We didn’t get to film the king … but actually I am a little relieved.

Despite our charm offensive with local officials here in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Femi Oke and I have not been granted an audience or photo opportunity with the King of the Mossi people. It would have made a great picture story for Inside Africa.

So why am I slightly relieved?

The last time I filmed an African king was in 2006, when I went with CNN’s Richard Quest to Swaziland, to film an interview with the King, Mswati III. He is still held in great reverence and awe by his people. Before the interview, his aides where very concerned that I should not touch the king when putting his microphone on. Only his 13 wives and certain special people may touch him, I was told. The king of course said it was absolutely fine for me to mike him up, but when I was trying to hide the cable he became concerned I may have touched his special black wooden stick, which he held at all times. Not sure if I had brushed it, I thought it best to assure him I hadn’t. "But Sir, what would happen if I had?" I asked politely. "Something very bad will happen to you," he replied, to laughs from Quest and the producer.

The next day we needed one last sequence with the king. As we drove into his compound, I started to have strong pains in my chest, tingling up my arms and difficulty breathing. Quest was getting very agitated that I was about to have a heart attack. I started to black out and was rushed to a local clinic. There the doctor, without examining me, laid his hand on my heart and prayed to God "to care for me and protect me from the dark forces we know little about." Was he giving me my last rites or exorcising some magic curse? At this point it took all my will to convince myself that at 38 I wasn’t about to die. After a heart scan and an intravenous drip the doctor’s verdict was … stress. The diagnosis back in London was strained muscles between my ribs, (from a previous day of running through the African bush with camera on shoulder) causing acute chest pain and difficulty breathing.

I still wonder whether I did touch the king’s stick.

-- From CNN cameraman Neil Bennett