Nigeria, Ghana snake story @ Nanta News with Frank Meke

Phezulu, is a picturesque hilly and valley biosphere, deliberately set aside for safari and green tours.Here, the famous marathon route from joburg to Durban, tips to the delight of marathon enthusiats but strength sapping to sweat sports aficionados and participants.

That is not the story. Okay, let me explain first that Phezulu in tongue twisting zulu dialect means thousands of hill (tops) and possibly that is why King SHAKA of Kwa zulu Natal gave the British hell during the colonial era. Now , you need see and experience the thousand hills ecology to appreciate the difficulty in conquering the warrior resilient spirits of the zulu nation.

Again that’s not my story! At snake corner piece at the privately owned safaris Park, Phezulu, Nkosi, a charming young snake merchant ( guide) took time to educate us about what one will rather call, the snake challenge.

For instance, Nkosi warned” when you see a snake, stay calm, take five steps backwards and beat it( Run)”. From black mamba, to cobra variants and phyton, Nkosi made and demonstrated encounters with crippling beings of the forest, as child’s game.

I just watched Nkosi and while this is going on. GHANA TOUR OPERATORS PRESIDENT, MRS ALISA OSAI ASAMOAH was shivering from head to toe. The sight of these beings made significantly irritable to women as recounted and captured in the holy books encounter with mother Eve, certainly gave madam ASAMOAH the creeps and she ran, threatening to” resign” from her position as GHANA leader of delegation if ” forced” to see the devil( snake) by any foreseeable chance.

Wait ooo, don’t lap up and spread the words,. I didn’t say she threatened to resign, I can’t bet on it but a certain busy body bird told me she heard her swore never to come near a snake colony.

If the snake fright of madam ASAMOAH,makes the guiness books, the case of vice president, nanta western zone, Nigeria, Otunba Babatunde Adesokan was unbelievable. He couldn’t stand the pre talks of the snake story, he ran, I mean,he run away and you would think, he was on a race mission for an Olympic gold medal.

IMG-20220507-WA0028

It was a pleasant surprise Nigeria and Ghana delegationjust watched in amazement Adesokan raced out of the snake colony. He was not alone though but it is strange seeing an otunba, a full grown achiever running away from mere snake game. Someone whispered to my ears that maybe otunba Babatunde Asokan’s ancestors, were snake charmers and may have failed to appease the gods of serpent( lol), hence their son cannot stand a snake show.

Now, we come to powerful women snake charmers. Uloma kemabonta, vice President, Abuja zone of Nanta led the pack. Nanta President Mrs Susan Akporiaye, banded in and the spirit of courage spread around and the zulu enigmatic candour finds expression.

Don’t ask me, what I did, this job is about capturing trends of history makers, the weak and the strong. Indeed one small white skinned boy just smiled away with the nine years old phyton round his neck. Muhammed Kwajjafa, Nigerian born South Africa Tourism, magic man, also did the snake thing. I heard him tell Nkosi, the snake guide to hold the phyton’s head and tail, and garland him with it for pictures. Gosh,I saw fear in those eyes and I laughed like king SHAKA.