Angola in the Comics #15: Black Jack in "White Lion"

I don't seldom look at manga on this blog, but in the past I've indicated that one of the mangas I enjoyed was Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack, a series about the world's greatest surgeon, an unlicensed practitioner who demands the top dollar for his work, yet despite that has a deep conscience and sense of justice. Recently I've been going through the volumes I hadn't read (printed in English by Vertical) when in volume 12 I found -- of all things -- a story referencing Angola!

I don't know where the story called "White Lion" was first published, although it appears to be from the 1970s. In this story, Black Jack is hired by the owner of a zoo in Japan which recently received Luna Luna, a rare white lion from Angola, which is referenced as being "recently independent". The lion appears to be sick and although Black Jack's specialities are in human medicine, the zoo hopes he can help the cub. What Black Jack discovers is that the lion isn't simply white furred -- it's suffering from albinism. To save Luna Luna's life, Black Jack injects him with melanin, darkening the lion's skin and fur. The lion is now of little interest to the zoo, who return him to Angola.

I'm not sure what inspired this particular story of Tezuka's -- I've noticed that many of his Black Jack comics were drawn from contemporary news items in Japan. So why Angola? Just because it had recently become indepdendent? And why white lions? Simply because of Tezuka's earlier series Kimba the White Lion, or was there an issue at a Japanese zoo which was similar to this? Regardless of where the story came from, the references to Angola's independence are nice, and lions were certainly in Angola at the time (today, probably not so much). So far as I know, white lions are found in South Africa, but at least this is within southern Africa. I've never considered the effects of albinism on animals, but albinism is certainly an issue all over Africa. In my own vists to Angola, my uncle patiently explained to me how carefully albinos must protect themselves from the sun -- much as Black Jack recounts in this comic.

What an interesting place to find a comic book reference to Angola. Thanks, Tezuka!