7.19.2019

LION KING & BEYONCE - AND GLOBAL AFRICAN MUSIC

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Hello All:



Beyonce at The Lion King premiere in Hollywood.



Beyonce and ‘Lion King’ About to Take Nigeria Music Scene Global




Maskini = I'm sorry, Rafiki yangu! (my friends)

I looked at the headline to the article and initially thought, "Wow! Nice, but no cigar!" since THE LION KING was based in EAST AFRICA - not WEST AFRICA - the language is SWAHILI, not YORUBA or IBO.
RAFIKI = Friend in Swahili (the Mandrill Priest)
SIMBA = Lion in Swahili
HAKUNA MATATA = no worries in Swahili
In fact, ALL OF THE REFERENCES, LANGUAGE and NAMES are  IN SWAHILI, which means KENYA, UGANDA, TANZANIA, OR tangential countries in EAST AFRICA.

Mimi nikupenda dada Beyonce' (I love sister Beyonce') lakini (but) she needs to do more homework. 

I wish we would at least learn about our culture - since Africa is a Continent made of 54 countries.   I wonder how our brothers and sisters in EAST AFRICA feel about this? 
 
I guess the celebrity value alone mitigates having to have any authenticity, though.

Mind you, I have nothing against global African culture or music.  I love our African culture and danced professionally to African music, and music from most of the cultures from Egypt to South Africa and points in between for four years.  We studied them, as well as the influences we had from South America (Brazil), and the Caribbean and gave credit to their points of origin. 

Somebody please tell our wonderful sister that there are some cultural changes she just really has to understand, while she is moving forward to acknowledge and embrace her African heritage.  We appreciate the wonderful example she is trying to set in bringing the awareness of our beautiful culture and heritage to the world.  

That said, I plan to be front and center because when the movie premiers.   Despite the mixed cultural cues, we need more movies about Black people and Black culture in positive lights.  I loved the first release of The Lion King, and the sequels.  I will also enjoy this as well.  After all, who doesn't love Beyonce' and who doesn't love African music?  Asante Sana (thanks very much) Beyonce'.

If I'm not playing jazz or spiritual music in the background, I'm playing original African music - and believe me, we have a rich, rich heritage dating back thousands of years. 

Let this inspire you to study, support and feature more and more of our original and positive cultural styles.  

Kwaheri (Goodbye)
Mungu Itakubariti
STAY BLESSED
Gloria

PS:  (okay! okay!  my Swahili is a might rusty - it's been 50 years since I studied - but I know enough to know East from West African Culture)
Odabo = Goodbye (Yoruba)


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-18/beyonce-and-lion-king-about-to-take-nigeria-music-scene-global-jy8o7x4s



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lion_King_(2019_film)

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