Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents 66 comments that are published in the 2015 pancocojams post entitled "The REAL Origin Of The Word "Ungawa" & Various Ways That Word Has Been Used In The USA" as of August 27, 2026.
https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-real-origins-of-word-ungawa-various.html
Those comments consists of visitor comments and my replies.
That post is still found in this pancocojams blog and that discussion thread is still open for additional comments.
I'm reprinting these comments to increase their visibility on the internet and to increase the visibility of that 2015 pancocojams post.
The content of this post is presented for historical and socio-cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those commenters who I'm quoting in this post. More comments can still be added to that 2015 discussion thread and/or to this 2026 post.
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https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/06/childrens-examples-of-ah-beep-beep.html "Children's Examples Of "Ah Beep Beep Ungawa Black Power" And Similar Rhymes, Chants, & Cheers"
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COMMENTS FROM THAT 2015 PANCOCOJAMS POST
Thanks, Jonathan for your compliment about this article and for sharing your memories of an "ungawa" chant.
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Your example from an Indianapolis, Indiana high school in 1967-1968 is one of the earlier examples that I've found to date. The other 1967-1968 chants that I collected are from Newark, New Jersey and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I wonder whether people from other states remember this chant from the late 1960s or early 1970s.
Hopefully, more people will share their memories of "ungawa" chants along with demographic information (year, location, when/where it was chanted.)
Thanks again!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.
DeleteThanks for your compliment, Gary Cunningham.
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I appreciate you sharing your memory of "Ungawa" as a high school basketball cheer.
- AnonymousDecember 3, 2016 at 3:17 PM
Great piece. The mostly black cheerleaders at my integrated LA high school in the very late 70s also sang a version like the ones above. I just looked up the word when I came upon it in Paul Beatty's novel The Sellout
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, Anonymous.
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It's interesting that that Ungawa cheer was known in Los Angeles, California in the late 1970s.
And I'll have to look up the book that you mentioned.
Thanks again!
- AnonymousNovember 12, 2017 at 11:53 PM
I was listening to Dizzy Gillespie's composition Ungawa tonight, which also made me think of Amiri Baraka chanting "Ungawa! Black Power!" on a NY Art Quartet album, which made me go online to do some research, and of course brought me to your blog and corresponds to your Newark experiences...
ReplyDeleteGreetings, Anonymous.
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Thanks for your comment.
I wasn't aware of Dizzy Gillespie's composition Ungawa. Here's a link to a YouTube sound file that I found https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQXFeN8tYds. According to that cover photo and Wikipedia Dizzy Gillespie composed and first recorded
this tune in 1959.
I also wasn't aware that Amiri Baraka chanted "Ungawa! Black Power!" on a New York Art Quartet album (and I confess, I didn't know about that group until your comment prompted me to google that group).
As a result of that google search, I found this sound file:
Is this the tune you are referring to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98oK6zZXmQw New York Art Quartet / Amiri Baraka - Black Dada Nihilismus
When I was a member of that Newark group, I focused on the cultural heritage aspects of the group and I don't recall the "murder all the White people sentiments when I belonged to that group. I cringe with aversion when I read such statements coming from that poet or any other person...
On second thought I do recall chanting "Who will survive America?/ very few Negroes/no crackers at all."
My heartfelt apologies for those sentiments.I added that link to Dizzy Gillespie's 1959 composition "Ungawa" in the content of this post.
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Thanks again!
- AnonymousMarch 21, 2018 at 10:21 AM
Recollecting a chant from my southern Louisiana private high school in the early '70s led me to your excellent article:
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"Bang, bang! Ungawa! 'Saders got the power!"
I had a black classmate; he may have been the only black student at that time.Thanks for sharing your recollection of this chant with us Anonymous.
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I appreciate your example, and thanks also for the compliment.
I suppose it's likely that the Black student you mentioned might have been the source of that Ungawa chant, but the way chants travel, other students in your school might have picked it up elsewhere.
One love!
I will share this knowledge UM GAWA BLACK POWER is OK 50 years later in our Human Condition To Day. Be Smart. Black Lives Matter vs the Culture of Violence. Um GAWA.BLACK POWER
ReplyDelete- AnonymousNovember 8, 2022 at 12:04 AM
My middle school name was Bunch Braves and we used to chant it “Hey big chief Ungawa Braves have got the power”
Delete Anonymous, thanks for sharing an example of "Ungawa" that your school used as a chant.
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When (what decade) and where (what city/state/country) was this?
Not to be confused with uNgawa, UMgawa is a made up word from the Johnny Weissmuller “Tarzan” movies made in the 1930’s. It was used in the movies as a word that could mean just about anything depending on the context it is said in. Given the lack of investigative resources from that timeframe, similarity to ungawa appears entirely coincidental.
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Umgawa has also been used in the same “a word for any situation” with the University of Illinois Marching Ilini since the 1980’s (possibly earlier), usually as a response to commands from the band director e.g “Are you ready, Band?” or “Band, Dismissed!” followed by “Umgawa!” in unison. It can also be used as a form of greeting, celebration or recognition amongst band members and alumni.Thanks, Eric for your comment.
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I believe that "umgawa" and "ungawa" are from the same source with "umgawa" (spelled with a m) probably being the earliest spelling of those words.
Thanks for sharing that information about the University of Illinois Marching band's customs of using "umgawa".
My guess is that "we're" = were.
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If so, my response is that some people were indeed racist in 1932 and any other year you can cite.
- AnonymousDecember 29, 2018 at 3:37 PM
This is a wonderful article! We watched Blackkklansman last night, and wondered what Ungawa meant, and Google brought me here.
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I agree with you on what the meaning of Black Lives Matter and Black Power needs to be - add the "also" and "too". I even agree with "blue lives matter" ... BUT people need to recognize our current context. Between cops and blacks, the current power balance is so horrible, that whites must understand that the cops don't generally need any extra protection or benifit of doubt.
Back to Blackkklansman, I thought it was really interesting near the final scenes, where Spike Lee juxtaposed the scenes of people chanting Black Power and White Power.
(Minor spoiler) I also loved the joy it brought everyone when Ron Stallworth revealed who he really was, on the phone, to Duke.
I'm white, born in 1962, but I picked up a lot of the idealism and hope of those years. I am so upset at the regression we've had in public discourse in current times.
These attitudes have been festering all along ... I want to believe this is all a precursor to (esp. white) people realizing that we need to go even deeper than the gains made last century. One last quote from the movie (Frome Kwame Ture) - All power to all the people.
Thanks again for satisfying my curiousity, and showing how powerful language and ideas spread. Even when some folks like BJU don't recognize it! :-)
KristiGreetings, Kristi.
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Thanks for the compliment and for sharing your thoughts about the Blackkklasman movie.
I keep believing that we are slower but surely moving toward a better world for all living beings.
Best wishes and keep on keeping on!
In the spring of 1967, I recall a game my proto-hippie high-school friends and I played (we were mostly, but not all, white). We'd meet in Central Park (NYC) and would stand in a circle. One at a time, each of us would get up and go around the circle. If a boy met a girl, a girl met a boy, or a girl met a girl, they'd kiss. If a boy met a boy, they'd link arms and yell, "Ungawa!" (Yes, I know, sexist and silly, but we were kids.) I have no idea where this game came from. One day a pretty brunette and her male companion were walking by, watched us for a spell, and asked if they could join in. They did for a few rounds, and only when they were walking away did we acknowledge to each other that it was Joan Baez. (One of our "circle," music executive Danny Goldberg, wrote about it in his book "In Search of the Lost Chord" [Akashic Books, 2018, p. 166], but didn't mention the "Ungawa" factor.)
ReplyDeleteI don't suppose this story adds much to the canon, but it does show how universal that phrase was at the time.
ReplyDeleteGreetings, Mark Burstein.
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Thanks for your comments.
Your sharing that story does add to documentation about the ways that the word "Ungawa" was used in the United States.
I suppose males yelling "Ungawa!" was an expression of "macho-ness".
I never heard of that game before. Thanks for adding demographics and how neat was it that Joan Baez and her friend joined in playing this game.
Too bad that Danny Goldberg didn't add the Ungawa word. Now I'll have to read that book to find out how he referred to that game.
Here's a link to a few reviews of Danny Goldberg's book In Search of the Lost Chord: 1967 and the Hippie Idea - http://www.akashicbooks.com/catalog/in-search-of-the-lost-chord/.
You're welcome Mark. I look forward to reading Danny Goldberg's book "In Search Of The Lost Chord: 1967 and the Hippie Idea".
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I remember 1967, but I wasn't a hippie :o)
- AnonymousJuly 22, 2019 at 6:08 PM
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!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing that example, Anonymous.
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Also, thanks for adding demographic information.
I'm not surprised to see examples of children's rhymes references to Jesus and I'm not surprised that the word "umgawa"/"ungawa" wasn't explained. If it had been explained. someone would have probably said that it was a nonsense word, and no mention would have been made of any racial aspects to that word. In the 1980s and 1990s (if not still now in some places in the USA), particularly in mostly White communities, people were supposed to be "color blind". The problem with that is that being blind to color (race/ethnicity such as Latinx) means that institutional racism and personal racism can still exist and flourish.If I were writing this comment one year later, I wouldn't use the referent "Latinx" as I've learned this:
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" In fact, recent national surveys of Hispanics/Latinos show that the term Latinx is highly unpopular. Influential media and advocacy groups have started dropping the term or even arguing against its use to avoid offending those who dislike it. It might have been intended to be more inclusive, but it actually can feel exclusionary to everyday people."... https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/many-latinos-say-latinx-offends-or-bothers-them-here-s-ncna1285916
I really enjoyed reading this it was very informative & straight forward clear defining the words ungawa & umgawa. Remember Tarzan using this term/terms for just about everything. Thank you for a very enlightening explanation/education. I wanted to know hunted it down I was lost but now I'm found so much Umgawa! Umgawa! now thanks to ungawa! ungawa! to know is power! Love Is Power! ~mjt~
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Unknown (mjt) August 12, 2019.
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I love your adaptation of this chant:
>>>I was lost but now I'm found
So much Ungawa!
"Ungawa!
Now thanks to ungawa!
Ungawa!
To know is power!
Love is power!"
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).
ReplyDeletetoubab, thanks for sharing your experiences with the word "ungawa".
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I appreciate it.
We used to cheer a similar chant at football games in 1972 In Marcus Hook PA
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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!Hello, Unknown June 29, 2020.
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Thanks for sharing your memories of that chant which include the word "Ungawa".
I appreciate it.
Keep on keeping on!
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:
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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, thank you for sharing those memories.
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I appreciate your inclusion of demographics (year and geographic location) and descriptions of the accompanying movements that were performed with the versions of this chant that you remember.
This is a great addition to the folkloric record about the "Ungawa" chant.
Best wishes and stay safe!
- AnonymousAugust 25, 2020 at 11:57 PM
During 1971, us students were given a chant to recite while walking the corriders. We also had walk-outs demanding something for teachers. I recall mainly it got us out of class. Anyways, it went like this:
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Ungawa, black-power,
Vikings are the best
beat-em in the chest
Watcha gonna do
Dance the boogaloo
M stands for man
D stands for dude
Us mother f....ers gonna sock it to you
Not sure of meaning, I just felt cool. I was an 80lb white, blonde curly haired, blue eye girl. Haha.Anonymous, thanks for sharing that chant. It's one I hadn't come across before.
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Thanks also for the information you included about the year you remember this chant and its use in walkouts.
I'm glad you added information about when and how it was chanted. I hope you can add where this was chanted (what city/state you lived in when you chanted this.)
I'm assuming that "Vikings" were your teams name. That's a rather common team name in the USA. My high school football team were the Vikings. I assume that is still the team's name.
I really like the "Vikings are the best/beat-em in the chest" and "watcha gonna do/dance the boogaloo" words to this version of "Ungawa".
The other lines don't rhyme as well, but I suppose they were "cool"to say, but wasn't it risky to say that whole mother word in school?
Was this in high school? And if so, did the school have African American students? Does that school have the initials MDU or was that just how the chant went?
Also, I'm assuming that it wasn't only girls who said this chant. Was it mostly boys though?
I suppose you know that "sock it to you" means "give it to you" and not necessarily "hit you" or "fight you."
Thanks again and I hope you add some more information for the folkloric record.
- AnonymousAugust 26, 2020 at 12:17 PM
I apologize for not using my name but i was unable to change old wrong email address. My name is Karen. The school was Forest Grove Jr. High (7th & 8th grades), Worcester, MA. We had a diverse group of students, rich, poor, black, white. Hispanics not so much back then. The "Vikings" I thought of the people, not a team. I also thought "sock it to you" was to hit. The Black Panthers were active and I associated the chant with this group. Thinking of myself as a "hippie" my attire was bells attached to my jean bell bottoms and cleats to the bottoms of my platform shoes. To say I was a spectacle is an understatement. LOL. I believe while walking the corriders chanting the entire MF phrase was partially said.
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Also, I came across your blog by accident. I was responding to a fb comment on BLM, comparing the unrest/rioting, by uninformed young people just following without understanding, like when I chanted this back as a child. I didn't know the correct spelling of Ungawa and found you.Hi Karen. I'm glad that you just happened upon this blog while looking for that specific rhyme. That's how most people find these posts on rhymes.
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Thanks also for sharing that demographic information and more information about how you remember chanting this rhyme in your school. I can understand why you might have thought that "Ungawa Black Power" was associated with the Black Panthers, but I don't know of any documentation that credits that organization with originating that chant.
Here's one entry from https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Sock%20it%20to%20me about the saying "sock it to me":
"Sock it to me":
Expression from the late 1960s until the early 1970s. Literally means "give it to me," but generally had a underlying sexual connotation. Could also mean just give me your best.
Goldie Hawn would say "Sock it to me, " on the TV show Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in, while wearing a flowered bikini. The Isely Brothers sang, "I can't tell you who to sock it to." A person could say, "I have an idea," and the response would be.."OK. Sock it to me." "
by ambrozia June 30, 2009
Thanks again, Karen. Best wishes and be safe during these crazy times!
- AnonymousAugust 26, 2020 at 11:41 PM
I was 12 and 13 so yes, too young. Thank you for responding. I always enjoy speaking to our older generation. We're losing such valuable knowledge. I have no elders around as I age to ask questions. Thank you again. Karen
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Karen.
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I'm 72 years old so I definitely fit the age definition of "older generation" and an "elder", but sometimes it seems jarring to me to think of myself in those terms.
However, my age is one of the reasons why I feel compelled to document and share cultural information and perspectives and ask others to also do so because I've learned that information that we now take for granted may not be known or understood in the future. And that future could be as little as less than five years from now or much longer than that.
Best wishes!
I found your page while researching William Peter Blatty's usage of the word in his 1965 novella "I, Billy Shakespeare" and since the text is rife with Shakespearean terms hoped that it emanated from him. Nos uch luck as yet though I did find a few interesting uses from the 19th and 20th centuries.
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https://ibillyshakespeare.blogspot.com/p/ungawa.htmlthe (screen name), thanks for sharing that information.
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I appreciate it.
Here's one quote from your website:
While the popular usage of the word ungawa (or umgawa) is oft claimed to originate with Edgar Rice Burroughs and his series of Tarzan books--and subsequently in the Hollywood movies--from a Swahili origin it was seemingly used by the French and possibly Inuit dating back to at least 1811 in regards to the Ungava Bay on the Hudson Strait in Quebec:
[portion given in French]
Journal de l'Unité des frères from the Moravian Church, 1860
Google translates the pertinent information as follows:
"I was called to make in 1811, with Brother Kohlmeister a voyage of exploration on the northern coast of Labrador, beyond Cape Chudleigh in the Ungawa (ungawa or ungatane means on the other side) to the river of Koksoak" "
-end of quote-
I also was particularly interested in the information in your website about the 1973 Ebony magazine article that quotes "Ungawa!" being chanted by Kenyans in 1973 during a visit to that nation by then vice-President Spiro Agnew. "in which a awaiting crowd chanted Ungawa! in response to his calling out the recklessness of American black leaders".
Thanks again!
It makes no sense that Tarzan would know or speak Swahili when according to the lore he lived in the African jungle which would place him somewhere in the Congo rainforest. It just goes to show that the Tarzan series was nothing but pure escapist pulp fantasy adventure based on dated western ideas of Africa as being "exotic" with very little effort to do actual research put into the series. I wonder if Tarzan were remade into the modern era and accompanied with appropriate research of the customs and people of the African continent what the series would look like today?
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Ungawa may be a nonsense word but it's a wonderfully American word in that as a culture we always adapt to the circumstances, just like the word itself changed over time from the Tarzan films, to Black Power, to street rhyme, to high school chant. Its connotation with the civil rights struggle means that perhaps the time is right in the present to begin using it again as the struggle has been picking up an urgency not seen in quite a while over these past few years.Thanks for your comment, bluepegasus.
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I agree with you regarding your Swahili/Congo points and your points about the escapism/pulp fantasy adventure that Tarzan was to the mainstream Western societies.
Regarding remaking Tarzan movies today, please don't give the movie industry any ideas...
Regading your comment that perhaps the time is right to use Ungawa again, in my opinion, even though it was used a bit in chants during the 1970s or so (African American) Black Power struggle, "Ungawa" has too many negative connotations (i.e. Tarzan associations) to be used nowadays.
Ashe!
Well done, and thank you! I woke up this morning remembering a camp song you quoted and realizing it was rather perjorative. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThanks and you're welcome, Dyspneadoc.
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For the folkloric record, I'm interested in the words to the campe song you remembered (with the perjorative words not completely spelled). I'd also love it if you would share when (year or decade) and where (city or state) you learned this song.
Thanks again!
Ok, I may break this rather old blog, but I found it doing some other research. I grew up in Ocala (Silver Springs), where they filmed the old Tarzan movies. That jungle (complete with monkeys freed by a hurricane) was my back yard.
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There was a story that the movie studio brought over some folk from Africa to film, help wrangle the animals and such. They called Johnny Weissmuller "um-gawa".
Johnny asked one of the translators what it meant, was it "chief" or "star" or something similar?
The translator laughed and said, while pointing "Do not step in elephant um-gawa!"Greetings, Jay.
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Thanks for sharing.
I hadn't heard that one before.
I'm assuming that you forgot the sarcastic symbol.
The word is Japanese, and essentially means porch, or sun room. My guess is someone along the way misconstrued the word to mean fortress wall or something similar. See https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Engawa
ReplyDeleteStephen K, thanks for your comment.
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I appreciate the information that engawa is a Japanese word for "porch" or "sun room". Here's that link in case other pancocojams readers want to read that page: https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Engawa
I believe that the Japanese word "engawa" has no connection to the Swahili word (or the made up word) "ungawa" except that they are spelled very similarly.
These two words could be added to online discussion threads/tweetss about how some Japanese words (including some Japanese names) are spelled the same or similarly to some Swahili, or Yoruba, or Igbo words (including names) but have different meanings.
Here's a link to one of those online pages: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/9qumy4/is_there_a_mysterious_ancient_link_between/ "Is there a mysterious ancient link between Nigerians and the Japanese?"
Also, thanks Stephen K for reminding me of this post. As a result of your comment, I looked up the word "ungawa" online and found a few more examples of rhymes/cheers with that word which I added to this post.
- AnonymousSeptember 3, 2022 at 9:20 AM
After having posted online on poetry.com a poem called “Tarzan’s ‘Umgawa’ Burden,” out of sheer curiosity I searched the Internet to determine whether there were comments in the public domain concerning the history and use of that word and in the process stumbled on this website. How interesting — the morphing of a catch phrase to mean just almost anything for various audiences with various social interests. I ama poet and the expressive use of language is a fascinating subject.
ReplyDeleteGreetings, Anonymous.
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I'm glad that you found this post.
I agree with you that "the expressive use of language is a fascinating subject".
Best wishes.
- AnonymousSeptember 3, 2022 at 9:59 AM
Thanks Azizi. Like you, I’m a grandparent, as well as an octogenarian retired educator of Jamaican ancestry who happened to have attended Howard University in Washington, D.C. at the same time that civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael was in attendance there, and in fact was a dormitory colleague of his during the 1960s We met and knew each other as university colleagues. While the world knows Stokely best as a social activist, I knew him personally as a serious-minded college freshman and junior.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, your life sounds so interesting.
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Thanks for sharing.
Ashe.
heaven in hell cda, thanks for your comment. I appreciate it!
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Here's an article about Howard University students chanting "Ungawa Black Power" in 1966:
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https://abernathymagazine.com/wakandan-black-panther-brings-nu-africa-mainstream/ " I am Wakandan: Black Panther brings ‘Nu Africa’ to the mainstream" by Joshua K. Wright, Ph.D
…”The highlight of the 1966 homecoming pageant at Howard University was the crowning of Robin Gregory as queen. Robin accepted her crown wearing an afro (or natural hairstyle) and traditional African attire. Students erupted in applause chanting “Ungawa. Black Power. Ungawa. Black Power”. A spirit of black power and Afrocentricity encompassed Howard’s campus in the late sixties."
-snip-
This article has no publishing date. However, this sentence in that article points to 2018 as its publishing date:
"Black Panther’s characterization of women is a far cry from what we found in Coming to America 30 years ago"
-snip-
The American movie Coming To American was first released in 1988.I'm glad you found this article. I hope that you found it interesting.
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Peace to you also, Lopez.
- AnonymousOctober 23, 2024 at 10:26 PM
Amazing context here and this word has evolved so far. For the record, urban legend, or at least Hollywood legend, is ungawa is a gibberish word made up for the Tarzan show in the 1940’s. The studio for this production was on Gower Street and thus “ongower” street became “ungawa” by a bunch of producers creating a made up language for the show. Pretty silly when you think about it.
ReplyDeleteHello, Anonymous. Thanks for sharing that information about the origin of the word "ugawa". If it's not a backstory, it's really cool. If it's the truth, it's also really cool :o)
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- AnonymousMay 30, 2025 at 10:06 AM
I add this comment not because I'm proud of remembering this, but just to add to the variety of ways this word was used and because no one else seems to have mentioned how after the adoption of the word by black power movements, there was a kind of (somewhat) racist satirizing of those chants like "Ungawa, black power!..." The following chant was used by mostly white rural kids in my hometown in Missouri, late 70's, early 80's. I don't know where they got it or whether it's attested anywhere, but this would be a very interesting anthropological exercise to trace its origins:
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"Unh! Ungawa! [insert name of younger kid you are bullying on the bus here] needs a shower!" (kid would get really mad)Hello, Anonymous May 30, 2025. Thanks for sharing your memory of kids using the word "ungawa" to taunt a younger kid. Thanks also for including demographic information.
Obviously, bullying kids is never good, but I'm glad we have this example for the folkloric record.
Best wishes!
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Visitor comments are welcome.
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!
ReplyDeleteIn Indianapolis.