This isn’t a story of high crime, it’s a story of misunderstanding and dashed expectations, and it’s probably given our history in South Africa, possibly inevitable that it actually ended this way. I have transcribed them from the episode: Rian’s observations at the end of the episode are the reason for this piece. True to form, things end in darkness and suspicion, unresolved and ‘pending further investigation.’ Initially, Solomon Linda’s three daughters ended up with a modest pile of money and a vague sense of justice, but over time the ‘victory for Africa’ that Rian initially envisaged (coupled with his hope of assuaging his ‘ white man’s guilt’) has given way to a murky stalemate of dissatisfaction and mistrust. “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” was stolen by George Weiss from the ‘traditional’ (read: public domain) “Wimoweh”, itself a bastardisation of “Mbube”, a Zulu word meaning ‘lion’, which was Solomon Linda’s original song title. Solomon Linda (far left) and his Original Evening Birds This is mostly due to Rian Malan’s extraordinary investigative journalism and tireless work on behalf of Solomon Linda’s descendants, which culminated in a May 2000 article in Rolling Stone (the real American one, not that ridiculous and mercifully short-lived South African version). The story of Solomon Linda, a near-penniless itinerant Zulu musician who in a 1939 recording session in Johannesburg came up with the melody most of the Western world came to know as “ The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, is, or at least should be by now, legend. Here, in an episode entitled “ The Lion’s Share”, all of that is rolled up into one glossy hour-plus television episode. The story of Solomon Linda and his spontaneous creation of the most famous melody ever to emerge from Africa is also the story of colonialism, black exploitation, African cultural history, the American cultural-industrial complex, the absolute power of capitalism and overall, the story of both the old and the new South Africa. This should be mandatory viewing for all South Africans. It’s the eighth episode that is of particular interest to me, however: a surprising and welcome addition to the ongoing saga of South Africa with a big budget, a South African soundtrack, and Rian Malan himself. It does just what it promises on the tin: intriguing and highly-watchable human interest stories from popular music history.
#A wimoweh meaning series#
In eight episodes, the series aims to investigate “high-profile events affecting some of the most legendary names in music, presenting groundbreaking discoveries and insights beyond what’s been previously reported.” Netflix launched its “ ReMastered” series in late 2018.
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