Most people look at the male lion as a dominant and powerful womaniser, so to speak. A lazy bag of muscles that sleeps most of the day and bullies his way into a meal after the lionesses have toiled in the hot sun and managed to bag a wildebeest or zebra for dinner. A show-off who releases a thundering roar just to be noticed.

Recently I was watching a YouTube video; ‘Male Lion Saves Female Lions’ and it got me thinking. The king of the jungle is more than what we think of him. Indulge me for a second, as we walk in his scary shoes and try to understand him from his point of view.

Imagine with me for a second, that you weigh 250 KG-300 KG and are between 1.7-2.5 M in length. You have the strength of double the strongest man alive. Let me put that into perspective. You can probably lift a car weighing 753 KG. If you could do that, you would probably be superman without the weakness of kryptonite. To add to that, you have a loving family, a couple of wives and a huge chunk of land.

This seems wonderful. Life cannot get any better. Oh wait, it can. You do not have to work. Food will be provided by any of your numerous wives. All you have to do is sleep all day and do the occasional roars come dusk and dawn. Sounds perfect right? Well, yes, until you discover that you have a bull’s-eye painted on your back with flashing neon lights accompanying it.

You further realise that the acres of land you own, are filled with all sorts of people willing to kill your children and your wives just for fun. That scares you a little but you assume, with your power and might, you can take them out without breaking a sweat.

Now here comes the shocker. You discover that the sons you have fought so hard to protect over the years could one day become stronger than you and if you do not chase them away in time, they will most certainly kill you and take what is yours.

Talk about forceful inheritance. At this point, it is beginning to dawn on you that you were not cut out for this kind of job. It is now apparent that the lion king has a job description few can fill.

If you were king of the jungle would you be different? Would you hunt for your wives and children knowing they could easily betray and even kill you in the future? By now am quite sure you no longer see the lion in the same light so get off your high horse and let the king of the jungle be – womaniser, non-worker or not!