DAR ES SALAAM (AFP) – Watching a hungry lion pace in a small cage, Tanzania’s president jokingly suggested naming the “mischievous” beast after one of the East African country’s leading opposition politicians.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan was visiting an annual fair in her hometown archipelago of Zanzibar on Saturday when she saw the furious feline at a National Wildlife Agency booth.
In widely circulated clips online, a keeper tells her the animal was pacing because it had yet to eat, before saying the big cat had not been named.
“Name it after my son Tundu Lissu,” she suggested to laughter, playing off her popular nickname ‘Mama Samia’ and opposition politician Tundu Lissu.
On Sunday, Hassan further compared the “spirited and somewhat mischievous lion” to “unsettled” Lissu, who ran for the presidency in 2020 following an assassination attempt in 2017.
“So, I suggested naming it Tundu Lissu because it was as restless as my son Tundu Lissu.”
The 56-year-old was among opposition leaders who were recently arrested in the southern city of Mbeya ahead of celebrating youth day.
But Lissu, a fierce critic of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party, took the president’s joke with good grace.
“President Hassan was correct as I was born in a family of heroes… people who killed lions that attacked cattle,” he told local media also on Sunday.
He explained that in local Bantu language Kinyaturu, spoken by the Turu tribe that his family hail from, such people were known as ahomi or muhomi.
“My paternal grandfather Mughwai was a muhomi. He killed a lion that attacked and killed his cattle,” he said, adding that his father also “twice killed a lion that attacked and killed his cattle”.
The light-hearted rapport comes only weeks after police detained top leaders of Tanzania’s opposition party.
Rights groups condemned the move, and voiced concern the action could signal a return to the oppressive policies of late president John Magufuli as the country gears up for elections due late next year.
