Elusive Hunters

This is an account of a remarkable nomadic people in the heart of West Africa, presumably the only hunting and foraging community to withstand its bloody legacy of slave-raiding, colonisation, warfare, and environmental degradation. Rich in detail, epic in scope, Ida Nicolaisen's evocative book on the Haddad recreates the essence of nomadic existence from prehistoric times through the ups and downs of Sudanese Empires to our times. Based on fieldwork among the Haddad and a meticulous reading of the scanty sources on the cultures of Northern Chad, the author offers a fascinating description of the every-day life, subsistence strategies, knowledge, poetry and music of this little known people. The book takes the reader on hunting expeditions with one group that chases gazelle and antelope into cleverly placed 'traps' of nets; it describes how hunters of another group crawl up on their prey in disguise with bow and arrow, as Saharan rock paintings tell us pre-historic man did in the region. Ida Nicolaisen's scientific precision informs her analysis of the complex multi-ethnic setting of which the economic and social life of the Haddad form part and her insights into the traumatic implications of the history of the region on their lives. The continued existence of hunting and foraging communities in West Africa has so far gone unnoticed. By adding this valuable material on the indigenous Haddad to the puzzle, Ida Nicolaisen's book seeks to stimulate the interest of scholars, and to encourage in the public a wider and more sophisticated reading of African history, culture and social issues.