“Hamna Shida”
It’s a Swahili phrase used predominantly by the Hadza tribe in Tanzania, one of the very few hunter-gatherer communities living today on the planet. It means “No worries”.
I got to learn about this phrase in the book “Burn” - a detailed account on the science of metabolism (how and why we burn calories). The author Dr. Herman Pontzer, in the book, talks about his experience with the Hadza community where he and his colleagues were doing a research to understand the energy expenditure patterns in hunter-gatherer communities. And during his time with the tribe, he heard them say “Hamna Shida” jovially to each other so many times, that the phrase stuck with him. And as a reader of the book, it stuck with me.
For the Hadza tribe, “Hamna Shida” is the way of life. The day-to-day life of a hunterer-gatherer is a perilous one, where every day could pose life threats in many different forms, but the Hadza tribe reacts to them with a “Hamna Shida”.
Scare of an imminent attack by lions? “Hamna Shida”
Scarcity of food for a few days? “Hamna Shida”
A wild fire that could engulf their grass laden huts? “Hamna Shida”
An attitudinal adaptation that helps the Hadza tribe take on life one day at a time, and live their life to the fullest amidst the difficulties they face everyday.
A philosophy truly focused on the “here and now”, one that’s devoid of the regrets of the past and the fears about the future, one that the humans from the industrialised world like us strive to attain but struggle to do so.
“Hamna Shida” 😊