Kaffir (Afrikaans/Arabic: "kaffer", /ˈkæfə/[1]) is a racist slur used to refer to a black person. In the form of cafri, it evolved during the pre-colonial period as an equivalent of "negro". In Southern Africa, the term was later used to refer to the Bantu peoples. This designation came to be considered a pejorative by the 20th century.
In South Africa, the word was loosely used to refer to native South Africans. It was adopted as a derogatory term after 1948 when the Apartheid system was established. Under crimen injuria, the epithet kaffir has been actionable in the justice system of South Africa since 1976.[2] In 2000, the South African parliament also enacted the Promotion of Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, which has among its primary objectives the prevention of hate speech terms such as kaffir.[3] When describing the term, the euphemism the K-word is now often used instead of kaffir.[4]
Kaffir has also been used to refer to an ethnic group in Sri Lanka, the Sri Lanka Kaffirs, who are partially descended from 16th-century Portuguese traders and the slaves that they brought from their colonies in Africa to work as labourers and soldiers. Unlike in South Africa, the Sri Lankan Kaffirs do not consider the term offensive.[5]
"Kaffir" is derived from the Arabic word (Arabic: كافر kāfir) that is usually translated into English as "disbeliever" or "non-believer", i.e. a non-Muslim or "one without religion".[6] The word was originally applied to non-Muslims in general, and therefore to non Muslim black peoples encountered along the Swahili coast by Arab traders. The Portuguese who arrived on the East African coast in 1498, encountered the usage of the term by the coastal Arabs, but not the Swahili who used the term Washenzi (meaning "uncivilized") to describe the non-Islamic people of the African interior. The poet Camões used the plural form of the term (cafres) in the fifth canto of his 1572 poem Os Lusíadas. Variations of the word were used in English, Dutch, and, later, in Afrikaans, from the 17th century to the early 20th century as a general term for several different people of Southern Africa. In Portuguese, in French and in Spanish, the equivalent cafre was used. From the Portuguese the term was passed onto their Asian possessions and exists in several Asian languages including Konkani in India as "Khapri" and in Sinhalese as "Kaapiri". The terms are descriptive of the pagan natives of Cafreria, but are not considered offensive in either Western India or in Sri Lanka.
The term acquired a distinctly derogatory meaning in the context of South African history, especially during the Apartheid era. In Afrikaans, the term is more commonly spelled kaffer. It became a common word used by early European settlers to refer to the same people. Through time "Kaffir" tended, in mid-20th century Southern Africa, to be used as a derogatory term for black people, and in South Africa today, the term is regarded as highly racially offensive, in the same way as nigger in the United States and other English-speaking countries. Use of the word has been actionable in South African courts since at least 1976 under the offense of crimen injuria: "the unlawful, intentional and serious violation of the dignity of another".[2]
The 16th century explorer Leo Africanus described the Cafri as pagan "negroes", and one of five principal population groups in Africa. According to him, they were "as blacke as pitch, and of a mightie stature, and (as some thinke) descended of the Jews; but now they are idolators." Leo Africanus identified the Cafri's geographical heartland as being located in remote southern Africa, an area which he designated as Cafraria.[7]
Following Leo Africanus, the works of Richard Hakluyt designate this population as Cafars and Gawars (Ilitterate), which is, infidels or disbelievers".[8][9] Hakluyt refers to slaves ("slaves called Cafari") and certain inhabitants of Ethiopia ("and they use to go in small shippes, and trade with the Cafars") by two different but similar names. The word is also used in allusion to a portion of the coast of Africa ("land of Cafraria").[10] On early European maps of the 16th and 17th centuries, southern Africa was likewise called by cartographers Cafreria.
The word was used to describe all black people in the region, including the San and Khoi Khoi, at the time of Europeans' first contact with them. This included many ethnic groups, such as the Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Tswana and others. The term was also used by early Boer trek farmers to describe a person not converted to Christianity, similar to the Arabic meaning.[citation needed]
The word was used officially in this way, without derogatory connotations, during the Dutch and British colonial periods until the early twentieth century. It appears in many historical accounts by anthropologists, missionaries and other observers, as well as in academic writings. For example, the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford originally labeled many African artifacts as "Kaffir" in origin. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica made frequent use of the term, to the extent of having an article of that title.[11]
The late nineteenth–early twentieth century novelist, H. Rider Haggard, frequently used the term "kaffir" in his novels of dark Africa, especially those of the great white hunter, Allan Quatermain. Haggard, who was a contemporary of Robert Louis Stevenson and Rudyard Kipling, never used the term with any derogatory intent. It just referred to native blacks. In fact, Haggard stands as one of the primary tellers of native African culture, religion and superstition, often giving them the upper hand in terms of cleverness and spirituality to whites[citation needed].
In the case of Butana Almond Nofomela, while working as an undercover policeman during the early 1980s, Nofomela stabbed to death a Brits farmer, Lourens. Nofomela had only intended to rob the wealthy tiller, but Lourens confronted him with a firearm and called him kaffir. This enraged Nofomela, who then killed the farmer.[12]
The Afrikaans term Kaffir-boetie (English: Kafir brother) was also often used to describe a white person who fraternised with or sympathized with the cause of the black community.[13][14] This would be similar to "negro lover" and similar expressions used by white racists in English-speaking countries.
During the South African general election in 1948, those who supported the establishment of an apartheid regime campaigned under the slogan "Die kaffer op sy plek" ("The Kaffir in his place").
Much as in South Africa the term was used as a general derogatory reference to blacks. A 2003 report by the Namibian Labour Resource and Research Institute states:[15]
Kaffir in the Namibian context was a derogatory term which mainly referred to blacks in general but more particularly to black workers as people who do not have any rights and who should also not expect any benefits except favours which bosses ('baas') could show at their own discretion.
In 2000, the parliament of South Africa enacted the Promotion of Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act. The Act's primary objectives include the prevention of hate speech terms, such as kaffir:
- To promote equality
- To prohibit and prevent unfair discrimination (either on the basis of age, race, sex, disability, language, religion, culture, etc.)
- To prevent hate speech (e.g. calling people names such as kaffir, koelies, hotnot, etc.)
- To prevent harassment[3]
Notwithstanding the end of Apartheid and the above-mentioned Act, usage of the word in South Africa continues today.
In February 2008 there was huge media and public outcry in South Africa after Irvin Khoza, then chairperson of the 2010 FIFA World Cup organizing committee, used the term during a press briefing in reference to a journalist.[16][17][18][19]
A statement made during the March 5, 2008 sitting of the South African Parliament shows how the usage of the word is seen today:[20]
We should take care not to use derogatory words that were used to demean black persons in this country. Words such as Kaffir, coolie, Boesman, hotnot and many others have negative connotations and remain offensive as they were used to degrade, undermine and strip South Africans of their humanity and dignity.
The phrase the K-word is now often used to avoid using the word itself, similar to the N-word, used to represent nigger.[4]
In 2012 a woman was jailed overnight and fined after pleading guilty to crimen injuria for using the word as a racial slur at a gym.[21]
In July 2014, the Supreme Court of Appeal upheld a 2012 conviction for offences of crimen injuria and assault relating to an argument about parking in which a man used the word. The judgement states:[22]
The word kaffir is racially abusive and offensive and was used in its injurious sense ... in this country, its use is not only prohibited but is actionable as well. In our racist past it was used to hurt, humiliate, denigrate and dehumanise Africans. This obnoxious word caused untold sorrow and pain to the feelings and dignity of the African people of this country.
In March 2018, Vicki Momberg became the first woman to be convicted of racist language for using the term over 40 times at two South African police officers.
Some indicative examples:
"Kaffir lime" is one of the names of a citrus fruit native to tropical countries in South and South East Asia. Its etymology is uncertain, but most likely was originally used by Muslims as a reference to the location the plant grew, which was in countries populated by non-Muslims (Hindus and Buddhists). Under this interpretation, the plant name shares an origin with the South African term, both ultimately derived from kafir, the Arabic word for "non-believer". The fruit name as such never had any offensive connotations, but due to the present negative connotations of "Kaffir" The Oxford Companion to Food[29] recommends that the alternative term "makrut lime" be favored when speaking of this fruit.