Much went into the writing of my previous libretto, ‘Pushcart Tony’. The play was about a man who came to America as a baby from the hardest of Old World lives.

This baby, this boy who wrangled his way to the streets of Chicago as a teenager, mining coal himself, pushing a wood cart (endearing himself so much to his small community on the city’s SW side that they affectionately gave him his moniker), one day decided that he wanted more than three horse-driven wood carts and teenage teamsters in his employ.

 

The truth, at the end of Cermak’s life, was this. He became the greatest leader Chicago would ever have.  This immigrant boy from Bohemia, scion of a coal-mining family, not only became the mayor of Chicago but also defeated a titan of corruption, ‘Big Bill’ Thompson, and his horde of Chicago Republicans by nearly 200,000 votes in 1931.

ELDER PRICE:

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

 

MAFALA:

Well, let’s 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!

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!

 

In the play, Elder Price asks Black Ugandans what the African saying “Hasa Diga Eebowai!” means:

He is answered:
“Fuck you, God!
Then, in addition:
“When God fucks you in the ass–fuck him right back in his cunt!”
Hasa Diga Eebowai!”

 

OPENING LINES TO “Hamilton, The Musical”:

“How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore,

Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten

Spot in the Caribbean, by providence, impoverished, in squalor,

Grow up to be a hero and a scholar?”

***Hamilton’s mother was DIVORCED and nothing more–