Arlo and Pete recorded a video at Wolftrap (in Vienna, VA) in 1978 which was aired on local PBS stations. The following is close to what Arlo said to explain the song:

"The thought was just striking me at that moment that there's probably some people that don't understand Zulu. And you know, a song of this importance should be understood, like all folksongs.

Now, this is a story about a guy named Guabi Guabi. He was an African dude. His friends called him Guabs, but most of the time, in a formal situation, they called him Guabi Guabi. He used to work at the docks down there in South Africa.

One day he was arrested for cuttin' sandals out of tires. He cut some sandals out of the tires down there at the dock and they brought him up to the police station--about 13 stories up in the air. The next day they found Guabi had somehow got out the window and died and ended up down the road about three miles.

People started wantin' to know--they started a little investigation and they asked the police about it. They said that Guabi had slipped accidentally on a banana peel inside the police station and actually slipped right out the window. And when asked how come he was found three miles down the road, they said he had cut them sandals out of steel belted radial tires.

So people didn't know what to do about that. They started another kind of investigation--it went so far as to even come over here kind of. The truth eventually came out, I think, and that was--you see they was chasin' Guabi around the police station when one of his sandals blew up. It was a Firestone 500. And so his friends wrote this song about him. It's kind of a difficult song to--you know-- a lot gets lost in the translation, but I'm sure you know what I mean. And they wrote this song knowin' I would sing it, you know, and that you would know what I meant.

And it goes like this:

Don't worry Guabi, you ain't gonna die in vain;
Over in America they'll be singing songs about this.
They'll start all kinds of investigations into sending these tires over here.
They'll start checkin' out the police.
They'll start checkin' out all kinds of stuff,
So just take it easy."

This one seems to be an earlier translation than the last one from Arlo:

It seems there was this guy named Guabi Guabi, he was so poor that he didn't have 2 names. His friends just called him Guabs. Anyway he was in love with this beautiful girl named Tonna.

One day he was walking across this rope bridge and she was walking the other way to meet him in the middle. He was holding something behind his back so she couldn't see it. It was just a bunch of bannas.

He was so poor he couldn't buy anything for her, so he just climbed a tree and cut them down, that's like why he was so tired but that's another story better get back lets see where was I...when all of sudden a banana slipped under his foot and he slipped off the rope bridge and fell 300 feet down to the river.

When the cops got there, they weren't far away 'cause he was some kind of folk singer or something, they asked what happened. One of Guabs friends who was watching the whole thing sort of wrote this down and we are still singing it to this very day...what you don't believe me? No, it's true...I don't you know make this stuff up...can you dig it?

Now that you know the truth you can sing it with me...It goes Guabi, Guabi then there are other words...........

Guabi, Guabi: a South African folk song tremendously popular with folkies in the 60s and 70s, thanks to the recordings of Jack Elliott(1), Jim Kweskin, and Arlo Guthrie. It's a Zulu children's song with a wonderful melody and addictive guitar fingerpicking, and was taken from the singing and playing of guitarist George Sibanda(2). It can be found on an album put out by Decca called Guitars of Africa.

The song is about someone who teases his girlfriend by holding something behind his back and saying, "Guess what I've got." It's an interesting mix of Zulu and French expressions, and this English transliteration and translation is from Andrew Tracy of the African Music Society thanks to the guitar tutorials of Happy Traum (who put out a book with the tablature for Guabi Guabi):

"Guabi, Guabi, guzwangle notamb yami,
(Hear, Guabi, Guabi, I have a girlfriend)

Ihlale nkamben', shu'ngyamtanda
(She lives at Nkamben, sure I love her)

Ngizamtenge la mabanzi, iziwichi le banana."
(I will buy her buns, sweets, and bananas.)

If you've never heard the song sung before, the above is miles away from the actual sound of the African language. Such is the transliteration and its shortcomings.

Good luck with pronouncing the transliteration if you don't have a recording. As for the chords, it's straight C, F, and G. The fingerpicking takes a little more...

One other possibility-write to the Int'l Library Of African Music at Grahamstown,SA (Andrew Tracey) for more on his, and his dad's remarkable work. Their albums, obviously, fueled many-a-crafty folkie, besides doing their intended work...

(1) Jack recorded "Gaubi Guabi" on a 1964 LP called JACK ELLIOTT (Vanguard). That LP has been combined with a live recording from that era and released on a single CD as THE ESSENTIAL RAMBLIN' JACK ELLIOTT (Vanguard).

(2) George Sibanda was an Ndebele guitarist who recorded for the Gallotone label (78rpm) in about 1950; a discovery of Hugh Tracey, eminent saviour of trad. African music. For a time he was funded, in part, by this commercial concern, acting as a "talent scout" for potential "hit" material (as was the case here) in exchange for the ability to document more traditional styles. The record gained some prominence in Europe, being reissued in a series of 10" discs on London(1950s); the series re-shuffled & augmented on 12" Gallotone lps (1960s-S. Africa) and in the early 1970s re-reissued on Kaleidoscope (NYC) -all under the editorial imprimatur of Dr.Tracey. Sibanda was (is???) a lovely guitarist and had many successes in his early days.