RWO: People Actually Say “Hakunamatata” Here!

Jess & Adam write:

So we’ve decided to start a new mini-series of super-random observations on, well, everything – language, culture, and life in general here in South Africa. We will title these little quips, “Random Weekly Observations”, or “RWOs” (in the spirit of Peace Corps initialisms), and we hope to keep this going for the full two years. Of course, we invite comments & counter-observations on all of these… that’s cross-cultural exchange, right?

So here’s our first RWO:

People actually say Hakunamatata here!! No, we’re serious, our supervisor says it on an almost daily basis – and not just to us, as a joke, but to other locals, as a typical response to almost any comment about day-to-day life!! (I mean, come on, that’s like the French saying “Bon Apetit!”) The first time he said it, we almost lost it laughing… I think he was confused. We made the reference to The Lion King and he just kinda shrugged, like, “Yeah, I think I’ve heard that in the movie, but… we kinda had it first…” Ha! Anyways, it’s awesome and as many times as we’ve heard it, it still always makes us chuckle a bit!