Oli Raison

So if an older woman who he may never have met before in his life gives him an order, it's disrespectful to deny it or to refuse it.

So they are really of service to the community.

And then after that 15-year period, they then collectively, en masse, graduate to become junior elders.

And the junior elder period is a real shift in the way of life.

They settle down, they build a house, they accrue their own livestock, they get married, they have children, and they are really educated on how to be an elder.

And then after that 15 years, they become senior elders.

And at that point, they have collective responsibility for the welfare of the whole tribe.

And they make decisions collectively en masse.

And so from a young boy, he knows what his destiny is going to be.

His destiny is ultimately to be a leader for the welfare and the collective flourishing of the tribe.

And I think that shared sense of purpose

gives everybody a very strong sense of belonging that I feel that we're lacking in Western society these days.

And as a result of that, one of our clients who came away with us is a psychologist, and she noticed that she was talking to some of our Samburu colleagues, and she realized just from asking them, what is the word for anxiety in Ma, which is the language of the Samburu?

They don't have a word for anxiety.

They don't have a word for depression.

And you won't meet a single Samburu who has ever known or heard of anybody who's committed suicide.

These things just don't exist in their society.

And so that's when we got in touch with Bill von Hippel and we realized that this is a society that despite their challenges, despite their marginalization and their apparent poverty, are really very kind of content and happy and thriving in life.

And their leadership shows up in that.

Yeah, I don't think it's much shorter than ours.