Welcome to the Jungle
For the past 24 years, the Kenya Safari Acrobats have been delivering a taste of African culture to colleges, theatres, and sporting events all over the world with death-defying showcases of athleticism and agility. Last Thursday, they brought the jungle with them to CSC on their latest stop in a career that has taken them as far as Israel, Germany, England, and Italy.
Handstands on chairs stacked two stories high, human pyramids, and mind-blowing acts of contortionism were only a few of the stunts performed by the natives of Kenya and Tanzania. The night began with a booming voice instructing the audience to keep their hands and arms inside the auditorium at all times, and from that point on the pace of the show was guided by a soundtrack of tribal drums and stringed instruments.
The Acrobats provided an excellent blend of suspense and light-hearted enjoyment throughout the entire show. For every heart pounding, edge-of-your-seat display of fearlessness, there were equal amounts of comic relief. During more festive parts of the act, the audience was encouraged to participate by clapping along to thumping rhythms and trying to out-cheer other seating sections. A select few were even brought up on stage for a tug-of-war with one of the performers in the middle. “Audience participation has not always been part of the show,” Masika Makange, performer and tour manager, said. “We have several different groups that tour the U.S. and Europe; what kind of show we do depends on the crowd.”
Besides being a breathtaking spectacle, the show was also a medium for African culture. Song, dance, and tribal rituals were all a tremendous part of the act. Fearless demonstrations of fortitude such as walking on a bed of nails were revealed to be rights of passage for teenage boys in Kenyan tribes. Doing the limbo under a flaming (in this particular case, bladed) bar turned out to be a courtship dance between several men competing for one woman’s hand. But the Acrobats’ cultural influences don’t stem entirely from Kenya. “They actually are sent to China for their acrobatic training,” Makange said. “During our off-season this December, we are going back to Tanzania to rehearse.”
When asked what the scariest or most dangerous part of the show was, one performer said that none of it is dangerous to them, it’s fun. A definition of fun that includes a man touching his forehead with the soles of his feet would probably make most people raise an eyebrow, but seemingly superhuman feats are second-nature to the Acrobats. Wallace Makange, Masika’s husband and a master contortionist, has been twisting himself like a pretzel since he was four years old. Wallace’s skills were highlighted during a portion of the show where he squeezed his entire body into impossible positions through a small metal ring. When asked if any part of the routine was as painful as it looked, he replied with “No, it makes my body feel good.”
At the end of the show, the standing ovation from the audience proved that the Kenya Safari Acrobats did not fail to deliver. Considering that it was the second time they had performed that evening (they had done parts of the routine earlier for elementary school children), that’s pretty impressive.
The fact that Chadron was fortunate enough to have them at all is also pretty impressive. “We were in over 200 cities last year,” one of the performers said. “I love places like San Diego and New York, but there are so many people. It’s too noisy.”
The Kenya Safari Acrobats brought the jungle to Chadron State College with upbeat music and pulse-pounding stunts, much to the enjoyment of the packed crowd in Memorial Hall. It turns out Axl Rose was right – they do have fun and games.
