List of The Lion King Characters

List Of The Lion King Characters

Rafiki is a mandrill who lives in a baobab tree somewhere in the Pride Lands. He is a dear friend to Mufasa and later Simba. He performs shamanistic services for the lions of Pride Rock. He is an enigmatic character, tending to speak about himself in the third person, who drops in unexpectedly to lend advice; although very wise, he also has a very quirky, playful side. As a bipedal animal, Rafiki is able to use props more easily than most of the films' animals. He is never seen without his stick, which is topped with gourds that he uses for ritual purposes, painting and food. The character often serves as the narrator of the story of The Lion King, especially in video games and merchandise. Rafiki's name means "friend" in Swahili.

In The Lion King, Rafiki is introduced in the opening scene when he travels to Pride Rock to perform newborn Simba's presentation ceremony. Mufasa greets him like a friend he has not seen in a long time. Rafiki anoints Simba and presents him to the gathered animals, and later draws a stylized lion cub on the walls of his treehouse home to represent Simba's birth. When Simba is believed to be dead, Rafiki draws his hand across the Simba painting, obscuring it in grief. Later, after picking up his scent on the dust in the air, Rafiki realises that Simba is still alive and joyously restores the drawing, adding the full mane of an adult lion. He travels to the jungle where Simba lives with Timon and Pumbaa, then observes Simba and recognizes that he is suffering from a ponderous emotional burden. To treat it, he approaches the young lion (who does not recognise him) and teaches him a few playful, and sometimes painful, lessons about learning from the past, not running from it. He shows Simba that his father Mufasa lives in him, resulting in the appearance of Mufasa's ghost which gives Simba the courage to face his past. During the battle for Pride Rock, Rafiki displays highly trained martial arts against the hyenas and save Simba from a hyena who attack him and realizes it was Scar who did really kill Mufasa. Simba embraces him before ascending Pride Rock as king telling him "It is time", and at the end of the film, Rafiki presents Simba and Nala's newborn cub.

During the film, Rafiki sings a nonsense chant: "Asante sana, squash banana, wewe nugu, mimi hapana." This is a Swahili playground rhyme which translates to "Thank you very much (squash banana), you're a baboon and I'm not!" Like "hakuna matata" (no worries), the chant was heard by the filmmakers on their research trip to Kenya.

In the sequel Simba's Pride, Rafiki is more closely involved with the affairs and politics of the prides and is often seen with the lions. Mufasa's spirit persuades him to bring Simba's daughter Kiara and Zira's son Kovu together as a way of uniting the prides. Rafiki tries to make them fall in love by singing to them about a place called "Upendi", which means "love" in Swahili. When Simba exiles Kovu, he blames him on the attack which is set by Zira. Kira attempts to avenge Scar's death. Scar was killed by the hyenas for blaming the death of his brother on them. He sighs sadly for letting Kovu leave, knowing he is not part of the attack. In the end, he blesses the union of Kovu and Kiara and Kovu is welcomed into the pride. Rafiki appears briefly in The Lion King 1½, teaching Timon the philosophy of "Hakuna Matata" and later convincing Timon to follow Simba to Pride Rock to confront Scar.

In the musical, the character of Rafiki was significantly modified. Because director Julie Taymor felt that the story lacked a strong female character, Rafiki was changed into a female mandrill and sangoma. She acts as an involved narrator throughout the story, at one point speaking to the audience in a click language for comic effect. She sings the opening song "Circle of Life", a keening song called "Rafiki Mourns" following Mufasa's death, and a brief part in Nala's song "Shadowland", when she blesses Nala for her journey to find help. Instead of detecting Simba's scent on dust, Rafiki hears Simba's song "Endless Night" on the wind. Rafiki finds Simba and shows him that his father lives on in him through the song "He Lives in You". She is present during the battle, fighting a hyena using hand-to-hand combat, and adorns Simba with the king's mantle after his victory. As in the film, the story ends with her presentation of Simba and Nala's cub.

Rafiki appears in a few episodes of the Timon and Pumbaa TV series and has his own series of skits called "Rafiki Fables" in the same show. He appears briefly in the Pride Lands world of Kingdom Hearts II.