"Rafiki" is Swahili for "friend", and is used as a term of address in Swahili-speaking countries. Rafiki's character often serves as the visual narrator of the story of The Lion King. Robert Guillaume voices Rafiki in the three films. He is shown to be a dear friend to Mufasa. This is reflected in his name, which is a play on the Swahili word "rafiki", meaning "friend", or the Arabic word "rafiq",
also meaning "friend". He presents Simba to all the animals gathered at Pride Rock, and draws a stylized lion cub on the walls of his treehouse home to represent Simba's birth. When Simba runs away and his family believes him dead, Rafiki draws his paw across the Simba drawing, obscuring it in grief. Later, after picking up Simba's scent in the dust and pollen in the air, Rafiki determines that Simba is still alive and restores the drawing, adding the full mane of an adult lion as a sign to seek out this young deliverer from Scar's tyranny. Journeying to the area where Simba lives with Timon and Pumbaa, Rafiki observes Simba and recognizes, at least in principle, that he is suffering from a ponderous emotional burden. To treat it, he approaches the young lion and teaches him a few playful (and sometimes painful) lessons about learning from the past, not living in it. He also points out that the spirit and values of Simba's dead father, Mufasa, continue to live in Simba himself. When Simba decides to return to Pride Rock and fight Scar for the kingship, Rafiki accompanies him, demonstrating his kung fu skills in battle against the hyenas. At the end of the film, Rafiki raises Simba and Nala's new-born cub atop Pride Rock for everyone to see, echoing the beginning of the film. It is revealed that it was Rafiki who taught Timon the philosophy of "Hakuna Matata".
