{"id":363793,"date":"2026-03-25T05:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T05:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/363793\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T05:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T05:17:07","slug":"lebo-m-sues-comedian-learnmore-jonasi-claiming-circle-of-life-misrepresentation-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/363793\/","title":{"rendered":"Lebo M sues comedian Learnmore Jonasi claiming Circle of Life misrepresentation | Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Grammy-winning South African composer who wrote and performed the opening chant in Circle of Life for Disney\u2019s The Lion King<\/a> is suing a comedian for allegedly damaging his reputation by intentionally misrepresenting the song\u2019s meaning on a podcast and in his standup routine.<\/p>\n

Lebohang Morake\u2019s lawsuit accuses the Zimbabwean comedian Learnmore Mwanyenyeka, known as Learnmore Jonasi, of intentionally mistranslating the chant, which launches the 1994 movie and is central to staged versions as well as Disney\u2019s 2019 remake.<\/p>\n

The dispute, which has gone viral as the two men challenge each other on social media, stems from statements Jonasi made in his standup routines and in a podcast interview, when he translated the song\u2019s lyrics from Zulu and Xhosa, two of South Africa\u2019s 12 national languages.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit was filed this month in federal court in Los Angeles, where Morake, who performs as Lebo M, lives and where Jonasi has performed. It accuses Jonasi of intentionally mocking \u201cthe chant\u2019s cultural significance with exaggerated imitations\u201d.<\/p>\n

Disney\u2019s official translation of the opening phrase \u201cNants\u2019ingonyama bagithi Baba\u201d is: \u201cAll hail the king, we all bow in the presence of the king.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHay! baba, sizongqoba,\u201d the chant continues. It translates to \u201cthrough you we will emerge victoriously\u201d, according to Morake.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit cites an episode of the podcast One54, whose Nigerian hosts sing the chant with incoherent and incorrect words. Jonasi corrects them, saying: \u201cThat\u2019s not how you sing it, don\u2019t mess up our language like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then sings the correct lyrics in Zulu. When asked, he says they translate to: \u201cLook, there\u2019s a lion. Oh my god.\u201d The hosts burst out laughing, saying they thought the chant was something more \u201cbeautiful and majestic\u201d.<\/p>\n

Circle of Life, with music by Elton John and English-language lyrics by Tim Rice, came up in the broader context of Jonasi\u2019s critique of The Lion King<\/a> franchise as profiting off of simplistic narratives about the African continent for non-African audiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lions had American accents in Africa, and then you had the monkey with an accent,\u201d Jonasi said.<\/p>\n

Morake\u2019s lawyers acknowledged in the complaint that \u201cingonyama\u201d can literally translate to \u201clion\u201d but say it\u2019s used in the song as a royal metaphor, adding that Jonasi had intentionally misrepresented \u201can African vocal proclamation grounded in South African tradition\u201d.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit says Jonasi \u201creceived a standing ovation\u201d for a similar joke he made about the song during a 12 March performance in Los Angeles. Such viral statements, it says, are interfering with Morake\u2019s business relationships with Disney and his income from royalties, causing more than US$20m in actual damages. The lawsuit also seeks US$7m in punitive damages.<\/p>\n

Disney didn\u2019t respond to an emailed request from Associated Press for comment on Monday night. The Guardian also reached out for comment.<\/p>\n

The complaint argues that Jonasi presented his translation \u201cas authoritative fact, not comedy\u201d so it shouldn\u2019t get the first amendment protections afforded to parody and satire that make fun of other artistic works.<\/p>\n

Jonasi doesn\u2019t have an attorney publicly listed for the case, and a representative didn\u2019t 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 US tour.<\/p>\n

He said he was a \u201cbig fan\u201d of Morake\u2019s work and loves the song. When he learned that Morake was upset, he said, he wanted to create a video with the composer explaining the chant\u2019s deeper meaning.<\/p>\n

\u201cComedy always has a way of starting conversation,\u201d Jonasi said in a video he posted on Instagram, which got more than 100,000 likes. \u201cThis is your chance to actually educate people, because now people are listening.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Jonasi said he had changed his mind about collaborating with Morake when he said the composer called him \u201cself-hating\u201d as they exchanged messages. He said Morake\u2019s reaction ignored the rest of his work delving into a more nuanced critique of US renderings of African identity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Grammy-winning South African composer who wrote and performed the opening chant in Circle of Life for Disney\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-363793","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}