How Maasai and Hadzabe wisdom can help to transform business leadership
About the leadership program
Change is a constant in business and in our personal life. Broaden your leadership approach and accelerate your organization's transformation and establish your own leadership style through self-awareness. Join us on our journey to learn indigenous wisdom and ancient practices. You'll come away with a new way of thinking that you can use to create a powerful mindset of change in your organization and personal life. Let the Maasai elders and their spiritual leaders guide you into the indigenous wisdom for leading and living responsibly. We use the breathtaking African nature as our inspiration for transforming our thinking.
The Maasai and the Hadzabe hunter-gatherers have adopted a revitalized approach to preserve their culture in modern times. Their way of life is deeply rooted in traditions that have been practiced in the same way for hundreds of years. On this journey, you develop leadership, empower others to take responsibility and create a motivated culture, and embrace of change. It includes workshops on Maasai wisdom facilitated by respected Maasai elders. You have a privilege to meet and discuss with a Maasai "laibon" who is the spiritual leader and herbalist of the Maasai. He teaches us about spiritual healing and the use of natural plants for bush medication.
After spending time with the Maasai in Ngorongoro Conservation Area, we continue our journey into Hadzabe land in northern Tanzania. Space is limited for this precious opportunity to learn from and interact with one of the world's last hunter-gatherers people who live totally in balance with nature. The indigenous Hadzabe wisdom and lifestyle is built around respecting nature. The Hadzabe indigenous wisdom contains the belief that we are all related, including all living and inanimate beings. For the Hadzabe, honey is gold as it’s valued more than meat and fat in their diet. The Hadzabe harvest the honey from wild bees of seven different species, and the essential species is the African honeybee. As the Hadzabe lives in a total balance with nature, they allow harvesting honey only during the periods of the rainy season so that the bees can store a surplus.
The program includes one full-day game drive in the Ngorongoro Crater. We stay in our secluded and private bush camp in the Ngorongoro far away from touristic routes. Here you can immerse yourself to the most beautiful African nature and start to transform and create a powerful mindset of change.
The highlights
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Develop your leadership skills and leading change by learning from indigenous wisdom
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Interact and learn from Maasai elders and their spiritual leader
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Approach to change management that reflects the diversity and well-being of our planet and people
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Dine every night in candlelight under the African sky full of stars
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Be surrounded by the most beautiful African nature with a low impact on the environment
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Stay with the Hadzabe hunter-gatherers who have the most sustainable and ethical relationship to nature
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Know your impact: we purchase 20 health insurance for indigenous families
Travel with a purpose
We believe in sustainable, ethical, and responsible tourism. We minimize travel's environmental impacts and maximize benefits for local people. We pay a fair salary for our local Maasai and Hadzabe hosts, but we also give back to the broader Maasai and Hadzabe community.
We listened to our Maasai and Hadzabe families and we asked them what they needed most. The Maasai and Hadzabe families live in remote locations and most of them live below the poverty level, so they lack access to health care services. Therefore, we decided to purchase health insurance for 20 indigenous families. On average, one family consists of six persons so around 120 Maasai and Hadzabe will have free access to health services. You have a chance to meet some of these families on our trip. Your journey with us will change someone's life for the better.
The Itinerary
DAY 1. Arrival to Kilimanjaro
Pick up from Kilimanjaro International airport and transfer to a four-star lodge in Arusha. We have dinner together. (D).
DAY 2. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area
After breakfast, we transfer to Ngorongoro Conservation Area. You can watch the amazing views of the world’s largest intact caldera from a long-extinct volcano. We arrive at our Maasai village where the Maasai welcomes us with a celebration. In the evening we meet the Maasai elders with whom we have dinner at the bush under the African sky. (B, L, D).
DAY 3. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area
After breakfast, we go to meet the Maasai laibon, the traditional Maasai spiritual leader and medicine man. Laiboni tells about traditional Maasai wisdom, beliefs, and traditional healing. We learn how Maasai
have survived in a rapidly changing environment and kept their traditional livelihood and indigenous values. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet Maasai the spiritual leader and share information
and natural wisdom.
In the afternoon we join the Maasai warriors who play a crucial role as warriors in the Maasai age-set system. We follow the warriros to their secret bush camp where we continue to learn more about Maasai traditional bush knowledge as the warriors teach us to collect and use bush medication and plants. We dine under the African sky in candlelight. (B, L, D).
DAY 4. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area
After breakfast, we join the Maasai elders with whom we walk into a secluded location to have our transforming bush meeting. We share a ceremony before the meeting. This meeting is one of a kind as it gathers the respected Maasai elders and us together to share and learn ideas of leadership that is sustainable and powerful. After bush lunch, we continue learning in different workshops that have a special theme and it's lead by a different Maasai elder. We end the day in a feast together with the Maasai. You can observe and participate in Maasai dancing and singing. We sleep in the bush camp. (B, L, D).
DAY 5. The world of Hadzabe
After breakfast, we say goodbye to our Maasai hosts before we continue towards Lake Eyasi. We have lunch by the road before entering off-road into savanna. We drive to a remote location where we meet our Hadzabe hosts. We set up our bush camp next to the Hadzabe's huts. Dinner at the bush .(B, picnic L, D).
DAY 6. The world of Hadzabe
We spend the whole day with the Hadzabe exploring their unique lifestyle that is based on sacred ecology that contains a belief in the Earth as a living organism. Before the sunrise, we join the Hadzabe men on their hunting trip. And if we are lucky, we can observe how they gather wild honey. Later, we join the women who gather food by digging roots and picking berries such as Baobab fruit which is a real superfood. In the evening, we gather around a campfire to hear Hadzabe elders singing and stories that are built on reciprocity and respect for nature. This will be one of the most magical moments on our trip to have such an honor to share the evening with the Hadzabe elders in the deep bush. Let the transforming begin. (B, L, D).
DAY 7. The world of Hadzabe
After the last bush breakfast, we drive back to the Lake Eyasi to a four-star Lake Eyasi Safari Lodge with full-board. This lodge has 16 spacious rooms, each with a private verandah overlooking the lake. You can have a warm shower, relax by the pool, and read a book at your private verandah before our final dinner and a closing discussion. (B, L, D).
DAY 8. Back to Kilimanjaro Airport
After breakfast, we transfer back to Kilimanjaro airport, where we arrive by afternoon. You can book an evening flight or stay an extra night in Arusha. (B).
Trip details
Time
The minimum group size is 4, and the maximum is 8 persons. Secure your spot fast, as we have only limited capacity and one departure this year.
20.-27, September 2020
Location
Nearest airport: Kilimanjaro International airport, Tanzania
The journey from Arusha to Ngorongoro Conservation Area takes about 4 hours. We stay inside the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Lake Eyasi region. We stay far away from the touristic route. Where we go are no roads, no electricity, and no villages. It's remote African wilderness.
Accommodation
You sleep in a tent (single share) which is set up every night in a different location. We provide you all camping supplies. There is no shower, and the toilet is a portable one. You are not allowed to go outside of your tent alone at night. The Maasai warriors watch the camp at all times.
Food
Your food is prepaid in the bush by a Maasai chef. Tasty African food is made of traditional and local ingredients. You have milk, meat, vegetables, and fruits. The Maasai don't eat fish. If you have a special diet, let us know in advance.
Price
/ per person ( 8 Days, 7 nights).
The price includes:
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Pick up and return from Kilimanjaro Airport
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Transportation on a four-wheel safari vehicle
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Park fees in Ngorongoro Conservation Area
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2 nights in four-star lodge (full-board)
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5 nights in a tent (single-share)
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All camping supplies except a sleeping bag
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Food and beverages
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All the activities mentioned in the itinerary
The price excludes: -
International flights
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Travel Visa
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Travel insurance
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Drinks at lodge
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Single supplement (350 USD)
Wi-Fi
Here you can go offline. We are happy to announce this a totally off-grid experience. In case of emergencies, We have a satellite phone. Here you can focus on being in the moment!
Travel with us
Anniina Sandberg
Anniina is a founder of Visit Natives. She is also a Swahili interpreter. Anniina has an MA in African studies from the University of Helsinki and she has lived among the Maasai when she conducted her fieldwork in Tanzania. Anniina is our interpreter and she gives cultural insights into the Maasai culture.
Olopiro Lulungen
Olopiro is a native Maasai warrior born and raised in Ngorongoro Conservation Area which is his home. He has more than ten years of experience in nature conservation. Olopiro comes from the "laiboni" family of spiritual leaders. He coordinates this expedition together with the elders, and he makes sure of all local arrangements. We sleep one night in his Maasai boma.