Da kine wurd/frayze/turm uv da day: Shaka, an den, part 1.
Da kine wurd/frayze/turm uv da day: Shaka, an den, part 1.
When you finish reading my next two columns, it will come as no shaka to you that you will be totally confused! Everything you thought you knew (or wanted to know) about the gesture and the word shaka … and less! Lol!
If you grew up on Oahu back een da dey, you were brainwashed by the Honolulu Advertiser &Star-Bulletin typewriter jockeys as to where the shaka sign and the word originated! They claim that some guy from Laie who lost his middle three fingers (in either a plantation accident or shark attack?) now sat in his front yard waving at passersby and all one saw was his pinkie and thumb. Ass fo reel? Dodonoh! (Is it true? Don’t know!)
Dat buggah, Hamana Kalili, ees fo reel! Eef dats weyah da kine ges’cha wen staht? Dodonoh! (The guy is for real! Whether that’s where it all started, no one knows!) Then, along comes “Lippy” Espinda with his used car lot TV commercials and gave the signal a name! (True? Dodonoh! More about that later.)
All I know fo shooah ees, us guy’zes frum Hilo nevah eeven bin to dat playce, Laie! But the sign/gesture was being flashed all over the neighbor islands to convey a multitude of things/feelings: Hi — howzit, bye — spahk yu laytah/bumbye, Take it easy. In Hilo we would say: ee-say ee-say (easy-easy) or ee-sah-lay, I feel (or it is) great! — I stay da kine, but! Thank you — Tanx eh/Mahalo, brah, etc. You get the drift!
Around the same time, surfers from Hawaii were travelling to more and more breaks around the world with their aloha spirit and laid back/hang loose attitude. And, voila, jess lah dat, da shaka sign had wun ayleeess! (and, just like that, the shaka sign had an alias!) Lol! Worldwide, the terms became interchangeable; sorta like a hyphenated last name! Ha!
Two teengs yu kan tay’k to da bank (two things you can take to the bank):
1. I wen leef da Beeg Pohaku beefoh Leepee wen staht endeeng hees teevee peetch wit “shaka brah!” (I left the Big Island before Lippy started his ads!)
The first time I heard the word shaka was in the 1964 British movie “Zulu” (introducing Michael Caine in his first major role). The head of the Southern African Zulu Nation was Emperor “Shaka Zulu.”
I saw the movie on Herzo Base (Herzogenaurach) in English and also auf Deutsch in a “Kino” in Erlangen.
2. Before anyone knew the difference between PCs and Macs and when the word viral was only used in a medical context, Elvis flashed the shaka/hang loose gesture to over 1 billion viewers worldwide at the end of his January 1973 “Aloha From Hawaii” concert, which was broadcast live via satellite! (That record still stands!)
I saw the concert on a Nordmende TV set in the living room of my former Nazi Officers’ quarters in Muenchen; with narration in both English and Deutsch. Hoo cheeken skeen lah dat but!
Watch for “the rest of the story (mahalo, Paul Harvey)” in my next column in two weeks.
Pau fo nau.
Nexes wun: Shaka an den, part 2, July 5.
Wally Camp writes a biweekly column for West Hawaii Today. He can be reached at hilowally@gmail.com