Children's Examples Of "Ah Beep Beep Ungawa Black Power" And Similar Rhymes, Chants, & Cheers

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest Revision - July 1, 2023

This pancocojams post documents children's examples of "Ah beep been/Ungawa Black power" and similar examples that are based on those rhymes, chants, and cheers.

This post also includes some information about the word "ungawa" with a focus on my theory about African Americans' use of the word "ungawa" and some early examples of ways that African Americans use that word.   

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, and recreational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who contributed examples to this compilation.
-snip-
This 2023 pancocojams post includes a few examples that are included in a  2015 post entitled "The REAL Origin Of The Word "Ungawa" & Various Ways That Word Has Been Used In The USA"  http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-real-origins-of-word-ungawa-various.html

****

A BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE USE OF THE WORD "UNGAWA"
From https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/wordoriginsorg/umgawa-t8045.html#.VcFKDf3wtv4 Word Origins Archive 15 (07-10/04)  [Numbers added for referencing purposes only]

1. Dr. Techie, Jul 20, 2004
"Originated in Tarzan movies, according to my recollection and this site [no longer active]

The movie-Tarzan's favorite utterance, "Ungawa" (also spelled Umgawa and several other ways), was the invention of MGM screenwriter Cyril Hume (and Weissmuller discoverer). For his books, Burroughs created a complete ape language. Hume, who adapted Tarzan, the Ape Man (1932) for the screen, reduced Tarzan's language abilities considerably by inventing the all-purpose command Ungawa, which could mean up, down, halt or go.

OED3 also has this in the draft enty for "mock word": "2002 Re: Usages of Foreign Words in Linguist List (Electronic Mailing list) 5 Feb., Is the word ngawa or ungawa a proper noun or an adverb or adjective. None of the above. In English it's an exclamation... It seems to be a mock word in origin, rather than a foreign word." This seems to be a quote fron an online FAQ."

** 
2. ozziemaland, Jul 20, 2004
"That draft for OED3, saying "In English it's an exclamation," IMO would be improved by calling it an imperative command as the attribution to Cyril Hume has it -- all purpose, up, down, etc. The Hume attribution is more specific and accords with my recollection of the Tarzan movies. Thanks for the post, Dr T."
-end of quote=

**
The first time that the word "ungawa" was documented as being used by African Americans is in Dizzy Gillespie's 1959 Jazz composition "Ungawa". "Ungawa" is chanted near the beginning and at the end of that Jazz composition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNZ_oAk6pfA.

**
Black activist Stokely Carmichael (who later changed his name to Kwame Toure) is documented as the first person who used the word "ungawa" iin Black protest chants/rallies (1966). Here's a comment from a discussion about that chant:
"Stokely Carmichael used to end his speeches at colleges by leading the audience (white, black, Asian etc.) in chanting "Beep, beep, bang, bang, umgawa, black power!" I wonder if he took it from a jump-rope rhyme."
-Cool Beans, 17 Dec 09, "Shimmy Shimmy Ko-Ko-Bop (Little Anthony)"
 https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=6600 

**
Also, click https://twitter.com/KyraAzore/status/982354241850363904 for a video clip of Howard University students in 2018 chanting "Beep beep bang bang ungawa/Black power": 

"Kyra E. Azore

@KyraAzore

Students chant “Beep beep bang bang ungawa black power,” the chant of the demonstrators in 1968 as the celebrate their victory of forcing the administration to hear the voices of students. #StudentPowerHU

4:27 PM · Apr 6, 2018"
-end of quote-
In those chants the word "power" is pronounced "powah" to rhyme with the made up word "ungawa" (oon-GAH-wah). 

****
MY SPECULATIONS ABOUT WHY AFRICAN AMERICANS CO-OPTED THE WORD "UNGAWA
Prior to the internet, most Black Americans knew very little about traditional African languages and very few of us had ever met any African people. Besides some American movies such as Tarzan movies and the movie about Shaka Zulu, most Black Americans rarely heard heard anyone speak any traditional African languages and I dare say that the only African languages that most Black Americans knew by name were Swahili, maybe Zulu, and maybe Yoruba. "Arabic" should be added to that list-and may be #1 on that list since forms of Arabic have been spoken in North Africa, West Africa, and East Africa for centuries. Some websites (for instance https://www.jumpspeak.com/blog/most-spoken-language-in-africa indicate that Arabic is the #1 most commonly spoken language in Africa while others say that Swahili is the most commonly spoken language in that continent (for instance https://www.pangea.global/blog/10-most-popular-african-languages/.)

Although we (Black Americans) weren't familiar with African languages, I bet that most Black Americans (and other Americans) knew the words "ooga booga" and "ungawa" and thought that those words represented the ways that Black people in Africa talked. 

Read the information given above about the word "ungawa".

Here's some information about the word "ooga-booga from https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ooga_booga:

"ooga booga

(slang, humorous) Mimicking caveman speech. synonym ▲

Synonym: unga bunga

(slang, offensive) Mimicking African languages.

(slang, offensive) Mimicking Aboriginal Australian languages."

-end of quote-
Although websites such as the one cited above indicate that "ungawa" mimicked African languages, I've never come across any explanations of what elements in that word and/or what pronunciations are the same or similar to elements of African languages.

Here are my speculations about that subject:
1. People who aren't familiar with those languages believe (rightly or wrongly) that most words in traditional African languages begin with a vowel, and particularly with the letter "a" which was/is pronounced "ah".

2. Prior to the internet, African Americans were mostly introduced to African languages through books on traditional African names and Arabic names (Note that Arabic was introduced to North Africa, West Africa, and East Africa hundreds of years ago long before Africans were enslaved in the Americas and the Caribbean.) Many of the traditional African female names,  Arabic female names, and newly created or differently spelled African-ish names that became popular among African Americans end with the letter a. The "a" ending for those names is  pronounced "ah"-just as the word "ungawa" is spelled and pronounced. Examples of those names are "Aaliyah, "Malaika", "Keisha", and "Tamika",   

3. Another way that African Americans in those days were introduced to African languages was through the African American created seven day holiday Kwanzaa. The word "Kwanzaa" is an African American form of the Swahili word "kwanza" (meaning "first"). With the exception of the last day name "Imani", each of the days for Kwanzaa end with the letter "a": "umoja", "kujijagulia", "ujima", "ujamaa", "nia", and "kuumba". Those words reinforced the (incorrect?) belief that most words in traditional African languages end with the letter "a". 

The made up word "ungawa" reminds me of an actual KiSwahili word "uhuru". Both of those words have three syllables and both begin with the letter "u" and end with a vowel. Uhuru Kenyatta was the fourth president of Kenya, East Africa from 2013 to 2022. However, I remember learning the word "uhuru" meaning "freedom" when I was a member of the afrocentric cultural nationalist organization the Committee For Unified Newark (CFUN) in 1967 to 1969. 

Some websites indicate that "ungawa" is a KiSwahili word and give various meanings or no meaning for that word. Google Translate indicates that the Kiswahili meaning for the word "ungawa" is "flour", but I'm certain that that isn't what anyone chanting "Ungawa" then or now thinks that word meant or means. 

The only other Swahili word that I remember chanting when I was a member of that afrocentric group was "Harambee!" (hah-RAHM-bay), meaning "All pull together". (Notice that although that "harambee" doesn't begin with a vowel, it ends with one.) I remember enthusiastically chanting "Harambee!" along with other members of that group while we pretended to pull a rope toward our body as is done during a tug of war game. Click https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harambee for more information about the word "harambee". word.

The only other Swahili word that I remember chanting when I was a member of that afrocentric group was "Harambee!" (hah-RAHM-bay), meaning "All pull together". (Notice that although that word didn't begin with a vowel, it ended with one.) I remember that group chanting "Harambee!" while mimicking the motion of pulling a rope as is done during a tug of war game. Click https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harambee for more information about that word.  

****

All of this to say that African Americans "flipped the script" on the history of the word "ungawa" as a word that was associated with the negative fictional movie character Tarzan. Instead of accepting that negative association, we (African American) co-opted the word "ungawa" and use it as an expression of Black unity and power.

***
THE PROBABLE SOURCE OF THE WORDS "AH BEEP BEEP" IN THESE CHILDREN'S RHYMES

The phrase "ah beep beep" that is found in most of the examples of these rhymes, chants, and cheers probably comes from Joe Cuba's very popular 1966 Afro-Latin Boogaloo record "Bang Bang". That song includes the lyrics " beep beep Ah!". 

 https://www.lyricsmania.com/bang_bang_lyrics_joe_cuba_sextet.html

Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MenOmqIBmIM for a sound file of Joe Cuba's record "Bang Bang".

****
LATER EXAMPLES OF "AH BEEP BEEP/UNGAWA ___ POWER" IN CHILDREN'S RHYMES AND CHEERS
A number of examples of "Ah Beep Beep/Ungawa ___ Power" children's rhymes, chants, and cheers can be found online from New York City and elsewhere in the United States from the late 1960s on.  Some of the early examples of those examples are from African Americans and many of these early examples express pro-Black and anti-White/anti-establishment sentiments, reflecting their origin in Black power rallies.  (i.e. "White boy/ destroy "; I'm a cool nig-er" from a cool cool town"). Those sentiments could have been real or were merely recitations from rote memory. 

School children in the United States regardless of race/ethnicity later adapted those Black power chants and rhymes  in cheers that expressed pride in their school's athletic teams and expressed their opposition toward their teams' competitors.

****
A COMPILATION OF CHILDREN'S EXAMPLES OF "AH BEEP BEEP UNGAWA BLACK POWER" RHYMES, CHANTS, & CHEERS AND SIMILAR EXAMPLES 

These examples aren't  given in chronological order. Numbers are given for referencing purposes only.

WARNING -Some of these examples include the pejorative referent that is sometimes given as "the n word". In those examples I've used the spelling "ni--er".
 

1. "Ah Beep Beep
Walkin down the street
Ugawa. Ugawa
That means Black power.
White boy.
Destroy.
I said it. I meant it
And I'm here to represent it.
Soul sister number 9
Sock it to me one more time.
Uh hun! Uh Hun!"
-Tracey S.,(African American female}; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; childhood remembrance,1968); collected by Azizi Powell, 2000

**
2."I'll be I'll be
Walking down the street,
Ten times a week.
Un-gah-wah, un-gah-wah (baby)
This is my power.
What is the story?
What is the strike?
I said it, I meant it,
I really represent it.
Take a cool, cool Black to knock me down.
Take a cool, cool Black to knock me down.
I'm sweet, I'm kind.
I'm soul sister number nine.
Don't like my apples,
Don't shake my tree.
I'm a Castle Square Black.
Don't miss with me."
-John Langstaff and Carol Langstaff, editors: Shimmy Shimmy Coke -Ca-Pop!: A Collection Of City Children's Street Games And Rhymes (New York, Doubleday & Company, 1973, p. 57)
-snip-
"Take a cool, cool Black" means "a cool Black (person).

My guess is that the term "Castle Square Black" refers to a particular neighborhood or to the name of a particular housing development (i.e. low income, usually government subsidized housing units that are informally called "projects").

Read my comments about the lines "Don't like my apples, don't shake my tree" in the comment section of this post.
-snip-
Notice the very close similarity with the beginning of this rhyme and the rhyme that was featured in the 1988 movie Big:
"Young Josh, Billy: The space goes down, down baby, down, down the roller coaster. Sweet, sweet baby, sweet, sweet, don't let me go. Shimmy, shimmy, cocoa pop. Shimmy, shimmy, rock. Shimmy, shimmy, cocoa pop. Shimmy, shimmy, rock. I met a girlfriend - a triscuit. She said, a triscuit - a biscuit. Ice cream, soda pop, vanilla on the top. Ooh, Shelly's out, walking down the street, ten times a week. I read it. I said it. I stole my momma's credit. I'm cool. I'm hot. Sock me in the stomach three more times." https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094737/characters/nm0608378 Big, 1988

**

3. "The topical nature of street poetry is shown. by how this one has swept the country via the childrents grapevine.

Ungawa black power
what you gonna do
box the boogaloo
what you think is best
hit them in the chest
I said beep bee,bang bang
Ungawa black power.
-Art Berger, "Poet in the Schoolhouse (Evoking Creative Energy in Language),  Speech given at the Annual Convention of the National Council of Teachers, 1970, 
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED051235.pdf

 
**
4. "Down Down Baby,
Down By the Rollercoaster,
Sweet sweet Baby,
I'll never let you go,
Shimmy Shimmy Coco Pop,
Shimmy Shimmy Rock,
I met a girlfriend,
A triscit,
She said a Triscit a Biscit,
Ice Cream,
Soda pop,
Vanilla on the top,
OOOH Johny, 
Walkin down the street,
Ten Times a week,
I met [meant]it I said it
I stole my momma credit,
I'm cool,
I'm Hot,
Sock me in the stomach one more time..."
- Ashley, August 10, 2003, Octoblog Schoolyard Rhymes, [forum no longer active]; reposted by  Azizi, 02 Jan 06, https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=6600  "Shimmy Shimmy Ko-Ko-Bop (Little Anthony)" (hereafter given as "Shimmy Shimmy: Mudcat")
-snip-
Here's part of the comment that I wrote after that example:
"IMO, the "Oooh Johnny" line in the above rhyme is folk etymology for the word "Ungawa" {a word that was used in the 1970s,1980s to approximate African talk}."...

**
5. "Ah beep beep, walking down the street
10 times a week
Ungawa, black power, Puerto Rican power
I said it, I meant it and now I represent it"
-Yasmin Hernandez, East Harlem, New York (private email to Azizi for cocojams.com, 2004)

**
6. "Ungawa

Like the other guy said, it seems to originate in Tarzan movies but it was co-opted by Black teens in Oakland during the 70s (I'm okay about being corrected here - earlier?) as a slang power-grunt.

I'd love to see someone provide additional words to my example. It's been a LONG time...

Foot-stomping chant (by late 70s it was used by cheerleaders and double-dutch):

Ungh, ungawa
Momma's got the powa
I said it, I meant it
I'm here to represent it
My back is achin', My belt's too tight
My hips are shakin' from left to right..."
by Suzy from Oakland June 3, 2008, https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Ungawa

**

7. 
"ahh beep beep walkin down the street
10 times a week...
ungawa, ungawa this is black power
destroy white boy
i said it
i meant it
i really represent it 
i'm a soul soul sista from a soul soul town
aint too many sista gonna keep me down.
if you don't like my apples
don't shake my tree
cuz i'm a soul soul sista named... Ja-nie

LOL"
-Janie, 23 Feb 09, "Shimmy Shimmy: Mudcat"
-snip-
"LOL" is Janie's comment and not a part of that rhyme.

In her first post to that discussion thread on that same date in which she tried to remember that rhyme, Janie wrote "funny thing is ...I'm not black. LOL".

**
8. "Well, the way we used to sing it in the '70s in Queens, NY goes:

Ahh, beep beep, walkin down the street, 10 times a week.
Ungawa,ungawa, black power, black power. I said it, I meant it, I really represent it.
I'm a cool cool ni--er from a cool cool town, it takes 5 white ni--ers to knock me down."
-GUEST,Marvo!!, 30 Apr 09 , "Shimmy Shimmy: Mudcat"

**
9. "Ahh, beep beep, Ahh, beep beep, walkin down the street, 10 times a week. Ungawa, black power destroy white boy
I'm a cool cool ni--er from a cool cool town, it takes 5 white ni--ers to knock me down.
I said it I meant it I really represent it I'm soul brouther number 5 , sock it to me one more time"
-GUEST,guest,  22 Oct 09, "Shimmy Shimmy: Mudcat"
-snip-
GUEST, guest might be the same commenter as GUEST, Marvo.

**
10. "I was remembering this today and did a google search. Had no idea where it came from. When I was a little kid, a little white kid mind you, I didn't have alot of friends but the black kids loved my mom who was a Teacher's Assistant at my elementary school so we looked out for each other. This must have been in the very early 70's. They might have thought it was hilarious seeing me marching around the block saying this stuff but it was all good.

"Ooh! Ungawa! We got the power! To destroy! White boy! I said it! I meant it! I'm here to represent it! 'Cause I'm a cool, cool, ni--er from a cool, cool, town and it takes a cool ni--er to knock me down! So don't you take my apple, don't you touch my teeth, 'cause I can kick your old tail any day of the week!"

At least that's how I remember it from a very, very, long time ago. Some of the lines don't make much sense to me so they might have been how adults changed some lines for the kids or just that my memory's wonky now."
-GUEST, guest, 27,Jan 10,  "Shimmy Shimmy: Mudcat"

**
11."In Chelsea, Manhattan, New York City, NY at PS 33 in 5th grade in the early 70 ties - where the blacks hated the Puerto Ricans and every one hated the whites ...

Ah beep beep
ah beep beep
10 times a week
10 times a week
Ungawa Black Power
Destroy white Boy
I said it, I meant it
I even represent it
I'm soul brother number 9
sock it to me one more time

Than was so many years ago)"
-GUEST, 06 Feb. 10, "Shimmy Shimmy: Mudcat"

**
12. "OMG, found your site by a search for a chant we did at high school games: the "ungawa" one. It made me laugh, because I realize how much more our parents could have been shocked than they were at the first winning football game our school had in a decade.

When I was in high school, our football team had not won for years--against anybody. When I was a junior, it looked pretty god for us to win that season's first game of the season.

BGHS at that time was about half-half hispanic and poor whites. "Racial diversity" was a struggling concept in many places, even in California, back then. It was really having a struggle in Bell Gardens. The Watts Riots was only a few years behind us and was still only about a 9-mile drive from BG. I remember seeing the smoke at night and the glow of the flames on the horizon.

I think our parents, especially, needed a sensitivity training and about two decades to make them more acceptable to racial diversity.

The majority of the folks who attended the football games were white.

An unfortunate cosmic connection occurred when our cheerleading squad attended a cheerleading camp over the summer, and returned to preview their new chants at the football game we were actually, finally, going to win.

To understand how big this game was, the LATimes had a reporter there for a few days before the game, and published, as their dominant story, The Game, with background about BGHS and the community.

On the night of the game, the stands were packed.

Our (white) cheerleaders came out and, the first chant they did was:

"ungawa, ungawa, yeah we got the powah!" but we didn't get into the full verses, but just chanted that over and over. The students in the stands ROCKED that chant! We stood up and SCREAMED it!

They did the "Ah-beep-beep!" chant after that, and the students enthusiastically joined in.

Well, to say that our parents pitched a bloody fit to the principle the next Monday, about sitting in the stands, being surrounded by their children screaming "UNGWA! UNGAWA! YEAH WE GOT THE POWAH!," is an understatement. It represented every one of their fears about the safety of ourselves, them, the country, and what the future held for all of us.

I'm just glad the cheerleaders didn't bring back the full version of Ungawa-Ugawa."
-GUEST,Bell Gardens High School Alumnus, 06 May 11, "Shimmy Shimmy: Mudcat"

**
13. "Here is the version from Brooklyn, New York in the early 70's...the Brownsville version:

 
Ahh, Beep Beep!
Walking down the street
Ten times a week
Ungawa!
Black Power!
Destroy!
White Boy!
I said it, I meant it
I'm here to represent it
I'm cool, I'm calm
I'm Soul Sister Number Nine
Sock it to me one more time!
Uh-Uh! Good God!

Now someone here mixed this up with another soul sister/brother rhyme that goes as follows:

I'm a bad soul sister from a bad soul town
It takes 48 whites just to knock me down
Don't you pick no apples from my apple tree!
I'm a bad soul sister, don't you mess with me!

We had so many rhymes like this. Some were very graphic!"
-GUEST, 12 May 11,  "Shimmy Shimmy: Mudcat"

**
14.   
"in the late 60's and 70's, as a child i remember some of these lyrics from songs sang on the playgrounds, children's shelter and camp. here are the lyrics i remember [though this may be a mixture of several songs] . . .

ungawa black power this is my tower
destroy white boy
i said it, i meant it, i even represent it
i'm a cool cool ni--er from a cool cool town
it takes another cool ni--er to knock me down
shimmy shimmy coco puff
shimmy shimmy pow
shimmy shimmy coco puff
shimmy shimmy pow
grandma moses sick in bed
she called the doctor and the doctor said
grandma moses you ain't sick
all you need is a peppermint stick

:-) "
-GUEST,nyc & queens ny, 11Aug 13, "Shimmy Shimmy: Mudcat"

**
15. "My good friend Cindy used to sing this version all the time around 1972. May she rest in peace, gone too soon. This verse allowed me to never forget her, here's to you Cindy Lee...

Beep Beep,
Walking down the street,
Ten times a week,
Ungawa!
Girl power!
Destroy!
All boys!
I mean it, I said it,
I'm here to represent it!
Im cool, I'm calm,
Im soul sister number 9,
Sock it to me one more time!"
-GUEST,P & C, 02 June 18 ,  "Shimmy Shimmy: Mudcat"

**
16. "Being raised in Brooklyn, in the 60's and 70's, we sang that street song(Cadence) like this..., *Forgive the profanity, we were kids following others...

Ahhh beep-beep, walking down the street. Ten times a week. Ungawa, Black Power, destroy White boy.

I said it, I meant it, I'm here to represent it. I'm a cool-cool 'nicca' from a cool-cool Town. It takes a cool-cool 'nicca' to knock me down. You don't like my apples, don't shake my tree but listen mofo, don't mess with me... I'm cool, I'm calm, I'm soul sister #9, sock it to me, one mo' time. Soul sister #10, I'll say it to you, one mo' 'gin...

There were even more lyrics, we'd add on, depending on who was singing along."
-GUEST, 22 Dec. 20, "Shimmy Shimmy: Mudcat"

**
17. "Shortly after my move to NYC (at the start of '81) I was introduced to a ditty of which I now remember only the beginning:

Ungawa! Black powah!
White boy: destroy!
I said it, I meant it,
I'm here to represent it...

(If only I could remember the rest, I could bask in my lost hipness...)
-language hat, July 21, 2004, https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/wordoriginsorg/umgawa-t8045.html Wordorigins Archive 15 (07-10/04)

**
18. "A variation of lh's rhyme, from 1976:

Unnh, Ungawa! Soul powah!
Whuh choo gonna do?
Cut the boogaloo!
C stands for cut, B stands for boogaloo --
The mighty, mighty Tigers gonna sock it to you!
Cause when you're up, you're up,
An' when you're down, you're down,
But when you're up against the Tigers,
You're UPside DOWN!

 

CocoaHigh"
-aldiboronti, Jul 21, 2004, https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/wordoriginsorg/umgawa-t8045.html Wordorigins Archive 15 (07-10/04)
-snip-
The words "CocoaHigh" were underlined like a hyperlink in that original post. However, that link is no longer active.

**
19. "No comments? That's just weird because This is a great article. Folks chanted it at my high school in '67 and '68 often at basketball games. 'Hut Ungawa Shortridge got the (black) Power!

In Indianapolis."
-Jonathan Hawkins, September 22, 2016, https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-real-origins-of-word-ungawa-various.html [hereafter given as "pancocojams: ungawa origins comment") 

**
20. "This IS a great article and I couldn't stop reading it. I remember "Hut, Ungawa, Shortridge got the Power" at basketball games against Lawrence Central. Thanks for the memory jog."
-Unknown, February 18, 2017, pancocojams: ungawa origins comment

**
21. "Recollecting a chant from my southern Louisiana private high school in the early '70s led me to your excellent article:

"Bang, bang! Ungawa! 'Saders got the power!"

I had a black classmate; he may have been the only black student at that time.
-Anonymous, March 21, 2018, pancocojams: ungawa origins comment

**
22 ".I was searching for this chant, because I vaguely remember doing at chant at a (mostly white) northern Wisconsin Lutheran Bible camp called Lake Wapogasset in the late 80's early 90's. My head hurts, my back's too tight, my body moves from left to right, Ooh Umgawa, Jesus' got the power. How interesting no one ever really explained Umgawa/Ungawa - if my memory is correct!"
-Anonymous, July 22, 2019, pancocojams: ungawa origins comment

**
23. "My father, a sociology professor at an HBCU from the late 60s to the mid 70s, always uses ungawa to mean right on or power to the people. But growing up, I'd never heard anyone else using it. Then one night in high school in the mid-80s, I was watching a documentary film on local tv (in DC, so it was probably Howard's station WHUT) about the Civil Right movement, and they were describing the Miss Howard Pageant when the woman who won had a natural/afro for the first time and not processed hair. One of the voices described that the audience started shouting out, "Ungawa! Black Power!" I sat bolt upright because it was the first time I'd heard anyone besides my father use the term. I have no idea what documentary it was (Maybe it was Parting the Waters? I don't know)."
-toubab, Sept. 23, 2019, pancocojams: ungawa origins comment

**
24. "We used to cheer a similar chant at football games in 1972 In Marcus Hook PA

Ah we meet walkin down the street
Ten times a week
Ungawa black power
The story white boy,
I said it, I meant it, I really represent it.
Soul sister 69
Sock it to me one more time. Whoo!
-Unknown, June 28, 2020, pancocojams: ungawa origins comment

25. "A white friend from college wrote that when her power came back on she chanted "ungawa, ungawa, ___'s got the power" saying she remembered this as a high school chant of mine. Actually, it was a street chant we did as kids in the hood in NYC around 1968. Was really interesting to read hear about it, and want to add our verion. We either started with:

ah, beep beep
walkin' down the street
10 times a week
with your funky feet

OR we started with:

my dress too long, my belt's too tight
my booty shakes from left to right

either version ended with:

ungawa, black power
destroy, white boy
i said it, i meant it
i'm here to represent it
i'm soul sister number 9
sock it to me one more time

Someone elsewhere in this thread had said they never heard of these chants associated with double dutch, but in our neighborhood it was indeed often chanted during double dutch - or just marching down the street, snapping our fingers and with hand gestures to demonstrate the long dress then hands up to the 'tight belt' then swaying our bottoms back and forth rhythmically to demonstrate the 'booty shaking from left to right'. Tremendous fun, also a sense of solidarity and new sense of pride to be able to chant in unison "black power" but to those of us who were very young, part of the fun and games and thrill of being included with the group of older kids chanting with us."
-Unknown, August 10, 2020, pancocojams: ungawa origins comment

**
26. My middle school name was Bunch Braves and we used to chant it "Hey chief Ungawa Braves have the power"
-Anonymous, Nov. 8, 2022, pancocojams: ungawa origins comment

**
27.  "One Ungawa

Two Ungawa
Give me some of that peace and power .
Uun ungawa
[clap clap]
That peace and power.
Uun ungawa
[clap clap]
That peace and power." 
-CHS Cheer, Aug 5, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNrs_yIKtws "One Ungawa"

**
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.