Composer of iconic 'Lion King' chant sues comedian over 'Circle of Life' translation

Lebohang "Lebo M" Morake arrives for the official opening of the local production of the Lion King in Johannesburg on June 6, 2007. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell, File)

A Grammy-award winning South African composer who wrote and performed the iconic opening chant in “Circle of Life” for Disney’s “The Lion King” movies is suing a comedian for allegedly damaging his reputation by intentionally misrepresenting the song’s meaning on a podcast and in his stand-up routine.

Lebohang Morake’s lawsuit accuses Zimbabwean comedian Learnmore Mwanyenyeka, known as Learnmore Jonasi, of intentionally mistranslating the chant, which launches the 1994 Disney movie and is central to staged versions as well as Disney’s 2019 remake.

The dispute, which has gone viral as the two men challenge each other on social media, stems from statements Jonasi made in his stand-up routines and in a recent podcast interview, where he translated the song’s lyrics from Zulu and Xhosa, two of South Africa’s 12 national languages.

The lawsuit was filed this month in federal court in Los Angeles, where Morake, who performs as Lebo M, lives and where Jonasi recently performed. It accuses Jonasi of intentionally mocking “the chant’s cultural significance with exaggerated imitations.”

Disney’s official translation of the opening phrase “Nants’ingonyama bagithi Baba” is “All hail the king, we all bow in the presence of the king.”

“Hay! baba, sizongqoba,” the chant continues. It translates to “Through you we will emerge victoriously,” according to Morake.

In the episode of One54 cited in the lawsuit, the podcast’s Nigerian hosts initially sing the chant with incoherent and incorrect words. Jonasi corrects them, and says “That’s not how you sing it, don’t mess up our language like that.”

Jonasi then sings the correct lyrics in Zulu. When asked, he says they translate to: “Look, there’s a lion. Oh my god.” The hosts burst out laughing, saying that they had previously thought the chant was something more “beautiful and majestic.”

“Circle of Life,” with music by Elton John and English-language lyrics by Tim Rice, came up in the broader context of Jonasi’s critique of “The Lion King” franchise as profiting off of simplistic narratives about the African continent for non-African audiences.

“The lions had American accents in Africa, and then you had the monkey with an accent,” Jonasi said, and they went on to critique the “Black Panther” movies and other renderings of Africa in popular American culture.

Morake’s lawyers acknowledged in the complaint that “ingonyama” can literally translate to “lion,” but say it’s used in the song as a “royal metaphor” that invokes kingship, and that Jonasi intentionally misrepresented “an African vocal proclamation grounded in South African tradition.”

The lawsuit says Jonasi “received a standing ovation” for a similar joke he made about the song during a March 12 stand-up performance in Los Angeles. Such viral statements, it says, are interfering with Morake’s business relationships with Disney and his income from royalties, causing more than US$20 million in actual damages. The lawsuit also seeks $7 million in punitive damages.

Disney didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment on Monday night.

The complaint also argues that Jonasi presented his translation “as authoritative fact, not comedy” so it shouldn’t get the First Amendment protections afforded to parody and satire that make fun of other artistic works.

Jonasi doesn’t have an attorney publicly listed for the case, and a representative didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment on Monday night, but the comedian offered some thoughts in a video posted last week as he continues his U.S. tour.

Jonasi said he’s a “big fan” of Morake’s work and loves the song. When he learned that Morake was upset, the comedian said, he wanted to create a video with Morake explaining the song’s deeper meaning.

“Comedy always has a way of starting conversation,” Jonasi said in the video he posted on Instagram, which got more than 100,000 likes. “This is your chance to actually educate people, because now people are listening.”

But Jonasi said he changed his mind about collaborating with Morake when he said the composer called him “self-hating” as they exchanged messages following the Feb. 25 podcast. He said Morake’s reaction ignored the rest of his work delving into a more nuanced critique of American renderings of African identity.

Safiyah Riddle, The Associated Press