The Language of the Land

In 1997 James Stephenson intended to spend a year living among the Hadzabe in East Africa, living their life, hunting what they hunted, eating what they ate, and participating in their dances and ceremonies. This is an account of his year.

---

At the age of 27, James Stephenson arranged to spend a year among the Hadzabe - the last hunters and gatherers living a traditional life in Africa. There are some 2000 Hadzabe living around Lake Eyasi which is situated within the great East African Rift Valley. The Hadzabe speak their own district language and bone findings indicate that they may be the direct descendants of the early humans who lived on the same land some three million years ago. Stephenson wanted to live their life, hunting what they hunted, eating what they ate, participating in their dances and ceremonies, consulting with their medicine men and learning their myths and dreams. Armed only with his camera, his art supplied and the open-hearted courage of youth, he set out to live with a people who have changed little since the Stone Age, to glimpse the world as they perceived it, and to learn the wisdom they had wrested from the land. The Language of the Land is Stephenson's experience; laid out in evocative prose and illustrated with incredible photographs.