Artwork I did for the front and back cover of the Lackadaisy vinyl album. (It features "Last Call", plus music from the pilot and animated shorts.) Left to right are Sy, JJ, Mozzie, Zib, Mitzi, and Ben.

Friendly reminder that the intro to Lion King….the non english bits leading up to the “circle of life” is not random yelling in *Africa voice* it is an actual language, Zulu, spoken by 10 million people, it is the most widely spoken language (out of 11) in the country of South Africa (1 out of the 54 countries in the continent of Africa, the continent home  to somewhere between 1500-2000 languages and around 3000 distinct ethnic groups)

this isn’t to say that you have to friggin learn the language to sing along with a disney film, it just means that you should be mindful, respectful, appreciative and respectful. don’t be yelling out whatever noise comes in to your head when you hear it

Ok but someone knows what does this say?

The lyrics before the english comes in…in “circle of life”

Nants ingonyama bagithi baba [Here comes a lion, Father] Sithi uhm ingonyama [Oh yes, it’s a lion] Nants ingonyama bagithi baba [Here comes a lion, Father] Sithi uhm ingonyama [Oh yes, it’s a lion] Ingonyama [It’s a lion] Siyo Nqoba [We’re going to conquer] Ingonyama Ingonyama nengw’ enamabala [A lion and a leopard come to this open place] (repeats) [queue English lyrics]

I would like to further add that language has there own cultural nuances so something that can sound extremely meaningful in one languages may not sound as majestic when translated to another (I know this as someone who has an understanding of 5 languages and speaks 3 of them fluently) so if you are thinking “oh it ain’t that deep they are just yelling: the lion is coming!” dial it back

Worth noting that “lion” and especially the word Ingonyama is a very respectful word to talk about a Zulu king, especially in praise. It’s so heavily associated with royalty in isiZulu that a different word is used for an animal lion - Ibhubesi. This isn’t just announcing the arrival of an animal, it’s celebrating the arrival (or coronation?) of the king

/\ Whoop, I didn’t know this

This is so informative thank you so much

Lemme tell you, I was not dividing those syllables into words in the right places AT ALL

I would also like to state that the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” is an extremely washed out version of the original song “Mbube” by Solomon Linda, a South African musician. It was appropriated by the west and he never received credit or money for what became an extremely famous song. His family eventually received a small sum from Disney for the song but again, not much considering the history of the song. There is a documentary about it right now on netflix. 

full article here

This is one of my most favourite posts I’ve made but I hate all of the typos on my part….but I’m grateful it landed with people