Simba. Rafiki. Hakuna Matata.

It may be hard to believe, but a few decades ago they were just random words in Swahili. And then, in 1994, this changed almost overnight thanks to the global runaway success of The Lion King, a movie that has since rooted itself in the world’s collective knowledge. Coming out of seemingly nowhere, it swept across the world and has become almost the default mental image of ‘Africa’ for millions of people. Not bad for a movie that Disney thought was going to be a failure. But, in the 30 years since its release, how has it changed attitudes towards Africa, what did it steal from Shakespeare and most importantly, was it based on the true story?

What seems so simple now belies the struggles to get it made, and the development of The Lion King was rife with internal issues. Disney had just come off a string of successes for their ‘princess hits’, with The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin gaining worldwide success. Their next hit in the chain seemed easy, all they had to do was follow the formula laid out. And so, they assembled their ‘A-team’ of artists, musicians and creatives and got to work on their next, sure-to-be smash hit. That film’s name? Pocahontas.

Meanwhile, also within the same studio, another film was greenlit for development over muted objections from Disney executives. The story of a lion cub struggling to find his place following the death of his father was relegated to the ‘B-team’. It featured two first-time directors, new animators and animation supervisors and was largely expected to be of middling success. It was, in many ways, a retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, but it also included the drama of African wildlife and a bit of Biblical allegory. The similarities are obvious. A boy, a prince no less, loses his father to his uncle’s murderous intent. He is convinced to flee for his own safety but, after seeing his father in a ghostly vision, makes his way back to take on and defeat his uncle. The only major story change is that Simba survives in a classic Disney happy ending whereas, spoiler alert, Hamlet does not.

Despite a complete rewrite halfway through development the major element of the film that has ensured it remained current 30 years later was its depiction of Africa. There are obvious ‘Disney-ism’s’, like the procession of animals at the debut of Simba at Pride Rock and of course, the endless songs. Despite that, the behaviours of the animals and landscapes of Africa are taken straight from real-life inspiration. The reason for this is that (unlike the band Toto who wrote the song ‘Africa’) the filmmakers and animators actually spent time in Africa studying the landscapes and feel of the place. Going to Africa does change your perspective of the place. In fact, it was only on arrival in Kenya that they realised they had underestimated the wonder of the landscapes. As a result, the epic opening shot of the film was reimagined to try and capture the scale of the African plains. All of these details paid off, and when it launched in 1994, it was a massive success. It became the highest-grossing animated film of all time and the second highest-grossing film of all time, titles it held for almost 10 years and 2 years respectively. Since then, it has been spun off for sequels, an arguably unnecessary CGI remake in 2019 and a hugely successful stage show, it itself becoming the highest-grossing Broadway show in history (and still running today). It has influenced countless lives and has become a king in its own right.

Despite all that and the Shakespearean inspiration, little do many know that the story of the Lion King, one that pre-dated Shakespeare’s Hamlet by 250 years, is a real one. You may have heard of Mansa Musa, the Malian King calculated to be the richest person to ever live. His fortune was estimated to be over USD $400 billion, adjusting for inflation. We don’t have time to go through his life but, as a ludicrous example of his enormous wealth, he gave away so much gold on the way from Mali on his pilgrimage to Mecca that the value of gold was severely depressed for over 25 years. However, it is the story of his great uncle Sundiata Keita, the founder of the Malian Empire, that tells the real Lion King story. Again, it’s a familiar tale. The rightful heir to the throne of the region, his father died in suspicious circumstances and he was forced to flee for safety when he was a young child. Whilst he was away, Sundiata grew in strength and made alliances with local rulers and outsiders. He eventually returned to his birthright, overthrowing the oppressive ruler and taking back the throne, bringing in a new era of prosperity. Sundiata’s nickname was “The Lion”, and when he became the ruler he declared himself “Mansa”, meaning king. He was, quite literally, ‘The Lion King’.

His story isn’t widely known outside West Africa. Let’s be honest though, what African stories are? For example, this kingdom, the Malian Empire, was the richest empire in history. It ran for over 400 years (similar to the Western Roman Empire) and yet few have heard of it. Famous writers and scholars, including the famed traveller Ibn Battuta, came to study the story of the Lion King well over 200 years before Shakespeare was born. Battuta’s work was well read, and Hamlet ‘borrowed’ a lot of his work from various sources, so who knows whether this true story influenced Hamlet, or whether these sorts of stories are just merely universal.

What is not unknown is the impact Lion King has had on the perception of Africa. When you are on safari now in Africa it is not at all uncommon to hear terms like “Pumbaa” (meaning silly or absentminded) thrown around by guides in place of ‘warthog’. Guides across the continent will recognise a hornbill as a “Zazu” if a client sees one. Most guides in East Africa often use Swahili to disguise their discussions on the radio, but even now they have had to change their vocabulary again. Words like ‘Simba’ are instantly recognisable and have now been replaced by other words that describe the animal, rather than name it. For example, a lion might be a ‘Big Head’. And of course, you can’t throw a (Pride) rock in Kenya or Tanzania without seeing a souvenir saying “Hakuna Matata”.

Prior to the film’s release, the most influential media on Africa were perhaps the Streep/Redford film ‘Out of Africa’, or the Bogart/Hepburn ‘The African Queen’. Films like the John Wayne movie ‘Hatari’ (again a Swahili word, this time meaning ‘danger’) were part of a series of films set in Africa, without any Africans in them. But there wasn’t anything until The Lion King that got the world on the same wavelength. The behaviours of the animals, with each animal’s movement studied in zoos by the animators, lined up with the nature documentaries we had become also been watching. A positive story of Africa, with the main characters at least African in origin, was a first. Since then, the only other film that had a widespread positive view of Africa was arguably ‘Black Panther’, and that one featured a country that was fictional.

People don’t easily care about what they don’t see. This film, although not real and created with pencil and brush, shines a light on a part of the world that is often overlooked in mainstream Western culture. The shifting of the narrative from the ‘Dark Continent’ to the ‘Home of the Pridelands’ has had untold positive effects, through tourism, to the lives of the local people and also to the people visiting. And whilst we could rant angrily about the film’s treatment of hyenas and the damage it has done to the conservation of that particular species, if a piece of art can positively affect the perception of a whole continent, then ‘Hakuna Matata’.