The Lion’s Share is, in its own way, as much about Rian’s journey as it is about music and money, and his central contribution to the episode is a unique window on the soul of white South Africa. I am a slavish devotee of everything he writes, having first discovered him the way most people did, through his seminal 1990 book My Traitor’s Heart. Rian Malan is a central figure in this story. The whole case is of course laid out, from start to dubious finish, in the Netflix episode itself, for those of you for whom reading this article is already asking a bit much. There is no need to go into the details here: you can read the article itself on Rolling Stone’s website, and Rian included it in his 2009 collection of essays, Resident Alien. 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 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. The famous case of Solomon Linda and The Lion Sleeps Tonight, a dust storm kicked up by resident alien and all-round chronicler-in-chief Rian Malan in 2000, is once again in the public consciousness – this time on Netflix, no less.
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