(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!