(interjection (and noun) and recently adjective)
A nonsense phrase from the Trey Parker/Matt
Stone musical The Book of
Mormon, intended to sound Ugandan but in fact untranslatable, although "Hasa Diga" means "just tell" in Portuguese and "Eebowai" means "picture ebony" in Japanese. This is a coincidence.
Within the context of the musical, the phrase means "Fuck you,
God", and the song in which it occurs is intended to demonstrate the meaningless optimism of believing in
God when social atrocities such as
AIDS and female genital mutilation occur daily. The song is a parody of the The Lion King song Hakuna Matata.
We've had no rain in several days (Hasa Diga Eebowai!)
And eighty percent of us have
AIDS (Hasa Diga Eebowai!)
Many young
girls here get circumcised
Their clits get cut right off (Way oh!)
And so we say up to the
sky
Hasa Diga Eebowai!
