''A Lion's Trail'' is a 2002 documentary film by

François Verster François Verster (born 1969) is an independent South African film director and documentary maker. He has a wide background in writing, music, academia and film. After completing an MA degree with distinction under literature Nobel Prize laur ...

about the rights for the popular song "

The Lion Sleeps Tonight "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is a song originally written and recorded by Solomon Linda under the title "Mbube" for the South African Gallo Record Company in 1939. Linda's original was written in isiZulu, while the English version's lyrics were wri ...

", also known as "Wimoweh", "Wimba Way" or "Awimbawe", a song written and recorded by the South African shepherd and singer of Zulu origin

Solomon Linda Solomon Popoli Linda (19098 September 1962), also known as Solomon Ntsele ("Linda" was his clan name),Gilmore, Inigo"Penniless sisters fight record industry over father's hit song" ''The Telegraph'' (UK), 11 June 2000. was a South African musici ...

with the Evening Birds as " Mbube". In the 1950s, the song had been adapted by

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notably ...

The Weavers The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City originally consisting of Lee Hays, Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, and Fred Hellerman. Founded in 1948, the group sang traditional folk songs fro ...

as "

Wimoweh "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is a song originally written and recorded by Solomon Linda under the title "Mbube" for the South African Gallo Record Company in 1939. Linda's original was written in isiZulu, while the English version's lyrics were wri ...

" and further developed in the 1961 version recorded by popular music group

The Tokens The Tokens were an American doo-wop band and record production company group from Brooklyn, New York City. The group has had four top 40 hits on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, all in the 1960s, their biggest being the chart-topping 1961 hit singl ...

, for whom it was re-written extensively by

George David Weiss George David Weiss (April 9, 1921 – August 23, 2010) was an American songwriter and arranger, who was a president of the Songwriters Guild of America. He is an inductee in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Biography Weiss was born in a Jewish fa ...

. This version had been retitled "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". The song was also adapted for the screen in

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

1994 film ''

The Lion King ''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 32nd Disney animated feature film and the fifth produced during the Disney Renaissance, it ...

''. . The film helped Linda's family to sue legally for revenues from the song. ''A Lion's Trail'' was not the first time Verster had tackled the controversy on the song. In 1999, he had filmed ''The Story of "Mbube"'' for television about the song. That film had won the 1999 National Television & Video Association Silver Stone & Stone Craft Award. In 2000,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

n journalist

Rian Malan Rian Malan (born 1954, in Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 larges ...

wrote a feature article for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' magazine in which he recounted Solomon Linda's story tracing its history from its first recording by Solomon Linda, a penniless Zulu singer, through the song's adoption by The Weavers, The Tokens and in the movie ''

''. ''The Story of "Mbubé"'' and the new interest created by the ''Rolling Stone'' piece prompted Verster to create his 2002 documentary that told Linda's story, also exposing the workings of the multimillion-dollar corporate music publishing industry about copyright. The film tracks the story of the song "Wimoweh/The Lion Sleeps Tonight" back to its Zulu origin and follows the song's rocky history from

to Brooklyn and back asking why Linda died penniless and his children live in poverty while American artists made millions off the song. In 2005, it gained prominence when it was screened by

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

on the program ''

Independent Lens ''Independent Lens'' is a weekly television series airing on PBS featuring documentary films made by independent filmmakers. Past seasons of ''Independent Lens'' were hosted by Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Susan Sarandon, Edie Falco, Terrence Ho ...

''"National Television Academy Presents 27th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards" (press release), September 25, 2006. receiving the award for "most outstanding cultural and artistic programming". The publicity also helped Linda's family to find the support to take

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

, which used the song in the movie ''

'', to court. In February 2006, Abilene Music, which holds the copyright for "Wimoweh/The Lion Sleeps Tonight", settled the case with the Solomon Linda family out of court for an undisclosed sum.

References

2002 documentary films 2002 films Documentary films about music and musicians {{music-documentary-film-stub