Dancing in a lion cloth in Suri land

Researcher Jane Atkins describes how Suri elder Naliby prepares a lion skin to wear in a traditional stick-fighting ceremony.

To make the Grasslands programme, the team worked in some extraordinary places and met some wonderful people. One of the most entertaining and memorable people the crew met was an elder from the Suri tribe in Ethiopia called Naliby.

Naliby loved the camera, and with so much amazing material to choose from we couldn’t include as much of Naliby as we would have liked in the final episode so the team felt he had to have an appearance online.

Jane recalls how ‘he was the cheekiest and sweetest guy, who kind of adopted us, making sure we were ok while filming, and sneakily getting in all the shots!’

Here he is in unseen footage and in all his glory, preparing and wearing a lion skin for a traditional stick fighting ceremony!