A Zulu legend is born...




So, I haven't explained Mbob yet. When we were camping in Pongola, with the lovely John and Leticia, we were sat around camp listening to one of John's stories when he turned to Tom and said 'So, Bob, what line of work are you in?' (or some such question). Tom being the polite young man he is, said 'well, its Tom actually....', but after John stuck with Bob, there seemed little point in correcting him each time, so Tom became Bob. We all sniggered like little children from the back of Blue every time John said 'So, Bob..', and Tom soon got used to answering to calls of Bob from all of us. 


When we returned back to Thanda on Thursday and were out on our afternoon drive we were talking about the new male lion who would be arriving in Thanda shortly and wondering what name he would be given. Most of the animals are given a Zulu name, like Mpatha or Majimbos, and a lot of foreigners, like Tom, struggled with knowing how to pronounce the M, especially in names like Mpatha. 
Tom said we should give the new lion a good solid name like Bob, and then someone else piped up that we should make it a Zulu name and call him Mbob instead! And so that is how Tom became Mbob. Well, we found it funny, even if no one else did, guess you had to be there :)