Thursday 25 July 2019

The Lion King: Not Made for Africa

So a dear friend who lives in the States asked me, in my capacity as an African living in Africa, to review the Lion King, and so I will give a short review here. I had thought about doing it, but then I only had negative thoughts, so I didn't want to spoil anyone's childhood by expressing them. But since I was specifically requested to do it, well, here it is. You're probably not going to like it.
Now the story of the Lion King is no surprise to anyone; I sincerely doubt if there's anyone alive who hasn't at least seen the animation. But much as it was set in 'Africa' I don't really think it was meant for the consumption of Africans.
It's weird how we're excluded from what are allegedly our own stories.
"But Annemarie, why do you say this?" asked nobody.
Well, let me tell you a few things about the original and the live-action remake that I noticed, specifically as a Kenyan because that is clearly where the Lions are based.
The whole "Pride Rock" place, I think I've seen it live. It's somewhere along the Rift Valley between Naivasha and Nakuru although it was probably meant to be the Maasai Mara where there are actual lions. The Maasai Mara however, is savannah which is flat land, as opposed to the actual rifts and valleys brought about by shifting of tectonic plates long ago that brought about the Rift Valley.
So Lions in Naivasha and a stampede of wildebeest almost as if they were doing the great annual migration from the Kenya side to the Tanzania side. Except they were doing it in like Olduvai Gorge as opposed to Namanga.
this is Naivasha
Also, there's no actual desert landscape anywhere near Naivasha or Namanga. Simba would have had to go all the way to North Eastern Kenya and then come down to either Western Kenya where there is a waterfall or down to Mt. Kenya region. Both places are lush and green but wow, for such a small cub to cover such distances...
It's cool, I mean, why let the truth affect good storytelling right?
And for sure when I first watched it as a teenager in the nineties, I just was too traumatized by Mufasa's death to care about these details.
And I'm not much aggrieved by them now either. What does aggrieve me is Disney trying to patent the phrase "Hakuna Matata" as if Kiswahili isn't an actual language spoken in many versions across Africa from North to South and as if it wasn't the motto for Brand Kenya (yes yes, we have a brand) for the entirety of the Moi era. As if Them Mushrooms did not sing a song, waaaay before the Lion King was conceptualized named, Jambo Bwana whose lyrics coined the phrase, Hakuna Matata.
That was annoying AS FUCK.
To make matters worse, Beyonce did an album, that she called an "African" album with a bunch of Nigerian singers. Now we not about to tell Beyonce who can feature in her album but don't call it African please, when it's just Nigerian. That's how we get erased; by not acknowledging that we are not a homogenous mass. African and African American is not the same - you cannot put us all under one umbrella. It's not similar to choosing rappers only from Atlanta and saying, "Oh, the African American community is represented."
No. Nigerian music is vibrant, popular in America and very distinctive. Its good music and its African music but it does not represent the entirety of the African music experience. Furthermore, it has nothing to do with an accurate portrayal of the environment of the Lion King. Nigeria doesn't even have lions. But I suppose Burna Boy and Yemi Alade would be more recognizable to an American audience than Sauti Sol or Eric Wainaina.
I just don't see why at least a Them Mushrooms sample could not have been used. Just to pay tribute to the originators of the phrase...
On top of that, apparently, Beyonce stole the entire video concept for Spirit from an African film. It's a disappointment on top of disappointment.
Now, coming to the film itself, there were plenty of innacuracies including Simba being able to survive on grubs and bugs. But let's say in the spirit of it being fiction, that that could happen. But now, I'm an adult and everything problematic just shouts out to me. In trying to find a reason for Scar's jealousy of Mufasa, they made Mrs. Mufasa his love interest or at least somebody he was lusting after. Great, fine. But this mighty lionness allowed the Pridelands to become Badlands while she sat there and watched from her rock, waiting for 'someone' to help them while thinking that her son was dead so what this mythical help was supposed to look like, we don't know. In an ideal society such as Wakanda for example, there is no way that Simba would have ruled over Nala. She is the one who took charge, she is the one who sought to remove them from the situation they were in. She is the one who never lost herself. But because the story was written by white men knowingly or not, steeped in patriarchy and white privilege, it's the male, who barely knows himself let alone the pride lands, who gets to rule.
Then, there were the accents.
And man...were those annoying or what? So all the 'good' lions had American accents, the 'bad' lion had a British accent. The head hyena though got to have a generic "African" accent. I don't know if that was meant to sound Kenyan or what. So not even the villain but the villain support, have African accents while everyone else is westernized. It might not be deliberate but it perpetuates a stereotype about the order of hierarchies in the world, who comes first and who comes last. Then, there's the monkey who is randomly speaking Xhosa...
What?
It's just disrespectful. I'm sure they could have at least gotten someone who spoke Kiswahili. But I guess those details don't matter because the identity of Africans doesn't matter to the Lion King's core targeted audience - white people.
It wasn't just the accent or the language but also the mannerisms were very very American. If Simba's dad had been a true African Lion, he would at least have gotten a very severe punishment for putting himself and Nala in danger. Whether it was going to bed with no supper, a slipper to his ass, something. African parents don't just 'give a talk' and then reward bad behavior with play. In whose Africa?
Not the one I live in for sure.
I suppose it's like Japanese anime. Is it actually made for the consumption of actual Japanese people or is it for creepy dudes to jerk off to on the Internet?
I mean, there was not one single premier held on the African continent. Magical Kenya had to travel all the way to the London premier to be seen (check the advertisers on the yellow carpet). A movie about Africa that totally ignores the continent yet benefits from advertisers from the actual place where the film was based. Yep, just another day in paradise.
All in all, apart from the, you know, everything, it was a good way to relive childhood trauma.



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