Disney Accused Of Colonialism & Robbery For Trademarking 'Hakuna Matata' From Lion King
Swahili phrase &lsquoHakuna Matata&rsquo means problem-free. Disney first applied to trademark the catchphrase in 1994 &ndash the same year it released The Lion King animation. The petition was created by Shelton Mpala who accused the company of cultural appropriation.
It's not a 'problem-free philosophy' for Disney anymore. Disney has been hit by accusations of colonialism over its trademarking the phrase ¡®Hakuna Matata¡¯.
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The Swahili phrase 'Hakuna Matata' means problem-free. Swahili is spoken across east Africa and is the national language of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Disney first applied to trademark the catchphrase in 1994 ¨C the same year it released The Lion King animation, reports the Guardian. Now, it is in hot soup just before the release of its motion-capture remake of The Lion King, set to come out in the summer of 2019.
The petition was created by Shelton Mpala, who accused the company of cultural appropriation, ¡°Disney can¡¯t be allowed to trademark something that it didn¡¯t invent,¡± he wrote.
More than 50,000 people have now signed the petition and now the trademark has prompted calls for African governments to do more to protect their culture, reports the Guardian.
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