A Lion's Trail tells the story of the most famous song ever to come from Africa: "Mbube", which first evolved into "Wimoweh"; and then into the universally popular "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".
The film takes us on a journey through South Africa and the USA, into the musical worlds of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the Manhattan Brothers, Pete Seeger and more. At the same time it reveals how Solomon Linda, the illiterate Zulu musician who composed the song in the 1920's, hardly received a penny from it while others continue to make millions from adaptations.
The film is both a vibrant and joyous celebration of the timeless power of this song as well as a strong indictment of still-present injustices within the international recording industry and a record of the attempts to recover a stolen African dream.
After scooping the prestigious 2006 Emmy Award for "the most outstanding cultural and artistic programming", director Francois Verster said that, "the fact that a film with this topic has won an award on American soil is significant in that it reflects a growing acknowledgement of broader global injustice - and that Africa is in various ways beginning to reclaim its rightful place in the world."
Earlier this year Linda's heirs scored a major victory when Abilene Music, which administers the copyright to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" in the United States, agreed to settle out of court for an undisclosed sum. |
