face, with only her eyes popping out from the dust and dirt. While she couldn’t read or write - none of the Hadzabe can as their language is made up of clicks - she loved drawing animals with me. Looking back at the image it shows a child in wonder at the world, her pride tempered by wariness.