The Circle of Life is one of the most iconic songs from Disney’s The Lion King, but people are only just realising what the lyrics to the song actually mean in English
Abigail Nicholson Content Editor
13:11, 28 Feb 2026
The Lion King is one of the most iconic children’s films(Image: Publicity Picture)
People are only just realising what the words at the start of The Circle of Life in The Lion King actually mean.
The Lion King was first released by Disney in 1994 and follows a young lion prince named Simba, who is exiled from his kingdom after his father, Mufasa, is murdered by his uncle Scar.
The journey sees Simba return to the kingdom as a young lion to reclaim his throne. But over 30 years after the film was first released, people are only just realising what the lyrics at the sound of The Circle of Life actually mean.
Comedian Learnmore Jonasi appeared on the One54 Podcast, hosted by Akbar Gbajabiamila and comedian Godfrey, which celebrates and explores the stories, culture, and achievements of Africa’s 54 countries.
While on the podcast, the trio started speaking about The Lion King, with Jonasi telling viewers what the Zulu song lyrics meant in the most simple terms.
He claimed: “It means ‘look, there’s a lion. Oh my god’.” The co-hosts of the podcast burst out laughing as they could not believe that is what the lyrics actually said.
Godfrey said: “This whole time, I thought it was this beautiful, majestic spiritual s***. They have made billions off that.”
Commenters on the video were also stunned by the meaning of the lyrics, and couldn’t help but laugh.
One person said: “This man ain’t about to destroy my childhood with all of this accuracy! I love The Lion King and that’s that!”
A second said: “This is really awesome. I’ve never laughed so hard than when he said it means, ‘look there’s a lion’.”
However, people took to the comments to clarify that they thought the translation of the song was incorrect.
One person said: “The translation is wrong about that song. Though I understand Zulu is not his home language. I’m Zulu and that basically translates to “here’s our lion” and what it really means in our culture is “Here’s our King! ” It’s like a chanting in a way.”
A second said: “Translation is overly simplified. In Nguni languages a lion can be referred to ibhubesi (general speak) or ingonyama which refers to the majesty of the creature and as a reference to the king.
“The opening words “nansi ingonyama bakithi” means “look, here is his majesty”. Very strong statement.”
Learnmore Jonasi did admit that he had an issue with The Lion King over the Lions in the film having American accents while the monkey had an African accent.