MAD FLOW in the title today...
The Circle of Life story...
So in South Africa a group of us ... aka the entire like 40 students ... were supposed to go on a safari. Sadly, this meant we would be going in a giant tour bus and not the quick cars. It also meant we would get there too late to see anything really cool.
It would however allow us all to get the shit scared out of us when the tour guides had to unblock the path of the road for our giant bus ... which was called lovingly "The Maharaj". The guides thought a lion was going to attack. I thought they were joking until they made someone stand watch and it was the most serious I had ever seen any human being in my life. Needless to say, we were fine.
At night, we got trapped inside the park because we got to the gates too late. After waiting for twenty minutes we were let out. It gave us time to sing songs and piss off everyone on the bus. Also allowed my friend Frenchie to dress up as a zebra in hopes of drawing a lion to our bus. He failed.
In the middle of this trip we all got a bit antsy. When we saw a warthog ... it was the most exciting part of the day until we saw some giraffe an hour later. I yelled "PUMBA!" and it ran away. Ok, it was already running away. Big deal.
I then decided to sing the intelligible part of the song "Circle of Life" from "The Lion King". You know ... NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA SI BANG YAAAAAAAAAAAA ... etc etc. Since the movie took place on the Serengeti and they speak Swahili up there I thought it would just be some Disney fun. Oh no.
Turns out all the songs and African words are Zulu. Our tour guides and friends showing us around were all ... Zulu. They laughed heartily. Then they explained what I had not known. I did not sing again.
Actually, they said I did pretty well ... or better than most ... on getting the words right. They also explained how the Zulu part is about the dominate lion and how eventually he loses the battle to a younger lion. The younger lion becomes the king. Thus is the circle of life.
In all, we had a good laugh over it and I learned some things I didn't know before. Also, this is what they are actually saying in the song (Nq is a click noise):
Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba
Sithi uhm ingonyama
Nants ingonyama bagithi baba
Sithi uhhmm ingonyama
Ingonyama
Siyo Nqoba
Ingonyama
Ingonyama nengw' enamabala
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Rafiki = top 25 movie character of all-time.
If I had been in this situation, I would have been busting Rafiki lines (all seven of them) out like whoa. I'd also have been really high...not really...maybe.
oh yay! great post. i miss your south africa stories. hope med schools going well.
Post a Comment