It was a female lion and it almost charged. Or maybe it did.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan was driving a monstrous Green Toyota Land-Cruiser, the converted ones popularly known here as ‘War Bus!’
An active ‘Go Pro’ video camera is seen mounted on the dashbord just next to the streering wheel.
The Head of State handles the wheel of the rather heavy, manually transmitted, elongated truck which was initially fitted to carry seven passengers with remarkable ease.
And she suddenly swerves into a wide plain, stopping the vehicle in the middle of wilderness, within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
On her left side, buckled in the passenger seat was Peter Greenberg, the producer of the Royal Tour.
“We will be safe here,” she reckons. But that was before she saw something sinister lurking in the thickest.
“The President (who was driving) wanted to give us a much better view, so she pulled us over,” explains Peter Greenberg.
Peter released the seatbelt straps, opened the SUV door and was stepping out of the car. In fact he did get out of the truck.
“But as soon as I climbed out of the car, I hear…..”
“…There is a lion somewhere there!” President Samia Suluhu shouts from the cruiser’s cockpit.
And Peter hastily climbs back into the car. Peering out of the rolled down window.
“Have you seen it?” Mama Samia asks. She seems composed, hardly pertubed.
And Mr Greenberg responds with a ‘Yap!’ reckoning the ferocious cat was about 40 yards away.
The big cat was not only “Not Far” away, but also “Far from being friendly,” but soon they realized why.
“And it is a female Lion,” says President Samia.
Indeed. It was and was protecting something. Which explains why it wasn’t about to welcome guests into her abode.
All the same. According to Peter Greenberg, they decided to follow the lioness to see what it was up to.
Of corse they followed the animal as they drove in the truck, not on foot. This time the Landcruiser rooftop hatch was lifted to provide a better vantage view.
This time the President was no longer driving but standing behind the front seats in the truck, with Peter Greenberg, both looking down from above through the open roof, scanning for the lioness, as it moved in the jungle.
During the entire episode of the ‘Royal Tour’ documentary, President Samia Suluhu Hassan was playing tour guide.
But in this particular scene it seems the Lioness temporarily took over as the guide, leading the team somewhere in the savannah.
The Lioness took them to where her pride was. At least five more lions were relaxing on grasscovered mound.
Ordinarily its would take tour guides hours to find a single lion.
This time the lion itself took the entourage to other lions. Well of course they could have been her cubs. Explaining why she was overly protective.
But why should the cat mother lead humans to where her cubs were? This could easily go down on record as …well…unusual.
But then there are many unusual things to be expected from the soon to be released ‘Royal Tour Tanzania,’ documentary.
The Lion and Jewel was the stage play by Nigerian writer, Wole Soyinka, which featured at the Royal Court in London in 1966. But there is the Lion and the President of Tanzania, a scene from which we derived this excerpt. It is featuring in the forthcoming Royal Tour documentary.
Tanzania Times
The Royal Tour Tanzania premiers on April, 18 2022 in the United States.
Expect to see it here and elsewhere around the globe from the 21st of April this year.
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