What kind of second city are we looking at?
The 2nd city priority should be to assist Ulundi in worker/settler production. So, we're mostly looking for the best nearby food. Forest and riverside would be welcome bonuses. It would also be nice to share a couple of cottageable tiles.
Since there is a possibility that you want to go settler starting T10
I would not do that



I think it's very dubious to have improved tiles in Ulundi that are not being worked. The more production we want
from Ulundi, the higher the size it should grow. I certainly would want more than just the first settler. I think size 3 is perfectly fine from what we see.
It also turns out straight ugly to stagnate Ulundi at size 1 if/when horses/copper are revealed somewhere 2N. Now that would be a massive delay towards working those tiles (whereas growing to 3 first....).
You make a very good point about AH being researched first, though, and meeting neighbours extra fast not being a huge issue.
In this case, Soundjata's scouting pattern looks perfectly fine to me. Especially if we have a lake and not coast SE of the capital. It's probably the fastest and also very precise, as far as city locations go.
Otherwise, I'd probably have started SW, SW with the scout. Hop onto the hill and then circle clockwise. Generally speaking, straight south is the direction where an AI is most unlikely to be and, if there is one, it will find Player extremely fast. I'd have left the few tiles S of the cap to scout with the warrior that comes with size 3 settler. (Because size 1 settler also comes without a warrior, for what it's worth...)