The Definition of Africa

I recently went to see The Lion King musical in San Diego via the Bulldog Bus. While I was there, I thought about how much of what we as Americans know about Africa comes from watching The Lion King and other such media portrayals of Africa. This past summer I had the privilege of going to Kenya for three weeks to serve the people of Kitale, Kenya. When I landed in Kenya, I recognized in myself the desire to see the acacia trees so clearly portrayed in Lion King, and it wasn’t until I saw the acacia trees and the huge black birds that are often in them that I truly felt like I was in Africa, despite the multitude of other clues that could have been used to prove that I was no longer in America. Throughout my stay in Kenya, I often looked for objects like those I had seen in Lion King. I even went so far as to ask the children I worked with if the word “Nala” meant anything in Kiswahili after discovering that “Simba” meant “lion.” I also took a picture of a scene that I like to describe as “My Lion King picture.” This just goes to show how powerful movies, and children’s movies in particular, are in giving people an image of what a certain place is supposed to look or feel like.