This year’s Oscars had a joke that most audience members will have missed.
The Daily Show host Trevor Noah introduced Best Picture nominee Black Panther with a teasing reference about growing up in Wakanda and seeing “T’Challa flying over our village”.
Noah, who is South African, then shared what he called “a great Xhosa phrase”: “Abelungu abazi’ uba ndiyaxoka”.
In his words, the phrase meant: “In times like these, we are stronger when we fight together than when we try to fight apart.”
However, anyone who speaks Xhosa, which is one of the official languages of South Africa and is the official language of Zimbabwe, would know it actually translates to: “White people don’t know I’m lying.”
Winners at this year’s ceremony included Olivia Colman for The Favourite, Rami Malek for Bohemian Rhapsody, Regina King for If Beale Street Could Talk and Mahershala Ali whose film Green Book won Best Picture. Alfonso Cuarón took home Best Director for his Netflix drama Roma.
You can find a full list of winners here.
