Zulu warriors put on a good show – at the wrong school
ZULUS are rightly proud of their history as a brave warrior nation. But when it comes to operating a sat nav, they appear rather less proficient.
Pupils at a school in Yorkshire were astonished to find a busload of Zulu warriors, armed with shields and spears, arriving at the school gates at 8am, asking: “Is this London?”
The dance troupe – called Lions of Zululand – had been due to perform at St Ann’s School for children with learning difficulties in west London. But they ended up 200 miles away at St Anne’s Community Special School, in Welton, East Yorkshire, in error.
Christine Lee, assistant head at St Anne’s, said: “A busload of Zulu warriors was very unexpected. They said ‘St Anne’s?’ We said ‘Yes, but we weren’t expecting you’.” The eight dancers then realised they were 200 miles off course. Rather than board the coach for the trip down south, the Zulu warriors decided to perform free a war dance and songs for the pupils.
“Obviously, it [St Ann’s] was three and a half hours away. They decided they were not going to get there and so we invited them to stay,” Mrs Lee said.
Lesley Davis, the head teacher, said: “They did two performances – an hour in the morning for the lower school pupils and an hour in the afternoon to the upper school. Children were just glued. It was fantastic.”
The mix-up occurred because the wrong postcode was selected in the sat nav at the start of the journey.
Mduduzi Mkize, the dance troupe’s leader, said: “The addresses got mixed up on my data sheet and we ended up here. They had never heard of us. So I spoke to them, explaining what we do and they fell in love with the idea and wanted to see what I was talking about.”