PROMOTING COMMUNITY WELLBEING.

On the 25/10/2024, Itumbili  Secondary School in Magu District; Mwanza Region on the shores of lake Victoria celebrated their first Tuko Sawa Club Alumni by establishing a Harmony Centre of Excellence (CoE) and invited members of the community to work together for Wellbeing and cohesion.

The event was covered in the Daily Newspaper of Tanzania, which praised the involvement of local Elders as valuable resource in the restoration of good moral values that honour timeless wisdom, traditions and local foods.

How Itumbili CoE promotes community wellbeing. 

       

(LINK TO THE DAILY NEWS ARTICLE) 

By Abela Msikula November 4, 2024.          

MWANZA: In Magu District, Mwanza Region, the Elders have something to say and it’s not all sunshine and roses!

They’re worried about what they see as a steady decline in moral values among the youth. Nowadays, people seem to treasure material things more than human connections or even basic human decency, embracing attitudes that would make their Ancestors raise an eyebrow. 

At the recent inauguration of a Centre of Excellence (CoE) at Itumbili Secondary School, the Elders expressed concern about how even traditional foods are falling out of favour, a shift that has troubling implications for communities already grappling with malnutrition. 

The CoE, established in 2020 by Tuko Sawa Society, a Community of Practice (CoP), was founded to promote ecological awareness and foster community wellbeing. 

At the event, the school celebrated its Form Four graduates and set the stage for a new chapter of local pride, with food exhibitions featuring the rich culinary heritage of Lake Victoria tribes, including the Sukuma, Kurya and Haya. 

The event wasn’t just a feast for the taste buds, it included tribal fashion shows, performances and poetry all centred around Tuko Sawa’s theme of “Equality despite differences,” a gentle reminder that we’re all part of one human family, no matter what we look like or how much stuff we own.

Sukuma elder Mr Filipo Manti voiced the Elders’ concerns in his speech. “These days, young people don’t seem interested in spending time with us,” he noted, adding, “This has left a gap in family life. When young people get married now, it often doesn’t last because they lack the wisdom that used to be passed down.” 

And as for respect? “We’re lucky if they even greet us anymore! But hey, what can we say? We’re just the old folks, out of date.” 

Manti thanked the Tuko Sawa Society for organising the event, saying it was refreshing to see young people so eager to learn about the past. “To be honest, we came expecting just another festival, not realising we’d have a real chance to share our stories with young people who actually care about what life was like for us Tanzanians in the past. And let me tell you, seeing them cook and serve local foods in our honour that was truly something.” 

Tuko Sawa’s Senior Coordinator, Mr Conrad Kiondo, emphasised that this Centre of Excellence is only the beginning. The hope is that similar programmes will spread across Tanzania, connecting the younger generation with the wisdom of their Elders to encourage environmental and social responsibility.

“Elders have deep knowledge about the local environment and it’s up to young Tanzanians to appreciate and learn from this wisdom while it’s still around,” he said, stressing that “technology alone won’t solve our problems. Every time we talk with Elders across Tanzania, they’re surprised and delighted to see young people genuinely interested in their experiences.” 

Itumbili Secondary’s headmaster, Mr Jeremiham Niyitanga, echoed these sentiments, stating that the event marked a new era of community engagement.

Representing her fellow students, Form Four graduate Ms Amina Busumabu expressed gratitude for the Elders’ support and requested continued collaboration to help the CoE flourish. “Please don’t get tired of working with us. We pray that this relationship lasts forever,” she said with heartfelt sincerity.

Tuko Sawa Patron Mr Madaraka Nyerere, son of Tanzania’s founding father, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, was also moved by the students’ enthusiasm for community building, a rarity in a world where most young people would rather follow celebrity gossip than their local heritage.

He encouraged the students to continue embracing peace and unity, values his father cherished. He promised to support their initiatives, including bringing agribusiness specialists to Itumbili Secondary School to help students explore sustainable agricultural practices.

To top it all, Mr Madaraka rolled up his sleeves to plant trees alongside the students, underscoring Tuko Sawa’s commitment to tackling climate change one sapling at a time.

INTRODUCING TUKO SAWA "SOCIETY OF HARMONY PRACTITIONERS." (SoHP)

ABOUT THE SOCIETY:

The first Tuko Sawa "Society of Harmony Practitioners"(SoHP) was established in Tanzania to spread this transcultural message of unity in diversity, because we believe that "Equality Consciousness" is an ethical and moral  prerequisite for a Fairer Future.

Our Society in Tanzania was first created online as a learning group but eventually the members unanimously decided to register an official entity that will allow them to share the concept of harmony in their communities. On the 7th September 2023 the SoHP was inaugurated in the capital Dodoma. 

The Society's Patron Mr. Madaraka Nyerere who is the son of Tanzania's Founding Father Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere was joined by members who travelled form all corners of the country to celebrate their #Oneness. Everyone paid for themselves, including a two nights hotel stay in the capital because our Society is not a charitable organisation that seeks funding for our daily activities. We do the best  we can, when we can, because #WeCan! 

The age of our Society's members ranges between 20-70 years old and we come from all walks of life; farmers, entrepreneurs, students, police, lawyers, doctors, teachers, engineers, lecturers, researchers, housemaids, miners, drivers, pensioners, jobseekers, etc. We are united by the knowledge that we share, empathy and passion to restore reverence for Nature and traditional values of humanity. The founding motto is: #EdenMustReturn! “Eden”is about living in harmony with Nature.

#PeopleVisionAction

A SoHP is first and foremost powered by shared values, enthusiasm and community capital. It is the diversity of members that makes the society resilient.  

A SoHP works as a Community-of-Practice (CoP); a term coined by Cognitive Anthropologists Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger when studying apprenticeships as a learning model. The term CoP refers to what was observed in Africa where the community acts as a living curriculum. Once this concept was articulated, many institutions and organisations realised they were practicing it in one form or another. 

Our activities fall under Four Main Goals:

1.  HUMANITY EDUCATION 

2. HEALTH 

3. MEANINGFUL EMPLOYMENT 

4. ENVIRONMENT

The common bond however, is the passion to learn and spread the harmony message to as many people as possible to accelerate the process of increasing wellbeing. Goal ( 1 ) in particular seeks to heal the “human story” by rebalancing perception on how we view ourselves and what we consider “progress.” Rather than rely solely on formal education to teach what it means to be human, the Harmony Practitioners are encouraged to incorporate traditional knowledge and values from Elders. This is proving very helpful in grounding the younger generation who are navigating visual media’s glamorisation of material possessions, which feed into negative social comparisons; I am not Okay - he/she/they are okay.

All the goals are infused with ecological awareness to enable better relationships and inner joy for what one already has. We practice deep gratitude for the gift of life by taking good care of ourselves, our families and our communities. 

The underlying motto is that “the grass is greener where you water it!” 

OUR VALUES

OUR HARMONY LESSONS: ONE LESSON PER WEEK

OUR STRUCTURE

ALL ABOUT TUKO SAWA SOCIETY

CLAIMING BACK THE DIVINE IN US!

Human life is about stories we are told, stories we choose to live by and stories that we will tell our children.

I love stories, but I always listen with a critical "ear" especially those stories that do not belong in a particular culture. As a Cosmopolitan and a Global Citizen who feels at home where my feet touch, I am always open to listening to new stories of the land in order to update my dynamic "stories library." Mine is  not an archive for reference, rather a mobile and adaptable stories library that grows and renews.

 It is called transculturalism in practice! I am against attaching myself to any single story.  

Even the most static stories like those told in Holy Books are not ontologised in my adaptive mind!

In the video below, which I shared in a whatsapp group earlier in the year, I was trying to explain what I believe should be the right translation of "the Holy Spirit" to Swahili speakers. In Swahili, The Holy Spirit is literally translated as an external entity that will only enter good people after it (he) has been summoned by prayers or ordered/requested on behalf by an annointed person. Sadly, The Divine has been made into a multi billion dollar industry💔

Now you may ask, "Why should it bother you?"

The answer is that, in my worldly travels I have been treated with so much kindness and EMPATHY by people who know nothing about the existence of a "God" heaven or hell, let alone a Holy Spirit that is supposed to guide their righteousness. 

These people did the right thing without fearing hell or reward of an afterlife in heaven!

I feel I owe it to them to explain that the Infinite Source of Creation does not reside only in religious people, but in every Being in the Universe. We are all made of the same energetic essence and particles. Quantum Science has moved forward in leaps and bounds to show how we are an indivisible ONENESS. 

If we walk with this reverence, we will restore the "Fear of God" and treat ALL life as Sacred! 

Besides, we will also find it easier to practice THE GOLDEN RULE of treating others as we wish to be treated.

We are #Interrelated #Interconnected #Interdependent. 

EMPATHY AS A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE

This short clip was an attempt to alert Swahili speakers that EMPATHY and PITY are not the same, yet, both are translated as "HURUMA."

 

PERCEPTION, SPIRITUAL LITERACY AND “THE THIRD SOMETHING.”

The "Third Something" is a meaning that arises from spiritually-correct relationships with Self, Others, our surroundings and being aligned with a purpose greater than our own individualistic goals. It is an immaterial reward, a form of spiritual earning that fills us with inner joy enhancing our wellbeing physically and mentally. It exists outside us, somewhere between relationships, and it is only harvested by the right interactions, of love, humility and gratitude, which keep it alive.

My post-doctoral work in media-anthropology is focused on finding ways that nurture The Third Something at a time when materialistic worldview is the dominant way of seeing the world. I began by looking at visual literacy to decode internal biases caused by the way "development" is articulated. In my PhD dissertation I coined the term "donor gaze" to explain the harmful impact of using the narrow lenses of international development, which conceptualise "progress" only in terms of how much of the natural world we have managed to process and adapt for human consumption. This way of seeing our world separates the inseparable whole into "us" and "them," disregarding the principle of oneness that we are all interconnected, interrelated and interdependent. Spiritually-literate people are aware how life really works and they show reverence to all life.

Sadly, the metrics for measuring progress are rigid and hierarchical. I still struggle to understand how it is possible to call my grandmother poor simply because she did not spend two dollars a day? My grandmother (Bibi in Swahili) enjoyed a healthy 98 years of life, lovingly cultivating her mixed crops farm, producing everything she ate including fresh clarified butter and the traditional fermented banana brew (mbege ) which she occassionaly sold when she had a need to buy manufactured items.

Bibi walked barefooted, drew water from the natural springs (above) flowing through the volcanic rocks on the slopes of Kilimanjaro and spent quality time in communion with others at the vibrant daily market or during celebrations. Our Bibi told us stories to entertain, teach and to warn. Bibi was never hospitalised or even visit a dentist. Yet according to the statistics, she was poor. A soul-less statistic. She passed away peacefully in 1982 before Social Media could tell her that she was poor.

Life in the Post-Social Media world requires not only visual literacy but a very sound spiritual literacy that grounds us to maintain our inner OK-ness. We are surrounded by images, which we interpret using what is culturally and environmentally known to us; the so called "pictures in our heads." However, due to unprecedented progress in information technology, some of these images cross cultural borders to reach cultural Others often disempowering the receivers in non-industrialised countries because what is signified is perceived as being more glamorous and desirable than what is found in one’s immediate environment. Furthermore, the Western languages that accompany the images reinforce the notion that there is only one standard of life that all should aspire to; most often expressed in uncorrelated materialistic terms.

Consider for instance the word chair. According to the Oxford dictionary, a chair is "a separate seat for one person, typically with a back and four legs."  This is taken for granted in communities with such seating arrangements but it may be "lost in translation" when the word crosses cultural-ecological borders to a Tanzanian rural community where people sit on mats or at best on three legged vigodas (right) 

Kigoda (singular) Vigoda (plural) 

                 

Vigodas are very popular household items even in middle class homes where women sit whilst cooking on charcoal stoves in the outside kitchen. A Kigoda is often reserved for respected elders in some communities.

Explaining the word chair by literal translation alone is insufficient and in such a context it is visually illiterate. There are many more examples of visual illiteracy particularly in children and young adults whose original ‘pictures in the heads’ are constantly challenged by mediated texts, social media and even music videos. This is the exact reason why I undertook this post-doctoral research to pilot out a holistic perception tool in order to address young people’s anxieties about not being good enough and remind them that indeed ‘the grass is greener where you water it.’ Compassion towards self and Others is a good starting point and so I drew on Transactional Analysis position of "I am OK You are OK" to develop an empowering personal philosophy; Tuko Sawa. (We are Okay!)

What Tuko Sawa does:

It emphasises that we are all created perfectly as we are; from the invisible bacteria to the mighty elephant, every living organism calls this planet home. We are different but equal. We are all born here, we live here and we share the same life cycle. The principle of Oneness shows without a single shred of doubt that we are all connected in one web of life. We breathe the same air, drink the same water and depend on other living matter for our own energetic needs. 

When it comes to cultures, Tuko Sawa insists that no single culture should monopolise  standardisation of meaning or indeed what a good life looks like. Different cultures have different ways of being and interpreting the world and therefore spiritual literacy can go a long way in rebalancing perception of how we intepret cross-cultural phenomena and create better relationships. 

If we all decide to nurture "The Third Something" a shift will happen in how development projects are implemented because we will embark on compassionate dialogues to find out the best way of serving and empowering others to be of service too. This is easily done if we can all observe THE GOLDEN RULE of treating others the way we wish to be treated and extend this to the rest of Nature.

WHY SHOULD WE CARE?

We care and share because "knowledge is power!"

By sharing the Harmony Approach we hope to heighten the ecological awareness in people so that together we can pursue a Sustainable Future for all.

“We stand at an historic moment. We face a future where there is a real prospect that if we fail the Earth, we fail humanity.

To avoid such an outcome, which will comprehensively destroy our children’s future or even our own, we must make choices now that carry monumental implications.

It is beholden upon each and every one of us to help redress the balance that has been so shaken by re-founding our outlook in a firmer set of values that are framed by a clearer, spiritually intact philosophy of life.

Only then can we hope to establish a far more sustainable economic system; only then can we live by more rooted values; and only then might we tread more lightly upon this Earth, the miracle of creation that it is our privilege to call ‘home’.”  King Charles III (2010:325, Harmony, A new Way of Seeing Our World) 

Our HARMONY LESSONS include essential values and competencies to enable reflection and action.

THE PRINCIPLE OF THE CYCLES

(SWAHILI AUDIO LESSON TRANSCRIPT)

This is our last lesson. We are now familiar with the other timeless principles: ONENESS, DIVERSITY, INTERDEPENDENCE, GEOMETRY, ADAPTATION and HEALTH. 

The principle of the cycles will help us understand the dynamics and repletion of activities within the whole.

Cycles is a series of events that are regularly repeated in the same order. Nature’s cycles, or natural cycles are all terms that refer to the key life-sustaining processes in Nature, that work in cycles. Cycles mean that there is a constant and ongoing exchange of elements between air, earth, water, plants and animals. Nutrients in soils are recycled, rain is generated by forests, and life is sustained by the annual cycles of death and rebirth. Every dead animal becomes food for other organisms. Rotting and decaying twigs and leaves enrich soils and enable plants to grow, while animal waste is processed by microbes and fungi that transform it into yet more vital nutrients. And so Nature replaces and replenishes herself in a completely efficient manner, all without creating great piles of waste. This entire magical process is achieved through cycles. 

We all know that day follows night, seasons follow one another, but there are many more cycles within those broader ones and so many of them are interrelated so that the life cycles of many animals and plants link with one another to keep the bigger cycles moving. Built into these many cycles are self-correcting checks

and balances (adaptation) whereby the relationships between predators and prey, the rate of tree growth, and the replenishment of soil fertility are all subject to factors that facilitate orderly change and progress through the seasons and keep everything in balance. No single aspect of the natural world runs out of proportion with the others – or at least not for long. 

Learning and practicing these principles will help us put Nature back in her rightful place – that is, at the centre of everything! This includes our own imagination as well as in the way we do things. Fashions may change, ideologies may come and go, but what remains certain is that Nature works as she has always done, according to these natural principles. 

We must rethink our perception of the world in a straight line and shift toward seeing it in terms of cycles, loops and systems. Our intention must not be to master Nature and control her, rather we must act in partnership with her and this requires a broader or ‘whole- istic’ view. 

Let us look at a few examples of cycles in Nature we can see that they all have to do with how the earth renews itself. The living things within an ecosystem interact with each other and also with their non-living environment to form an ecological unit that is largely self-contained. Sometimes this renewal process is gradual and gentle. Sometimes it is violent and destructive. Nevertheless, ecosystems contain within themselves the resources to regenerate themselves. 

1.WATER CYCLES

All of the water that is on the earth has always been here. Earth never gets water added to it - nor does water disappear from the earth. Water is constantly recycled in a process known as the hydrologic or water cycle. Fresh water is more scarce than you might think. 97% of all the water on the earth is in the oceans, and so only 3% is fresh water. About 2.4% of the water on earth is permanently frozen in glaciers and at the polar ice caps. About 1/2 of 1% of the water on earth is groundwater. Only about 1/100 of 1% of the water on earth is in the rivers and lakes. Water is essential to life on earth, so it is important that we protect our water resources. 

Nature has a way of keeping the amount of water on the earth relatively constant. A large amount of water evaporates from the surfaces of oceans, rivers, and lakes every day. It forms water vapour that rises into the air until it cools, condenses, and forms water droplets. Millions of these droplets come together to form clouds. When clouds get heavy enough, gravity tugs on the droplets, and the clouds release their water as rain or snow. This precipitation falls into streams and rivers, which flow back to the oceans, seas, and lakes, where the water cycle can begin again. 

It is obviously clear that Water Cycle and the Life Cycle are one!

2. ENERGY CYCLES

The sun is the source of all life on our earth. Every form of energy, except for atomic energy, can be traced back to the sun. Happily, the earth is at the best possible distance from the sun for the sun’s heat to provide this energy for life. 

Energy from sunlight is used by plants to make food from air, water, and the minerals in the soil. This energy is stored by plants who are the primary producers in ecosystems. Energy sources such as the fossil fuels of coal, petroleum, and natural gas are really just ancient stockpiles of the sun’s energy stored in plants and the animals that ate those plants that are thousands or millions of years old. These fuels came from plants that used sunlight when they lived long ago. When these plants died, they fell to the ground where their remains piled up over thousands or millions of years. As this pile grew large, the remains at the very bottom became pressed together. Over time, these remains changed. Some became a gas - natural gas. Some became a liquid - petroleum. Some became a solid or a rock - coal. We use these forms of energy to power vehicles, heat homes, and run industries. Fossil fuels are considered non-renewable sources of energy because they cannot be replaced once they are used up.

3. LIFE CYCLE OF ANIMALS 

The life cycle of an organism refers to the sequence of developmental stages that it passes through on its way to adulthood. Mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, fish, insects and other invertebrates - they each have their own unique way of reproducing life. There is an amazing variety of life cycles within the animal world. Surprisingly, only about 3% of all animal species give birth to live young as part of their life cycle. Most animals lay eggs. All animals need to eat, to grow, to be safe, and to reproduce. This is all part of the life cycle. Their bodies are adapted in a wonderful range of ways to solve these problems of survival. 

In our Booklet you can read more about 4-LIFE CYCLE OF PLANTS 5-SEASONAL CYCLES 6-PLANETARY CYCLES 7-OXYGEN CYCLE 8-CARBON CYCLE and 9-NITROGEN CYCLE

The Principles of Harmony are reminders that Nature is ordered and that the laws that maintain balance are timeless.

King Charles III summarises this brilliantly:

“Fashions may change, ideologies may come and go, but what remains certain is that Nature works as she has always done, according to these natural principles. If we work against the principles, nature will rid herself of us. She has done so with other life forms five times.”

Values for THE CYCLES:

HOPE: A feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen.

Responsibility: The state or fact of having a duty to deal with something.

Competency for THE CYCLES:

 Adaptability:

Maintaining effectiveness in different situations, environments and cultures. This competency relates to the ability to interact effectively with people from varying backgrounds, environments, and cultures to operate effectively under systems and procedures that vary from one culture to another: and to modify behaviour as culture and environments change through time. Adaptability differs from Flexibility in that it focuses on a person’s ability to change behaviour in DIFFERENT cultures and changing environments. Flexibility relates to the ability to change behaviour within the SAME culture or environment. 

For further explanation and understanding please request for the Booklet Copy.

THE PRINCIPLE OF HEALTH

(SWAHILI AUDIO LESSON TRANSCRIPT)

Lesson six explored the importance of adaptation in maintaining life as we know it in our natural surroundings and even within our own body systems.

We already know that nature embraces biological diversity and that the health of each element is enhanced by there being a great diversity.

Biological diversity or ‘biodiversity’ for short is a complex web made up of many forms of life. For this web to work best, there is a tendency towards variety, which is interdependent, meaning no one element can survive for long in isolation.

This deep mutual interdependence within the active system sustains the health of each individual component so that the great diversity of life can flourish within the controlling limits of oneness. Every ecosystem contains an interlinked diversity of life, where each animal and plant is dependent upon the health of its neighbours. In other words, nature maintains health systems. 

 

For any organism to be healthy it must be in harmony. The converse is that a body is ‘diseased’ - it does not enjoy equilibrium. So, although we cannot see it, our health depends upon harmony and that extends to the impact of those external things that influence and shape our experience of and responses to the world. 

The principle of health requires us to look closely and learn from nature’s system to understand that the same dynamics that underpin the health of the natural world applies to our bodies. Our bodies remain in balance through self-sustaining systems. The way bodies maintain equilibrium mirrors the way that nature works. 

Better health can be promoted through understanding the self- regulating systems that are at the heart of how we thrive. It is crucial once and for all to remember that in order for humanity to endure alongside the natural world, we must have better relationship with everything else present on our miraculous planet. The soil upon which we stand on, is home to trillions of living creatures that air it and fertilise it to make it possible for us to grow our food. Soil per se is an abiotic entity. Like water, soil is not alive but it contains living organisms. The overall health of all these organisms is intimately linked to our very survival. 

All living things take and give back to nature to maintain harmony. Ancients knew how to “read” the soil, and developed appropriate farming systems to ensure it maintains its fertility and yields abundance. This abundance depended on nature’s cycles and even today indigenous societies still farm sustainably. However, it has become increasingly acceptable to use excessive synthetic fertiliser and pesticides for profitability. This industrial farming mode is not sustainable because it cannot be repeated again and again. 

A truly durable farming system is the one that has kept things going for 10,000 years – the one that is commonly called ‘organic farming’. This is actually how farming was always conducted before industrial techniques came to dominate agriculture. It means farming in a way that preserves the long-term health of the soil, which comes down to giving back to nature, organic matter to replace what has been taken out. It means maintaining microbes and invertebrates in the soil and good moisture. It means using good water catchment management, planting trees that prevent the soil being eroded and maintaining the teeming biodiversity, including the beneficial and essential insects, such as bees. 

Human beings are among the most complex of all life forms and yet it seems that we sometimes regard our collective and individual wellbeing as something equivalent to looking after a car. We mend the parts as they fail rather than seeking out and securing the causes of health, which tend to include wholesome food, rest, relaxation, exercise, a sense of community, enhanced by the quality of surroundings, relationships and contact with natural spaces. In fact, many developed countries have reported long-term increases in mental health problems. 

The combination of the stress of trying to keep pace with rampant consumerism and the impact of people living more isolated lives has led to many millions becoming victims rather than the beneficiaries of how we have chosen to achieve and measure progress. We must try and avoid cheap globalised food, bereft of identity and produced at massive environmental cost, holding huge risks for humankind, at many different levels. 

A more harmonious relationship with land and food – and thus ultimately with nature – can deliver improved health and food security for people if we embrace the more integrated and holistic approaches that can take us there. Indeed, if we allow nature to be our inspiration, we will be able to moderate our consumption, maintain healthy bodies and have time for mindful reflection about our life’s purpose. 

Mahatma Gandhi points out that: “It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.” 

Values for HEALTH:

care: Feel concern or interest; attach importance to something.

moderation: Doing something in a way that is reasonable and not excessive.  - An Ancient Greek Philosopher Epictetus observed that: “If one oversteps the bounds of moderation, the greatest pleasures cease to please”

Competency for HEALTH: 

Analytical Thinking

Logically breaking problems down into their essential elements (vitally important; absolutely necessary): carrying out diagnosis and developing solutions. Analytical Thinking involves looking for underlying causes, thinking through the consequences of the different courses of action and developing clear criteria for guiding decisions. 

Unlike Conceptual Thinking in INTERDEPENDENCE, which is about relating things and putting them together. Analytical Thinking is about breaking problems down into their different constituent elements –it is about deduction, drawing logical conclusions from the available information. As such, it uniquely describes the kind of sequential thinking, which for example, underpins planning activity. 

For further explanation and understanding please request for the Booklet Copy.

THE PRINCIPLE OF ADAPTATION

(SWAHILI AUDIO LESSON TRANSCRIPT)

In lesson five we looked at the principle of geometry and the sacredness of all life. We understood that the structures and patterns made by living creatures look the same whether the animal, bird or insect is in New York, USA or Dodoma, Tanzania. They are all guided by inert infinite intelligence that is constant and automatic. In this lesson we will look at how this infinite intelligence works in nature in order to maintain balance of all living things. The harmony principle of adaptation will reveal the mechanisms that enable life to persist and thrive in a specific geographical place. 

Adaptation refers to modification in being or doing for the purpose of surviving changes. In nature, organisms are constantly adjusting to their environment to fit in and thrive. Organisms can adapt to an environment by altering their body functions to increase their chances of surviving. Human bodies too adjust to their environment. For example; people who live on higher altitudes where air is much thinner than at sea level, inhale fewer oxygen molecules with each breath so their bodies adapt by developing an ability to carry more oxygen in each red blood cell. In other words, although they breathe like everyone else at sea level they are capable of supplying enough oxygen to their bodies without any mountain sickness, which a traveller in their area might experience. There are many examples of how living creatures adapt to their environment. Likewise, all human societies undergo adjustments in ecological, social, or economic systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli and their effects or impacts. Adaptation causes changes in processes, practices, and structures to moderate potential damages or to benefit from opportunities associated with climate change. Examples abound; we have seen how humans prepare for storms, floods, and disasters. 

We can see clearly here that the harmony principle of adaptation is teaching us to constantly “read” what nature is saying and adapt. It teaches us not to overuse resources because something else, somewhere must compensate to maintain balance. Over time, the number of predators and prey in an ecosystem rises and falls in a predator-prey cycle. As the number of prey increases, so does the number of predators shortly afterwards. This is because there is more food. This reduces the number of prey because they are hunted. Which reduces the number of predators because there is less food. This increases the number of prey and the cycle repeats. 

As humans, we consider ourselves the stewards of the earth, because we have imagination, and the ability to create sophisticated technologies for managing our own adaptation to our environment. The question is the sustainability of our development/adaptation models. 

Architecture for instance is at odds with how life is organised. We live in one-area and travel miles to work in another. Same with food production, leisure etc. We are overdependent on motorised transportation for our everyday need. Looking at modern life through the lens of the principle of adaptation we are faced with a big question: why are we not adapting? 

While the case for adaptation is clear, some communities most vulnerable to climate change are the least able to adapt because they are poor and/or in developing countries already struggling to come up with enough resources for basics like health care and education. Equally, the same communities might not want to stay on the right path of “simplicity” simply because they are stigmatised as not “developed.” 

We need to rethink our perception about progress and have the courage to make adaptations that respect cultural and environmental specificity. 

 An adaptation researcher Max Mckeown says: “All failure is failure to adapt, all success is successful adaptation.” 

Values for ADAPTATION: 

COURAGE: Is mental or moral strength to push through a difficult situation 

KINDNESS: Is caring about others and doing things to help make their lives better. 

Competency: Flexibility 

Flexibility refers to the ability to see the merits of differing positions: to change plans if circumstances dictate and modify even strongly held opinions in the light of conflicting evidence. Unlike Adaptability, Flexibility focuses on the ability to modify/change behaviour within the same culture or environment, whereas Adaptability focuses on different or changing environments. 

For further explanation and understanding please request for the Booklet Copy.