‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’: What does “wimoweh” actually mean?
We all know ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’, right? That instant earworm of a melody, general feel-good vibe and its simple sing-along lyrics are enough for it to implant itself in your brain after just one listen, so even the faintest exposure is surely enough for it to register with you.
I almost started by saying, “We all know and love ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’”, but this would have been a gross oversight of the fact that I also consider it to be one of the most irritating songs ever released, and its insistence on being this unending well of positivity has always made me feel uneasy, as though there are darker secrets behind the track waiting to be unleashed.
Made famous by American doo-wop group The Tokens in 1961, it’s a prominent early example of a white band having success with a song that very blatantly appropriates African culture, with its utilisation of melodies being very similar to those used in the folk music of many different cultures across the south of the continent, and the faux impersonation of traditional singing techniques from these cultures only goes to hammer this home even further.
You could argue that it’s an innocent enough attempt to shine a light on a style of music that was underrepresented in the US at this time, and that The Tokens were naively trying to introduce something joyful from the African continent at a time when life for Black Americans was characterised by draconian segregation laws and horrific discrimination.
However, you could also argue that it’s a low effort act of pillaging from a cultural tradition that ought to be protected and preserved rather than bastardised and handled without the care it deserves. Singing lyrics in a foreign tongue authentically would be a good start rather than settling for a close approximation, because otherwise you end up embarrassing yourself by continually singing “wimoweh” throughout the course of a song, and what exactly is that supposed to mean?
What is “wimoweh” supposed to mean?
Okay, I’ve been a little unfair on The Tokens, because despite them having reached the top of the charts with the song, it was actually folk icon Pete Seeger who first coined the phrase “wimoweh” for this particular tune, in a song by The Weavers which also used this seemingly nonsensical word for its title in 1951.
The Tokens’ version of the song differs in a couple of ways from Seeger’s interpretation of the track, in that it adds more detail to the lyrics, but it would appear that Seeger and The Weavers’ version both borrow heavily, or at least attempt to, from a song by South African singer Solomon Linda, first recorded in 1939.
‘Mbube’, the song that Linda recorded, was something that Seeger had heard, but not quite understood the meaning of, and yet he was so transfixed by the tune that he chose to record his own version of the track. However, mishearing the title, ‘Mbube’, meant that he ended up presuming the word was “wimoweh”, and thus one of music’s most infamous eggcorns was born.
Of course, a lack of fluency in Zulu was bound to lead to this sort of mistake in translation, although the themes of lions used in The Tokens’ song do indicate that there was at least some knowledge of the origin. ‘Mbube’ is the Zulu word for ‘lion’, and ‘uyimbube’ translates to ‘you’re a lion’, which is what Linda would have been singing in his version.
However, this small mistake and act of ignorance isn’t the only issue with the song, as it turns out that Seeger had tried to claim that the song was public domain, and used the fake name of Paul Campbell as a songwriting credit. This meant that despite having written the song, Linda made no royalties from the song, and ended up selling the rights in 1952 before dying in poverty in 1962.
His family would end up challenging this in 2000, after the song had regained interest following its use in The Lion King, and a settlement was finally agreed upon, but considering how much had been done to try and hide both the origins and the true meaning of ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’, or more accurately, ‘Mbube’, it remains one of the most unjust alterations of a song ever committed.
