Hasa Diga Eebowai Lyrics - Book of Mormon, The

Hasa Diga Eebowai Lyrics

Hasa Diga Eebowai

MAFALA:
In this part of Africa, we ALL have a saying- whenver something bad happens, we just throw our hands up to the sky and say HASA DIGA EEBOWAI!

ELDER CUNNINGHAM:
Hasa Diga Eebowai?

MAFALA:
Its the only way to get through all these troubled times.
Theres war, poverty, famine... but having a saying makes it all seem better!

There isnt enough food to eat!
Hasa Diga Eebowai!
People are starving in the street!

UGANDANS and MAFALA:
Hasa Diga Eebowai!
Hasa Diga Eebowai!
Hasa Diga Eebowai!

ELDER PRICE:
Well, thats pretty neat!

ELDER CUNNINGHAM:
DOes it mean no worries for the rest of our days?

MAFALA:
Kind of!

Weve had no rain in several days!

UGANDANS:
Hasa DIga Eebowai!

MAFALA:
And 80% of us have AIDS!

UGANDANS:
Hasa Diga Eebowai!

MAFALA:
Many young girls here get
Circumcised,
Their clits get cut right off.

ALL:
Way oh!

WOMEN:
And so we say up to the sky-

UGANDANS:
Hasa Diga Eebowai!

MAFALA:
Now you try! Just stand up tall, tilt your head to the sky,
and list off all the bad things in your life!

ELDER CUNNINGHAM:
Somebody took our luggage away!

UGANDANS:
Hasa Diga Eebowai!

ELDER PRICE:
The plane was crowded,
And the bus was late!

UGANDANS:
Hasa Diga Eebowai!

MAFALA:
When the world is getting you down,
Theres nobody else to blame!

UGANDANS:
Way oh!

MAFALA:
Raise your middle finger to the sky,
And curse his rotten name!

ELDER PRICE:
Wait, what?!

ELDER CUNNINGHAM:
Hasa Diga Eebowai!

UGANDANS:
Hasa Diga Eebowai!

ELDER CUNNINGHAM:
Am I saying it right?

ELDER PRICE:
Excuse me sir, but what EXACTLY does that phrase mean?

MAFALA:
Well, lets see... "Eebowai" means "God".
And "Hasa Diga" means... "Fuck You".
So I guess in English it would be "Fuck you, God!"

UGANDANS:
Hasa Diga Eebowai!

ELDER PRICE:
WHAT?!

MAFALA:
When God fucks you in the butt-

UGANDANS:
Hasa Diga Eebowai!

MAFALA:
Fuck him right back in his cunt!

UGANDANS:
Hasa Diga Eebowai!

Hasa Diga Eebowai!
Hasa Diga Eebowai!
Fuck you, God!

ELDER PRICE:
Excuse me, Sir, but you should really NOT be saying that.
Things arent always as bad as they seem!

MAFALA:
Oh really? Well take this fucking asshole, Mutumbo.
He got caught last week trying to RAPE a baby.

ELDER PRICE:
What?! Why?!

MAFALA:
Some people in his tribe believe having sex with a virgin will cure their AIDS.
There arent many virgins left, so some of them are turning to babies.

ELDER PRICE:
But... thats horrible!

MAFALA:
I know!

UGANDANS:
Hasa Diga Eebowai!

MAFALA:
Heres the butcher, he has AIDS.
Heres the teacher, she has AIDS.
Heres the doctor, he has AIDS.
Heres my daughter, she has A....
Wonderful disposition.
Shes all I have left in the world.
And if either of you lays a hand on her...
I will give you my AIDS!

UGANDANS:
If you dont like what we say,
Try living here a couple days!
Watch all your friends and family die!
Hasa Diga Eebowai!
(Fuck you!)
Hasa Diga Eebowai!

Fuck you God in the ass, mouth,
And cunt-a
Fuck you God in the ass, mouth,
And cunt-a
Fuck you God in the ass, mouth
And cunt-a
Fuck you in the eye!

Hasa-
Diga Eebowai!
Hasa-
Fuck you in the other eye!

Fuck you!
Fuck you God!
Fuck you!
Fuck you God!
Fuck you!
Fuck you God!

Hasa Diga!
Fuck you God!
In the cunt!


Song Overview

Hasa Diga Eebowai lyrics by Original Broadway Cast of The Book of Mormon
Original Broadway Cast performs the 'Hasa Diga Eebowai' lyrics on the cast recording.

Review and Highlights

Scene from Hasa Diga Eebowai by Original Broadway Cast of The Book of Mormon
'Hasa Diga Eebowai' as heard on the official cast album.

This number detonates like a prank that turns into a thesis statement. The set-up mimics a sunny, lesson-song tradition; the payoff swerves hard into profanity, despair, and protest. Stephen Oremus’s vocal arrangements keep the chorus tight and percussive, while the rhythm section locks a mid-tempo march that spotlights the punchlines and the sting underneath. It’s placed early for a reason: to tell you what show you’re actually in.

Creation History

Music and lyrics are by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone. The Original Broadway Cast Recording was released by Ghostlight Records in May–June 2011, produced by Parker, Lopez, Stone, Scott Rudin, Anne Garefino, and Stephen Oremus, with Kurt Deutsch as executive producer. Recording took place at MSR Studios, New York.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Original Broadway Cast performing Hasa Diga Eebowai exposing meaning
Music-video still substitute - official album artwork context.

Plot

The villagers teach visiting missionaries a local “saying” that helps them cope with drought, hunger, disease, and violence. The elders gamely join in, assuming it’s the equivalent of “no worries.” Mid-song, the translation lands: the phrase means “F— you, God.” The number turns from culture-lesson pastiche into a catalog of grief and rage, and the elders recoil as the chorus doubles down.

Song Meaning

On the surface it parodies the cheerful uplift of a familiar Disney anthem; underneath it functions as gallows humor and blasphemous prayer. The invented phrase becomes a pressure valve for systemic trauma. The satire targets both the naïveté of outsiders and the inadequacy of pat spiritual answers. The creators use exaggeration and shock to frame real public-health and human-rights crises referenced in and around the show, while making clear that the “language” itself is made up for dramatic effect.

Annotations

The phrase “Hasa Diga Eebowai” is not part of any known African language. It is loosely based on the Swahili language...

Correct on the first clause: linguists and critics have noted the phrase is invented for the show; it isn’t Luganda or Swahili. That choice is part of the satire, though it has drawn debate about flattening African cultures.

Does it mean no worries for the rest of our days? ... Elder Cunningham’s reference to a Disney film is another nod to his immaturity.

The joke rests on the mismatch: a feel-good template leading to a profanity-laced protest chorus, explicitly riffing on that Disney lineage.

By saying “Kind of!,” the Ugandans are using dramatic irony.

Exactly. The audience understands before the missionaries do that the phrase flips from comfort to curse.

[MAFALA] And 80% of us have AIDS

The show uses extreme overstatement here. For context, adult HIV prevalence in Uganda was about 7.2–7.3% in 2011, not 80%.

Many young girls here get circumcised / Their clits get cut right off

FGM is condemned by global health bodies. In Uganda specifically, national prevalence is low by regional standards (roughly 0.3–1.4% among women 15–49), though concentrated in certain eastern districts and still a serious rights issue where it persists.

Some people in his tribe believe having sex with a virgin will cure their AIDS.

The script references a harmful myth documented in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Public-health agencies stress prevention, treatment access, and community education to counter such misinformation.

Raise your middle finger to the sky / And curse His rotten name!

Formally, this is the mask-drop. The chorus that sounded like communal uplift becomes communal defiance, making the missionaries’ recoil the punchline.

“So I guess in English it would be ‘F— you, God!’”

This reveal is the number’s hinge: it reframes the earlier verses as a running curse, not a comfort.

“Hasa Diga Eebowai! What a nifty phrase!”

That oblivious reprise (occasionally heard in live performance) heightens the contrast between Elder Cunningham’s eagerness and Elder Price’s revulsion.

In 2021, some of the lyrics/dialogue in the show were changed...

Post-2020 return engagements did feature script and staging tweaks; productions have updated moments of dialogue to reflect contemporary media tropes, though specifics vary by company.

Shot of Hasa Diga Eebowai by Original Broadway Cast of The Book of Mormon
Short scene equivalent from the album release.
Style and instrumentation

Mid-tempo groove with a march undercurrent; bright major-key surface colored by snarling ensemble shouts, pennywhistle/pipe color, and stacked gang vocals. The arrangement weaponizes cheerfulness, then curdles it on command.

Key Facts

  • Artist: Original Broadway Cast of The Book of Mormon
  • Composers/Lyricists: Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, Matt Stone
  • Producers (album): Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, Matt Stone, Stephen Oremus, Scott Rudin, Anne Garefino; Executive Producer: Kurt Deutsch
  • Release Dates: Digital May 17, 2011; CD June 7, 2011
  • Album: The Book of Mormon (Original Broadway Cast Recording) - Ghostlight Records
  • Track #: 4
  • Length: ~4:24
  • Label: Ghostlight Records (Sh-K-Boom imprint)
  • Orchestrations: Stephen Oremus & Larry Hochman
  • Recorded At: MSR Studios, New York
  • Mood/Style: Parody anthem turned protest chant; ensemble comedic number with satirical bite

Questions and Answers

Who produced “Hasa Diga Eebowai” on the cast album?
Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, Matt Stone, Stephen Oremus, Scott Rudin, and Anne Garefino, with Kurt Deutsch as executive producer.
When was it released?
As part of the Original Broadway Cast Recording: digital on May 17, 2011; CD on June 7, 2011.
Who wrote it?
Music and lyrics by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone.
Is “Hasa Diga Eebowai” an actual Ugandan phrase?
No. Critics and scholars note it’s fabricated for the musical; the show’s Africa is deliberately stylized for satire.
What’s the musical purpose of the mid-song translation reveal?
It flips a pastiche “feel-good” chorus into open blasphemy, reframing the number as protest and forcing the missionaries into opposition.

Awards and Chart Positions

Cast album peaks: No. 3 on the Billboard 200 after the 2011 Tony Awards; No. 1 on Billboard’s Cast Albums list. The album won the 2012 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.

How to Sing “Hasa Diga Eebowai”

Key & tempo: commonly in F? major at ~106 BPM on the OBCR.

Voices & ranges: Mafala sits in a comfortable baritone; Price and Cunningham ride light tenor territory. Treat lead lines as speech-forward with clean diction; keep ensemble vowels matched for the chant sections.

Rhythm feel: Think march-with-swing. Practice subdivisions at 2 and 4 so the punchlines land squarely without rushing. Lock the final “reveal” refrain with crisp consonants on the beat.

Blend vs. bite: Choruses want unified tone; the shock-value lines want a tighter, more percussive edge. Aim for energetic mezzo-forte and save true forte for the last tag.

Additional Info

Critics have debated the song’s framing of “Africa” and its invented language. Some praise the satirical clarity; others find the depiction reductive. That conversation has accompanied the show since its earliest run and remains part of how the number is received and taught.



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