Ingonyama, Miombo Safari Camp, Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe

While on our honeymoon in Southern Africa, we spent a few nights at Miombo Safari Camp, just outside the gates of Hwange National Park. A friend of some of the ladies staying in our camp, a white American expat woman who had been doing NGO work in the area for many years, had arranged for a local dance troupe, Ingonyama, to perform for the guests of the camp. Their show consisted of traditional African songs, dances, and shall we say, sketch comedy. This included acting like local animals, and frankly it felt a bit strange to have half a dozen Africans acting like baboons for the entertainment of a dozen white tourists. The show went on a bit longer than we would have liked, particularly a skit with a boy pretending to be an old man. He asked everyone's name and the women if they were single. He asked Lindsey if it would be ok for him to kill me so she could marry him. The only song that they sang that I knew was "Mbube," commonly known in the United States as “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” The song was originally written and recorded in Zulu in 1939 in South Africa by Solomon Linda. Ingonyama performed a version of the song more closely related to Linda’s original version, including mostly Zulu lyrics that were dropped from the cover versions recorded and popularized in the United States. Toward the end of the show, the boys invited the guests to each dance with them. That part was a good bit of fun.