Tembo

This documentary chronicles the nine-month, 30,000 mile expedition of American hunter Howard Hill and his safari, whose mission was to find the remote Leopard Men tribe in the jungles of equatorial Africa. First seen is footage of the many species of animals that populate the Serengeti Plain, including giraffe, topi, gazelles, wildebeest, cape buffalo and impala. Hill, who hunts only with bow and arrow, is introduced and is shown stalking and killing a seventeen-foot crocodile while a native man acts as bait. In their four-truck convoy, the safari then heads west toward Lake Victoria, and its arrival in a Rangubba village is announced by native drumming. Hill and his friends are greeted by Rev. Howard Bigelow, who is to act as their interpreter. After enjoying a feast prepared by the Rangubba, the safari is entertained with tribal dancing. Following Rangubba etiquette, the chief presents Hill with a gift, a clown monkey, whom Hill names Spike. The safari moves on to Lake Manyara, where rhinoceros, storks, golden crested cranes and ostrich congregate. After setting up camp, Hill scouts a nearby meadow and discovers an abandoned baby gazelle. Hill adopts the tiny animal and introduces it to Spike. Later, Hill and his assistant, C. Edwin Hill, go fishing, and while Ed uses a traditional rod and reel, Hill kills his fish with his bow and arrow. After Hill leaves, Ed is attacked by a python, but his screams alert Hill, who shoots the snake with his arrows. Continuing across the Serengeti, the safari spots hippopotami and zebras, and while stopped for lunch, Hill finds a baby zebra, whose mother was eaten by a lion. Hill captures the baby and adds it to his menagerie. Hill then catches a lion cub and, dressing up Spike and all of his infant creatures, puts on an animal show. Sometime later, the trucks are abandoned, and the safari enters the jungle on foot. While trekking, Hill shoots another python and a menacing leopard. The safari next encounters a tribe of Pygmies, who invite the white men to join them in a net hunt. After each family constructs its own net, the villagers spread out in the jungle and set their traps. They then beat the brush to force the animals out and rope and tie them up for slaughter. Later, the white hunters meet members of the Kingalla tribe, from whom they hope to gain information about the Leopard Men. When a Kingalla spearman reports to his chief that a lion has killed a steer from their cattle herd, Hill offers to kill the cat. After Hill slays the lion, the tribe celebrates with a dance, and the chief orders his men to guide the safari to the Leopard Men. Drums sound as the white men cross the dense vegetation and finally come upon the elusive Leopard Men, who dress in leopard skins and claws. When the chief of the Leopard Men accuses the safari of bringing an evil curse with them and causing a bull elephant to wreck havoc on the tribe, Hill sets off to kill the elephant as proof of his good nature. With help from the Leopard Men, Hill sequesters the huge animal, then using only four arrows, shoots him dead. After the bull's ears are cut off and taken back to the chief, the village celebrates, signalling the end of the safari's long adventure.