East Africans ‘fight’ Beyoncé over lack of representation on ‘Lion King’ album
While many continue to shower praises on American singer, Beyoncé for featuring African Artistes on her latest album ‘The Lion King’, some appear irked by her failure and or refusal to fully represent Africa by focusing on musicians in Western Africa at the expense of other talented acts in the Eastern part of Africa.
The ‘Lion King’ album is a soundtrack for the remake of the movie, ‘The lion King’ and it features new songs performed by multiple artistes including Mr. Eazi, Tiwa Savage, Burna Boy, Yemi Alade and Wizkid all from Nigeria as well as Ghana’s self acclaimed Dancehall King, Shatta Wale.
This selection, some East Africans say, is discriminatory and unrepresentative of Africa.
According to them, the songs used in the original movie “The Lion King” originate from East Africa. They say most of the songs were written in Swahili and therefore people who speak and come from that root must be represented on the album to tell the story correctly.
Some aggrieved East Africans who took to social media to vent said, ‘The Lion King’ features characters with Swahili names, such as Simba (meaning lion) and so people in East Africa are wondering where the Swahili speakers are in the music supposed to serve as soundtracks for the movie.
The song opens with Swahili lyrics “Uishi kwa mda mrefu mfalme,” meaning “Long live the king.”
Below are some comments:
A Lion King album should atleast ft a Kenyan artist. Movie inspired by the Kenyan safari, Swahili names, Simba, Rafiki, Shenzi etc n above all the Kenyan phrase HAKUNA MATATA. One might be forgiven to think nigerians speak swahili lol @Beyonce @Trevornoah pic.twitter.com/wJiK2rhb7L
— rejay (@rejay88) July 17, 2019
It’s worse that @disneylionking uses Swahili..but what is even worse is that you didn’t feature any artist that speakes the language. Africa is more than just Nigeria it has 57 counties FYI…#Beyonce #sautisol #LionKing2019 https://t.co/wSEyhGQwJi
— Nafrepblik (@nafreblik) July 17, 2019
Magical Kenya 🇰🇪 very visible over here.
But I think Sauti Sol would have done some justice to Lion King track with Beyonce. Imagine them singing that swahili opening part. pic.twitter.com/OE3b4u83iG— Honest Kenyan (@KenyanHonest) July 17, 2019