The Zulu lion roars

Relatives of the original composer of The Lion Sleeps Tonight recently dropped their lawsuit against Disney after settling for an undisclosed sum of money with New Jersey-based Abilene Music, which holds the copyright to The Lion Sleeps Tonight which in turn licensed it to the Walt Disney Corporation. The family of the late Solomon Linda, who composed the original Zulu tune for the song, was claiming $10m in damages. Solomon died penniless in 1962. He was a Zulu migrant worker who composed the song Mbube (lion) in Johannesburg in 1939 and recorded it with a singing group called the Evening Birds. The settlement involves a payment of back royalties to the family and the right to participate in the royalties in the future, on a worldwide basis. Solomon will now be acknowledged as a co-composer of The Lion Sleeps Tonight. The case was brought under 1911 copyright legislation which gives artists' families the rights to their works 25 years after their deaths and entitles relatives to renegotiate deals and secure better royalty terms. In September 2004 Disney lost a bid to set aside the lawsuit by the family. The settlement ends a dispute between Solomon's relatives and companies including Disney over the rights to the song, sparked by a Rolling Stone magazine article in 2001. The song has been recorded by more than 150 different artists and features in at least 15 movies and stage musicals. It has been translated into several languages including French, Japanese, Danish and Spanish. Disney was identified as the most active user of the song, including in the 1994 blockbuster film The Lion King and musicals. Solomon's daughter, Elizabeth Gugu, of Soweto, first saw the Lion King on TV in July 2004. In 1949, folk singer Pete Seeger came across the song in New York and transcribed it, calling it Wimoweh. In 1961, the Tokens recorded the song and added the English lyrics starting with "In the jungle, the mighty jungle."