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In 1953, the movie "Mogambo" was released to appreciative audiences. From what is the title derived? Is it a word in an African language? Any ideas?
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I couldn't find anything in this site that told what you are asking, but you may want to look anyway: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0046085I have this vague idea that Mogambo was the name of the river, or the area.
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Well, Father Steve, I can't help with the derivation of Mogambo but I can you tell you more than you may want to know about the movie.
It was originally a play by Wilson Collison, "Red Dust", set in a Saigon rubber plantation and filmed under that title in 1932 by Victor Fleming with Clark Gable and Jean Harlow.
In 1953 the original scriptwriter, John Lee Mahin, changed the location to the African veldt where it was filmed by John Ford starring, again, Clark Gable with Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly. The story was also filmed as "Congo Maisie" in 1940.
And the plot? -- take your pick:
The headquarters of a Kenyan white hunter is invaded by an American showgirl and a British archaeologist and his wife, and they all go off on a gorilla hunt. [Halliwell]
The lure of the jungle and romance get a sizzling workout in Mogambo and it's a socko package of entertainment, crammed with sexy two-fisted adventure. [Variety]
Interestingly, it was released without a music score, just 'jungle sounds and native rhythms".
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If "the Mogambo" is a river in Africa, it has escaped the notice of the usual web-based indexes.
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there seems to be a region in Somalia referred to as Mogambo...
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Can’t find it in my Rand McNally. I’ll send off a ? to National Geographic to see if they come up with anything.
We should also consider that it might just be a figment of the writer's imagination....
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I found an outfit called Mogambo Tours in Lanseria, South Africa, and wrote to them to ask how they got their name. A kind fellow named Eric YVER de la BRUCHOLLERIE wrote back to say: "In 1996, we took over a company called AIR MOGAMBO and renamed it as MOGAMBO TOURS. I believe the previous owner did derive the name from the 1953 movie starring Eva Gardner." Rats! Another dead end street.
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I was wondering if "mogambo" was a mild corruption of something else, so I tried "mugambo". Now, apparently ntanira na mugambo means "circumcision through words" http://fgm.org/chelala.html - which is clearly of no relevance to us at all.  But then there's: http://www.kalinlures.com/mogambo.htmBrrrrr! 
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The latter of these websites -- the one about "lures" -- is unwilling to open. Was there a character missing or out of place?
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Was there a character missing or out of place?
Nope, there were three characters missing - all of them "w"! Oops.
Well spotted, Pa. Sorted now.
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