Heshima - Respect

Heshima is a Swahili word meaning Respect, but also often used as ‘Dignified’.

First came an idea, some research and a tour of Tanzania to see if this idea had any real legs. In the midst of our tour we began to deliberate what we’d name this business that began to feel tangible.

In Mbeya (southern Tanzania), with the aid of google translate, Gordon turned to me and asked me what Heshima meant. The English word didn’t come to me immediately. But what did come to me was the physical representation of Heshima. Something I could only fail to explain in writing. But this gesture shows strength mixed with capable hands. A foundation of East African culture.

As we stayed at an airbnb on the outskirts of Mbeya town. Gordon tested out our hypothetical name by asking our guard what Heshima meant to him. To which his response was the same gesture I’d used to translate when I felt the English word did not encapsulate its Swahili counterpart.

We knew after that that we’d found our name, our identifier.

Heshima Seeds was born after that. And how fitting it is to our ethos. To bring dignity back to the smallholder farmers. Who are in many ways the backbone of our societies and the future of food security in the region. Who themselves are a representation of Heshima.

-Hillary Bett