Original subtitles

have we got one okay at last we've got one this tree is hollow and there's a

beehive inside the tree and it's just a matter of making it accessible enough to

get our hands in and grab the honey out

I'm Ed Stafford. As an explorer and survivalist, I've made a career out of

mucking about in the wild.

If I'm honest, I've never really grown up.

So now, I've set myself a mission

to see how cultures across the world navigate the messy business of

becoming an adult.

I believe many of us in the modern world have lost our sense of identity.

But I'm hoping by immersing myself in the often extreme trials that young

face, I can figure out how these rituals make us better members of our

communities.

I've never experienced anything even comparable in terms of pain.

By joining them on their journey, I hope I'll learn to become a better man.

Maybe even grow up.

Okay, he wants me to jump up. I'm going to jump up. And successfully pass my

own.

Rite of passage.

I'm currently in northern Tanzania's Great Rift Valley, a vast area steeped

humanity's ancient history.

I've been travelling for 48 hours just to get here, and this is now my final

leg, a five -hour drive deep into one of the most remote corners of the African

bush.

I'm heading to the Socorro community on the fringes of Lake Easi, a place often

called the cradle of mankind.

and where human remains dating back around 2 million years were discovered.

I'm here to live with the Hadza, and from what I know of their rite of

into adulthood, it involves using expert tracking and bush kills to find honey

and big game.

The Hadza have been surviving on these lands for over 50 ,000 years, and are

of the last remaining hunter -gatherer tribes left in the world.

Okay, one of the local Hadza boys has just come out.

It's nice to see a smiling face.

Hello, mate.

Hi, guys.

What's your name?

That's your name?

Gonga. Gonga.

Chop the tree.

Cool. Nice to meet you all.

Not only do I not speak their language, but I can barely pronounce their names.

This could be a challenging week.

I appreciate being allowed to come and live with you for a small period of time

in your community.

The key thing for me coming here is to learn about how you guys transition

men into adults.

And if it's okay with you, the thing that I'm really, really interested in

learning about is how you hunt for the honey.

and extract the honey from wild sources thank

you very much

The guys are hungry.

They've got no food and they need to hunt.

So it's almost perfect for me, rather than sitting around and all the

awkwardness of being introduced to a tribe, we're straight out on a hunt.

Hadza camps are named after their best hunters.

With this community named after Socorro.

His right -hand man is 17 -year -old Gonga.

The Hadza diet is not for picky eaters.

I reckon they like squirrel.

Consisting of over 30 different wild mammals including monkeys, porcupines,

badgers and impala.

Do you want some water?

Yeah.

Other end, other end, other end, other end.

Amazing. It's good water. It is good water, mate, yeah.

Wow. I mean, that's so cool, isn't it?

Look at that. That's extraordinary.

He cut the bottom, drank out the bottom because he didn't know that you could

unscrew the top.

Why would you?

Just shows, doesn't it, how divorced from everyday life this place is.

Thank God that plastic still hasn't infiltrated this corner of the world

You've got quite a big tuberous root being exposed now.

How good is it?

What's it called?

Halfway between a potato and a kind of a cucumber.

It's kind of got that watery inside like a cucumber has.

But with the flavour of little potato.

What are we looking for, mate?

OK,

cool. Looking for honey.

For I had to avoid the transition into manhood and complete their rite of

passage. they must prove themselves as a provider for the community.

So although facing an angry swarm of bees seems daunting, it's a primary food

source for the Hadza people.

So it's something I must help them collect if I'm to pass my own right of

passage.

The white wax on the exterior of a bee's nest means that bees are actively

building new combs, which should hopefully be overflowing with fresh

How do you get the honey out of that?

Wow, okay.

With the hive more than 10 metres above the ground, it's not exactly the kind of

place that you want to be stung by a swarm of angry bees.

I'm not sure I particularly want to go climbing up that one.

To make it even more precarious, the only way to climb is by using homemade

wooden pegs.

With only one squirrel successfully hunted and now shifting our focus to

we've returned home with little food.

She looked really hungry.

I'm very grateful that that tuberous root got given to her. She looked really

hungry.

The Hadza's traditional hunting grounds have been whittled away to only 10 % of

what it was just 50 years ago, meaning less game to hunt for food.

Yeah, there's a lot of little males to feed.

Not that long ago, the Hadza could easily feast on giraffes, elephants and

favourite, baboons.

But that looks like a distant memory today.

Dead posh service, this is.

Thank you, this is perfect.

Thank you, mate.

Thank you, thank you. This is cool.

So basically, this is my accommodation for the next week.

I don't want to become another mouth to feed.

making my need to help provide honey for this community all the more vital.

Gonga, how many do we need to make?

Gonga, some of the guys were saying there's a girl that you want to get

to.

Have you known her a long time then?

Not long.

For a Hadza boy to complete their rite of passage and marry, They must prove to

the bride's parents that they can provide for and protect a family.

But right now, it looks like we're off to slay vampires.

And climbing a 10 -metre -high baobab tree to raid a hive filled with bees

sounds just as daunting.

Right in the crux of that.

They're about 10 metres off the floor.

This could easily be 2 ,000 years old.

Archaeological evidence found in this region reveals that Hadza have lived on

these lands for over 50 ,000 years, which means their ancestors were likely

hunting and raiding beehives like this during the Stone Age.

skill level of being able to hang on to a little peg while standing on a little

peg whilst banging in a little peg is is crazy the east african lowland honeybee

is one of the most aggressive bee species in the world making up half of

infamous africanized bee hybrid known as the killer bee he's almost at the top

now though

One wrong move and the beast could swarm Gonga and us.

You can hear them up there.

They're angry.

I'd love to get stuck in and help, but Socorro says this is no job for a

And this time, I'd have to agree.

Despite still being stung, they push through the pain to access the prized

honey.

The only problem now is getting all the liquid gold down.

You know what?

Cut it.

Look at that.

Beautiful.

Yeah? You sure?

Oh, my God, that's amazing.

Needless to say, that's one of the best -tasting honeys I've ever tasted.

That tastes extraordinary.

So have that as part of your natural diet.

You can see why it's worth the effort of making all the steaks and going up into

the tree and risking your life.

Well done, mate.

Did you get dung much?

Get some honey

down here, mate.

But this honey isn't really for eating.

They had to also use it to trade, and it's going to help Gonga in his mission

win his future wife.

What could you buy with it?

So you can see why it is important, both as part of the rite of passage, but

also as something to trade.

And the boys are so happy.

And the plastic bucket of fresh honey is a welcoming boost to the community's

morale.

This plastic bucket of fresh honey should be a welcome boost to the

morale. And by the end of my week here, I will have to place my own hand into a

wild bee's nest to provide for the community, something I'm a little

about.

Do you worry that when the men go out

hunting that they're not going to come back with any food?

Because obviously you've got kids to feed and young males to feed.

Do any of you ever get tempted to go and live outside

of Hasdaq community?

Despite the challenges of raising a family in the African bush, Hadza women

believe their way of life is still best for their children.

For them, survival doesn't come from money or possessions, but from community

and a husband who can hunt.

Ganga obviously is looking to get married.

Do you think he's a good catch?

I'm already fascinated by the Hadza and how a young man's rite of passage is

directly connected to the survival of the tribe and his future family.

Here, becoming a man isn't just symbolic, it's life or death.

Without barbed metal arrowheads, Ganga can't hunt baboons.

So we make the long trek through the wilderness to the area's only forge.

And I hope, for our sake, the people running it still like honey.

This

is

very different.

Nice view.

The Tatoga are another of Tanzania's oldest tribes.

Their ancestors were fierce warriors and masters of making weapons.

The neighbouring tribe appears to be blacksmiths. We've got an arrowhead

made here, and it's all using old little scrap bricks and metal.

Incredibly simple, and yet obviously it's a skill that the Hadza people don't

have.

But what the Hadza do have is honey.

It's a time for a bit of bartering.

They're bartering.

I think Socorro is getting offered quite what he was hoping he was going to get

offered.

Happy day. You happy?

Excellent.

20 arrowheads and two knives.

And he gets a pot of honey.

Everyone's a winner.

It's been a successful mission, and Gonga now has the tools he needs to

himself on a baboon hunt.

But first, he wants me to meet the girl that he hopes to marry.

Everything in terms of honey collection, potentially baboon hunting, it's all

focused towards gongos getting married. So it's time to meet the lady herself.

The Umkoa Bomber community is home to other hunters and their families.

But with less than 400 hadza living a traditional life in the region, every

is like an extended family.

with many Hadza being married or related to one another.

Which is your girlfriend?

In the middle.

She's beautiful.

Lovely to meet you.

What do you think of Gonga for

your daughter?

While Shuma's mum seems sold on the idea, her father looks a

little less convinced.

prove his worthiness um if he was to want to marry a lady in another

how did he how does he prove himself

It seems like a bit of a tall order, especially since all I've seen so far

been scrappy little squirrels. But I guess some traditions die hard.

So if Gonga wants a wife, it seems he's got to cough up a baboon and a decent

amount of honey.

The room of the baboon is the best part?

You understood me, didn't you? You didn't need a translator then.

And although I'm a bit of a newbie out here, I hope I can help him on his own

hazard right of passage.

My time with the Socorro community is quickly running out.

So now...

Focus turns to Gonga's rite of passage and helping him get his hands a bride.

And the first thing we need is not an engagement

ring, but an arrow deadly enough to bring down a baboon. Why is it, for

you need these barbs? Like, do they pull the arrows out?

The arrowhead is lethal, but without feathers, it won't fly.

And when your whole future depends on the success of a hunt, there's no room

error. So keep going round that.

Oh,

man.

These are some of the happiest people that I've met in a long, long time, and

they have nothing.

You really do not need stuff in your life.

They have a bow and arrow, they have a knife.

Even the shelter, the home that they're sleeping in, is a temporary one that

will work for the season.

And yet it's experience and knowledge and skill level that's enabling them to

actually... glean an existence from the environment. Being able to craft tools,

being able to make weapons, being able to know all of the different hunting

techniques that they need.

And by putting it all together, you free yourself from the need to accumulate

stuff. And I think that's the key.

Happy life.

Thank you, mate. Thank you so much.

OK, I didn't do it all myself.

But I consider that to be my first hunter arrow.

Thank you, mate.

Happy days.

Poisoned arrows ready.

We're all set to hunt baboon.

Been walking about two hours from camp now.

It's a long way away.

The boys are on a mission.

To stand the greatest chance of success, we are heading to new hunting grounds,

an eight -kilometre hike away under the rising African sun.

So this is baboon country.

And it's stunning. It's so different to the horizontal scrub.

If I was a baboon, I'd be hanging out on these rocks up here.

Classic baboon territory.

Spotting movement on the horizon.

Gonga gives the signal and we head down into the valley.

All of a sudden, the hunt is on.

I was definitely in contact with a troop of baboons.

There's shouts from that direction, that direction, and that direction.

Baboon!

In the chaos of the chase, the group has splintered.

I'd better keep up, because I don't really want to get lost alone out here.

The guys are hot on the trail of a baboon or a troop of baboons.

I'm just struggling to even keep up with them.

Okay.

A baboon right in the top of that crescent of that tree.

Okay, it's coming down. It's coming down.

That was a huge baboon.

Exactly what Gonga's future father -in -law wanted.

And that big -ass baboon is looking quite possible.

Okay, there's two.

There's two baboons moving left to right through that underground there.

They're closing in on them.

This is it.

With Ongongar ambushing the baboons with the dogs and Gonga closing in, we're

moments away from a possible kill.

But once again, confusion kicks in.

Gonga is, he is constantly the one right at the front. He's the one that's

spearheading the whole operation. But because he is so up front, I'm hardly

getting a glimpse of him.

He's the one leading the charge.

He's the best hunter out of this lot.

Then suddenly, the silence is deafening.

By the time I catch up with the rest of the group... I can immediately tell it's

not good news.

What

is

very cool is that this is Gonda. He wanted to get married, found a girl he

likes, wanted to impress her parents, and all his mates are very happy to turn

out with him.

at a stupid o 'clock in the morning to go hunting.

That's pretty cool, isn't it?

That's what mates are for.

Failing to bag a baboon is the often harsh reality for modern Hadza.

So we're now relying on finding a cache of honey to restore some of Gonga's

fortune and save his right of passage.

But with light quickly fading, time is not on our side.

We are losing time in terms of getting the honey.

It's part and parcel of what Gonga needs to provide.

And therefore, if we can just nail that, that would be good.

But all isn't lost when Gonga is leading the brigade.

Nice. OK, at last we've got one.

The tree is hollow and there's a big beehive inside the tree and it's just a

matter of making it accessible enough to get our hands in and grab the honey

out.

I'm going to have a go at trying to extract as much of this myself as

I really want to nail this for Gonga and make sure he doesn't go back to his

future bride empty -handed.

Success would also be a massive boost for me to at least partially complete my

rite of passage as one of the primary harvesters of this wild honey.

Without looking at the sun, I reckon we've got about 40 minutes of daylight.

With the clock ticking, it's now or never.

OK, far going.

Stage one complete.

But this beehive is not going to be an easy one to get into. It's very enclosed

and the bees are very well protected.

OK, so in here, yeah? OK.

It's brutal work.

And the longer we take, the more likely we are to aggravate the bees and

potentially cause a swarm.

But with Gonga's help, we gain access to the hive.

The

boys

don't think that they can access enough of the honey from the hole that we've

cut.

We need to open up a secondary hole.

With the beehive still deep inside the tree and the light fading fast, the

boys also step in to help.

I came here thinking, you know, I want to prove that I can get the honey out of

my shelf. And as I was chopping away and the boys are standing around, I'm

thinking, that's not the way they had to do things.

These boys are a group of mates.

They help each other. They're all mucking.

They all put the effort in.

And not because I'm being lazy.

But I'm going to embrace that team spirit.

Teamwork makes the dream work.

It looks like the smoke from the fire I made has done its job in subduing the

bees.

This is it.

Time to get them for myself.

Okay.

Well done, mate.

That is beautiful.

It's all right.

Everyone has now had a lot of stings. It's got to the stage where the honey

but the bees, they just go for you. I've probably got 20 or 30 stings.

There's crazy pleasure pain thing going on here at the moment. Everyone is high

on sugar and in excruciating pain at the same time.

That was just speaking without moving his lips at all.

Worth the pain.

Worth the pain.

I would say that was a big success.

Not a bad haul.

I'm not putting my hand in there again.

Will your future father -in -law be happy with that?

Nice one, Gunga.

With the honey bagged and night upon

us, we have no choice but to spend the night sleeping rough in the bush.

What a day. I mean, that was... Honestly...

One of the most rewarding days of my life.

We have honey to speed Gonga's wedding on its way.

Today has just shown me it's all about team.

This isn't a one -man effort. This isn't Gonga demonstrating his prowess on his

own. Clearly, he's one of the most competent in the whole group, but it

about that to the Hadza.

It's about sticking together. It's about turning up for each other. And it's

about having fun. And they have done all three of those.

Bucket load.

Morning. And with everyone from the community gathered for our return, this

the moment of truth.

Has Gonga done enough to win the blessing of his girlfriend's parent?

We tried to get a baboon but I'm afraid it went away.

We didn't get it in the end.

Maybe he's worried about the fact that he hasn't got a baboon.

I think he's just feeling the public humiliation a little bit.

They're all just tucking in to the honey that's so amazing.

Are you happy with the honey that...

Does Gunga stand a chance with the Ojoza then?

Like they say anything easy isn't worth having so hopefully on Gonga's next

baboon hunt he can successfully secure the hand of his girlfriend.

If we'd got a baboon, that would have been amazing, but...

You know, you can't get a baboon every time you go hunting, can you?

They're

really

happy. And maybe you're a step closer to marrying their daughter, no?

Mate, can I just say thank you for giving me your time, for allowing me to

with you guys. Thank you.

Nice one, mate. Give us a hug.

Thank you.

And good luck with everything.

This is such a positive end to quite an incredible journey, really.

Gonga is a step closer to being able to marry the girl of his dreams.

Everybody here is happy. I think they're all slightly high on honey again, but

that's kind of cool in itself. I've learned so much over the past few days.

They call these guys the happy tribe, and you can see why. They have an innate

joy within them, and I do think that...

comes from living a simpler life. And I don't mean that in a patronising way, I

mean that in an inspirational way. I think the simpler we can all make our

lives, the better.

I constantly look at communities like this and worry about their future.

They don't think like that. It's all about today, it's all about feeding

themselves and their children today.

And that, again, spills into the whole happiness thing. I just don't think

worrying about the future is...

in the Hadza at all.

So, no, they're not bothered about it. They're happy.

Fingers crossed, Gonga's going to get the girl, obviously.

I think he will. He's a charming man. I think it's probably more to do with his

cheeky grin than it is to do with his proficiency in baboon hunting.

But whatever it is, I wish him all the best and I'm sure he's going to have a

very happy life.

Thanks, mate.