This type of initiation was frequently required of young African men who wanted to join the warrior class.
I don't know if this was customary among the Zulus or the Masai, but it's easy to imagine one of Shaka's merry men proclaiming, "Ah, young man, you want to join our impi (regiment)? Only brave men in this impi! You must come back with skin of lion before you can join!" (Which leads to the old joke about having to down a bottle of whisky, satisfy a lusty woman, and kill a lion... Hint: drink the whiskey last.)
Sudarsan Raghavan, Knight Ridder-Newspapers, 28 April 2002 "Disguised gunmen kill 4: Girl, 5, among victims of terrorists in Israeli army uniforms" ADORA, West Bank "Palestinian terrorists dressed as Israeli soldiers* slipped into a quiet Israeli settlement near Hebron Saturday morning... The gunmen entered the home of 5-year-old Danielle Sheffi, who lived with her parents and three siblings. After they left, the little girl's room-- decorated with a Micky Mouse doll, bed sheet, and poster-- was scattered with bullet holes and stained with blood. Danielle died instantly." * A capital war crime by itself
April 1, 2001: A terrorist cell stabbed Dina Guetta, 42, of Haifa, to death on Ha'atzmaut Street as part of an "initiation rite."
Maybe their excuse was that they drank the whiskey first... "We were going out to rape a lioness next. Honestly, we were!" A dead one, maybe, if it had been defanged, declawed, and trussed thoroughly.
June 5, 2001: Rock-throwing terrorists inflicted fatal injuries on Yehuda Shoham, aged 5 months, near Shilo in Samaria. Any complaints about Israeli "brutality" toward rock-throwers?