in Australia we still have some tribes left of aboriginals doing thir best to live in the outback the same way they used to.
Not many 'real ones left' and from my experience even these are fairly modernised.

What's the story in Africa?
Is anyone at all still getting about naked and spearing things to eat?

Is there anywhere you still might get blowdarted rather than shot with an Ak-47?

Karl.

Although very far from an expert, I do know that quite a few tribes continue to be discovered in the forested interior, which have never before been documented. I would have to think that these guys are pretty "wild."

Most of the African leaders still live the traditional life of the tribal chief. Want to own everything and everyone, murder = power, godhead self belief, hang onto power unless their cold lifeless hands are pried off it. Not much has changed there.

Plus the Congolese soldiers still feast on pygmy in season when they get the chance.

NitroX,

Texan,
Are there really still tribes being discovered? I thought the Bilabi/beabi(something) tribe in Indo/Guinea somewhere in the early eighties were the last of the truly untouched humans ever found.
Its a pleasant surprise if there are some others left.

What about the famous Masai. Do they still jump around in traditional dress or is that only for the tourists?

Karl.

Karl

Fifteen years ago when I was last in that part of the world, yes the Maasai did often still live a very traditional life. Cattle herding, living in dung and grass huts and nomadic. Moving on when they needed to.

We had the opportunity of visiting a Maasai village (for a fee) but all the Maasai would leave first so it would be completely empty when the Mazungus visited.

Some of these fellows are still very wealthy owning sometime two to three hundred cattle making the herd's market value around twenty to thirty thousand dollars.

We also came across a group of young Morans during their initiation period when they go off into the bush for a while. Dressed in black with white painted faces. We negotiated a fee for a photograph of them which turned out to be quite cheap. As a group we had to pay only what many had to pay individually (ie the photographer). Unfortunately the negative and photo was missing from the developed roll when developed in the UK (into someone's pocket I think). Failing to negotiate for a photo can get you onto the sharp end of a spear.

The Maasai children did not have any games as such. All their "play" was based on traditional learning - eg herding, fighting etc. I was travelling with a woman who specialised in teaching children with disabilities and she had many conversations with Maasai children who always visited our camps out of curiousity.

At that time fewer of the Massai as a race had changed than many other tribes.

But maybe "progress" marches on

The Bushmen are still very primative and do exist as they once did...

There is a tribe of nomads in Africa that have a gene pool all their own..they are very secretive and hard to find I am told and have read..the gene pool is they only have 3 toes and they tend to walk on tip toes, People see their tracks from time to time and they are seen from time to time..they have nothing to do with other societies, but are of a peacefull nature I understand...I don't recall which country.

May I intrude here?

The Bushmen/San are very, very interesting.
There has been a lot of academic debate, in the past 30 years, over just how "primitive" they actually are.
For over two decades, they were held up as the archetypical primitive, tribal (well, actually band-level) society, possibly a true hold-over from the stone age (much like the Australian aborigines).
A great deal of recent research, however, has led many scholars to believe that the Bushmen only recently adopted a hunting and gathering way of life, within perhaps the last 400 years.
Prior to that, it is now largely accepted that they existed as farmers and iron-miners, who were forced into a more marginal environment/lifestyle by the continuing pressure of migrating Bantu-speakers.
I caution you that I have zero first hand experience in Africa, and base all of this on the current anthropological literature.

The last 400 years huh? Ok, well thats good enough for me, they sure have learned a thing or two in that alloted time...good trackers

Khorazanian

I have read similar things. I believe originally the San or Bushmen inhabited much of Southern Africa including Matabeleland and the Cape Province.

The Bantus pushed down from the North and displaced them from the better lands and pushed them into the desert.

Which of course repudiates a lot of the black Africans claim to ownership of many parts of South Africa. The Afrikaaners only arrived a little later than many of the then current inhabitants.

I'm not sure about the San being farmers and iron miners though, I thought they were still stone age hunters and gatherers except in the better lands.

OK Ray I got to ask. Are you serious or did you spend too much time on the other side of the border when you were young. ( sounds like one of my wifes TJ witch stories )
Are there really secret three toed people who walk on their tip toes ?
Dean

That is true. I may have read or seen photos in John Reader's book "Africa, A Biography of the Continent".

Atkinson wrote:
-------------------------------------------------
There is a tribe of nomads in Africa that have a gene pool all their own..they are very secretive and hard to find I am told and have read..the gene pool is they only have 3 toes and they tend to walk on tip toes, People see their tracks from time to time and they are seen from time to time..they have nothing to do with other societies, but are of a peacefull nature I understand...I don't recall which country.
--------------------------------------------------

Ray, here is some information on the tribe you mentioned.

The tribe was described in PHC's book A MAN CALLED LION, starting on page 107 he begins his tale of the mysterious vaDoma people, who live a secluded life up on a mountain, but ocasionally come down to forage. They leave an unusual footprint with only two toes. Their foot is actually split. There is a big toe and the other four toes are fused together to make the other toe with a very wide gap between the two.

The story sounds like total BS until you continue on to page 164 and in the glossy photo section is a photo of a barefooted, or should one say ostrichfooted vaDoma tribesman.

[ 07-16-2003, 19:11: Message edited by: Muletrain ]

There was also an article on them in one of the African hunting magazines with photos..Very interresting people and I have talked to a PH who has dealt with them in the past, they are very reclusive and your right that is 2 toed, not 3.....

And in what country are these two-toed folks located?

Sounds alot like our native american indians...they make claim to 'owning' much of present-day north america, but most of them were fairly recent arrivals when the Europeans found them. They had simply massacred or driven away the tribes that had been there before, much as they were probably driven from their previous homes. Much of the talk of a tribes' "ancient" hunting grounds was probably referring to a few generations, at most.

Not trying to step on any native-american toes (all 10 of them), just drawing a parallel.