A Los Angeles judge has ordered South African singer and composer Lebohang Morake, known professionally as Lebo M, to pay nearly $40,000 in legal fees after he dropped a $27 million defamation lawsuit against comedian Learmore Jonasi.
The ruling, issued Friday by Judge Josephine Statson, follows a July decision that dismissed the case. Jonasi’s attorneys had argued the lawsuit was frivolous and targeted his First Amendment protections.
Dispute over a Zulu chant#
Lebo M has worked on Disney‘s Lion King franchise for decades, including the first film’s opening song, "The Circle of Life." The track begins with a Zulu chant, "Nants’ingonyama bagithi Baba," which Lebo M wrote and performed. It translates to "All hail the king; we all bow in the presence of the king."
In February, Jonasi appeared on the podcast One54 Africa and joked that the chant actually translates to "Look, there’s a lion, oh my god." The clip spread on social media, drawing more than 115,000 likes on the podcast’s Instagram account and 337,000 views of the episode on YouTube.
Jonasi moved to dismiss the lawsuit. His attorneys argued that the case was frivolous and sought to punish a comedian for a joke, infringing on core First Amendment protections.
"Because the First Amendment is so important in our society, the court should […] not allow Plaintiff to twist trademark law to suppress free speech," Jonasi’s attorneys wrote.
Anti-SLAPP fee award#
Lebo M dropped the case rather than contest those arguments. Jonasi’s legal team then asked the court to require the composer to repay the comedian’s defense costs.
Judge Statson granted that request under California’s anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) law, which protects free speech against baseless lawsuits. The award covers more than 50 hours of attorney work and totals just under $40,000.
