Zakumi

When Zakumi first appeared, I was fairly sceptical. He's a weird-looking mascot, I thought. But as more and more Zakumi statues pop up around town, he's worn me down, and now I just love him. At the airport on Monday morning, I even felt compelled to hug him. More and more facebook friends are updating their profile photos to a picture of themselves hugging Zakumi in whichever city they happen to be.

Zakumi’s name is derived from "ZA", which stands South Africa, and "kumi" which menas 10 in a variety of languages.