Afarensis is a 3.5-2.8 million year old hominin from the Kada Hadar member of the Hadar formation in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. He is approximately 41 inches tall, weighs approximately 60 pounds and has a cranial capacity of a whopping 410 cc (approximately). Afarensis is currently considered to be transitional between apes and humans and displays some traits of both. Since he spends a lot of time on the couch watching monster movies, some observers question whether he is an obligate biped (although no one has observed him climbing a tree). He also has a blog called 
Tim Jones at Remote Central has an interesting post called Help out the Hadza! � Anthropology.net. At the end of the posy he links to the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee website. The IPACC website has a lot more info on the situation faced by the Hadzabe, including this briefing note which goes into quite a bit of detail and should be read by anybody interested in the subject.
A couple of points stand out. First is the use of tactics of intimidation being used by the Tanzanian government:
On 20 May 2007, Tanzanian police arrested Richard Baalow, a Hadzabe spokesperson and activist who has been trying to help the community dialogue with local government. Tanzanian human rights organisations see this as a form of intimidation to ensure compliance with the decision to contract with the UAE safari company.
Second, and in my opinion even worse, is that this is apparently a pattern by the United Arab Emirates:
In this particular case, there is involvement of wealthy outside forces. IPACC has received complaints from other parts of Africa about poaching or unsustainable hunting by persons associated with the royal families of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Third, there seems to be some shenanigans concerning how permission for the sale was given in the first place:
The highest democratic institution and final decision making body at village level is the village assembly (i.e. open village meeting). A decision such as agreeing to a hunting investor must be agreed by the village assembly and documented in formal minutes. A District Council decision related to land that is not backed by village assembly decisions is not legal or binding. The decision of both general assembly meetings for the villages of Eshgesh (dominated by indigenous Barabaig pastoralists) and Mongo wa Mono (Hadza majority) was that the investor should come meet with them and negotiate terms of a contract that could be rescinded should the terms not be fulfilled. These decisions were a conditional yes. Both meetings were held on 8 Sept 2005. Both were 'supervised' by a District Commissioner and the District Game Officer. The investor has yet to come to meet to discuss terms of contract. The Government used the minutes of the two village assemblies as proof of village consent and that the deal was approved.[emphasis mine - afarensis] People apparently felt deceived. Hence, a delegation went twice in November 2005 to see the Regional Commissioner. There has been a dispute about who can legitimately speak on behalf of the Hadzabe people. Community members are attempting to hold follow up village assemblies.
Meanwhile, Carl over at Hot Cup of Joe recommends contacting the embassies of Tanzania and the UAE and provides addresses. I would suggest the State Department as well.
Comments
Hi managed to get some publicity on
arushatimes.co.tz
just think its a good idea to start a petition immediately.
good luck all
Posted by: rani | July 16, 2007 2:44 AM
Daily Mail, UK
20/07/07 - News section
Face to face with Stone Age man: The Hadzabe tribe of Tanzania
by ANDREW MALONE
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=469847&in_page_id=1770
Posted by: Cathy | July 22, 2007 12:08 PM