Circle of life: Lebo M worked on the music for the animated The Lion King and is also involved in the live-action remake. Photo Delwyn Verasamy
Friday Editors Note
By the time I finally watched The Lion King it had been out for two years but, being a teenager, I felt I was too mature to watch an animated movie.
Luckily for me, one day our school principal decided the seniors would get to watch it after classes in the AV room. My crew and I (we were a mixed bag of curious and hormonal boys and girls from Soweto to Alex) sat on the floor and watched this 1994 classic in awe. For some reason, that day is still vivid in my mind’s eye.
None of us was prepared for Mufasa dying. I remember we all got teary-eyed as Simba watched his father plunge to his death. The emotions we went through took us by surprise. We were too cool for school and didn’t think we’d be moved to tears, tickled silly by the banter between Timon and Pumbaa or inspired by how far love can take you when Nala finally saw the grown-up Simba.
But we weren’t the only ones who felt something special with The Lion King — many people around the world did. The themes of destiny, family feuds and impostor syndrome were so universal we all could relate.
Disney got its return on investment with that film because while it only cost $45 million to make, it grossed more than $960 million at the box office and was voiced by some of the biggest names in the movie business.
My high school friends and I walked out of that AV room dumbstruck; we barely spoke to each other, we were so deep in our feelings.
A couple of us were about to take the bus into town to get to Soweto. A year before we would’ve walked from Berea to the Joburg CBD but the neighbourhood had started to circle the drain, with drug dealers peddling to everyone from kids to nurses.
This was made worse by the political violence between Inkatha Freedom Party and ANC supporters. The unrest, rumoured to have been instigated by “angry Zulu men from the hostels”, had us running to the trains because taxis were too risky.
I remember thinking of hostels as places where Zulu agitators met to plot how to terrorise innocent citizens. The hypothesis was that there was a third force behind the violence but that period did put a blemish on how I saw hostels and the people who inhabited them. It was a time of turmoil and descent in South Africa, as more than 150 people lost their lives because of political unrest.
Parents were anxious to send us to school and teachers were nervous about our commute back home. Waking up at 5am to travel from one part of Joburg to another not knowing what would happen in between was an emotional roller coaster.
So you can imagine how bittersweet it is for me to find myself, more than 20 years later, putting together an issue that not only celebrates 25 years of The Lion King being adapted for Broadway (with music by SA’s Lebo M) but also reading Oupa Nkosi’s story on how hostels have become creative hubs where maskandi music thrives and which produce some of the genre’s biggest talents.
It wasn’t just nostalgia that came to me but also the realisation that certain things can endure time, space and tragedy. As a Joburger, I remember the city in various forms — when there was a Milky Lane in Hillbrow; or Codes in Rosebank when The Zone was first built.
And, of course, going to OR Tambo International Airport on the East Rand with my family, just to watch planes fly — dreaming of where people were going and wondering what it felt like to be in there. Life is both unpredictable and magical because you can wonder about planes and then one day find yourself catching flights as often as you catch feelings.
As the country has changed, so have we as people and so has my birth city. At this time, in particular, Jozi gets abandoned by most for the coast, but as it’s become more and more costly to live in Cyril Ramaphosa’s financially suffocating load-shed South Africa, many people are preferring staycations.
Ryan Enslin looks at the four Rands of Joburg, how they are perceived by the city’s residents and how to best explore them. Just because you’re not catching a plane to stay at a sea-view hotel, it doesn’t mean your festive season has to be a dud. Joburg has a lot to offer.
However, I want to mention I don’t reference the past because I’m stuck there — quite the contrary. The past is a source of knowledge and hindsight which allows me to look in the rear-view mirror of my life to see where I’ve come from, to better strategise where I’m going.
Evolving is one of the toughest things to do because it’s not pretty and many people prefer you to remain the same so they feel safe. But, as the year comes to close, it’s crucial to remember change is inevitable and necessary. Yes, look back on the year, your life and your goals but don’t stay in the past for too long. The future brings new promise — but the present requires your focus.