The problem with Rafiki is not that he is African – even though he's one of the few overtly African characters in this movie set in Africa – but that his character is the archetypal Magical Negro.

Persian Scar is pretty hard to justify, too, even for the sake of Grand Vizier shorthand.

I went to the musical in London. Rafiki was played by a large African woman, and she didn't have any lines in English, only in that tongue-clicking language, whatever it's called. It was pretty cool and pretty interesting.

What about the fact that Scar has a posh British gentlemen's accent? cf all the other lions being American.