A Note from Founder - Tania Hamilton
Almost three decades ago, Hamish and I bought this land as one property: our home on one side of the road, and eleven acres of coastal bush bordering the mangroves on the other. We later subdivided and built a warehouse for our then fledgling company, Nabaki Afrika, which we had founded in 1994. We imagined that one day the remaining forest might become a small, low-density development of environmentally sensitive homes.
But the land had other ideas.
For years, I walked here almost every evening with my dogs, usually as the sun was setting amongst the giant baobabs. Somewhere along the way, those trees began to gently seed a different vision in me.
I sometimes joke that the baobabs are my bosses and I am simply carrying out their instructions. Behind the humour is something I feel very deeply: a sense of communion with these ancient trees, and a responsibility to listen to what this land was asking of us.
Gradually, the question changed from: “What should we build here?”
to: “What should we protect, share and make possible here?”
Sacred Space grew from that question.
Dar es Salaam is one of Africa’s fastest-growing cities. The economic pressure on land is immense, and too often the true value of nature - to our climate, biodiversity, health and collective wellbeing - disappears behind its financial value.
Developing these eleven acres may have been the more obvious commercial choice. Instead, we chose to invest in something less tangible, but to me far more valuable:
The collective future of our city.
Sacred Space begins with protecting what remains. But conservation is only the beginning.
I believe that when we reconnect people with nature, something is restored within us too. We slow down. We breathe. We notice. We remember that we are a part of nature, not apart from it - and that the wellbeing of people and planet are inseparable.
The original vision was expansive: a living classroom demonstrating sustainable building, regenerative systems, ancient wisdom and evolving ways of living. That vision has not disappeared.
Sacred Space is simply growing more organically now - seeding first, evolving with the land and the community it serves, and allowing its fuller expression to emerge over time.
Beneath it all is a philosophy I call Re-Unlimited:
Re- for re-connect, re-awaken, re-member, re-store, re-generate and re-imagine.
Unlimited for abundance, expansiveness and possibility.
And then there is my favourite word, which perhaps captures Sacred Space best:
Respair - an old, almost forgotten English word meaning fresh hope; recovery from despair.
And that, perhaps, is what Sacred Space offers.
Designed with intention, nurtured with love, and offered to the future.
Tania Hamilton
Founder, Sacred Space
A Nabaki Afrika Legacy Project
