KAFFIR (ETHNIC SLUR)

'Kaffir', or 'kafir', which once was a blanket term for black southern Africans (see Kaffir (historical usage in southern Africa)), is now used exclusively as an ethnic or racial slur. The original meaning of the word was 'heathen'.
The term is mostly used in South Africa (where it is also spelled 'kaffer')

Contents

South Africa

Jamaica and Suriname

Afghanistan

See also

External Links

South Africa

In South Africa, the term is used to refer to black people and is regarded as highly offensive (in a similar way to the word "nigger"). Use of the word has been actionable in a South African court since at least 1976 (Ciliza -v- Minister of Police and Another 1976 (4) SA 243) under the offence of ''crimen injuria'': ''"the unlawful, intentional and serious violation of the dignity of another"'' (W.A. Joubert, 1981; ''The Law of South Africa'', VI, p251-254).
The etymology of the word is from the Arabic word "kafir", a derogatory term for "infidel" or "non-believer". This was the word the Arab slavers and traders used to describe the Africans who were not Muslim. When the Boers heard the word, they adopted it for their own and started to use it pejoratively, unknowingly stating a fact when using it; Africans they encountered were generally not Muslim. However, the term is currently used pejoratively by Islamists in the same context, to indicate a non-believer in Allah.
Some indicative examples:

★ In Richard Attenborough's film ''Gandhi'' (with Ben Kingsley as Gandhi), a policeman comes into a crowded prison in South Africa seeking Gandhi and shouts, "I want Gandhi, which kaffer is it?"

★ ''Kaffir'' is the title of a 1995 hit song by the black Johannesburg Kwaito artist Arthur Mafokate. The lyrics say, ''"I don't come from the devil, don't call me a kaffir, you won't like it if I call you baboon".''

★ ''Kaffir Boy'' is the title of Mark Mathabane's autobiography, who grew up in the township of Alexandra, travelled to the United States on a tennis scholarship, and became a successful author in his adoptive homeland.

★ In the movie ''Lethal Weapon 2'', South African criminal Arjen 'Aryan' Rudd (played by Joss Ackland) calls detective Murtaugh (Danny Glover) a "kaffir". His partner detective Riggs (Mel Gibson) is also referred to as a "kaffir-Lover" and his right hand man Pieter 'Adolph' Vorstedt (played by Derrick O'Connor) also calls Murtaugh a "kaffir" along with his followers. At the end of the movie when, Riggs and Murtagh kill off the bad guys, Murtagh says they were "de-kaffirnated."

★ In the movie ''Operation Delta force'' South African extremists such as Nash (played by Joe Lara) frequently taunt Delta force former-operative Tipton (played by Ernie Hudson) calling him a "kaffir".

★ In the movie ''Dangerous Ground'' "kaffir" is regularly used against blacks

★ In the movie ''Catch A Fire'' The phrase "He's a cheeky kaffir" is used by a white referring to a black character

★ South African cricket players complained that they were racially abused by some spectators during a December 2005 Test match against host country Australia held in Perth. Makhaya Ntini, the only black player in the team, was taunted with the word "kaffir". Other players were subjected to shouts of ''"kaffirboetie"''; an Afrikaans term which means "brother of a kaffir". Ntini said he could not tell whether the abuse was coming from Australians or ex-South Africans living in Perth.

★ The Kaffir de Gaffir Mine is a location found in the Scrooge McDuck comics. Strangely, despite the negative connotations of the word, the name of the mine has not changed as of The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck.

★ In the movie ''Blood Diamond'' Danny Archer (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) calls Solomon Vandy (played by Djimon Hounsou) a kaffir in an angry exchange after Solomon goes to desert him, causing Vandy to attack Archer.

★ In the documentary ''The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife'', Anita Meyer tells the filmmakers she calls their cat a kaffir cat, "because it's black".

★ In the movie The Wild Geese Peter Kotzee (played by Hardy Kruger) explains to his fellow officers 'we have blacks in South Africa. We call them Kaffirs which is just like you calling them niggers. I dont particularly like them but I dont like killing them'.

★ In the Warren Ellis's graphic novel series Strange Killings in the story ''Strange Killings: Strong Medicine'', An Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging sympathiser is aiding C18 to spark a race riot in London by murdering local black kids stating ''"That all it took...was a few Kaffir boys!"''

Jamaica and Suriname

In Jamaica and Suriname, the term is used exclusively by people of Indian (Hindustani) ancestry to refer to the native Surinamans and Jamaicans of African ancestry. That use was presumably derived from the Urdu/Hindi and originates from Arabic but has the same Dutch/South African usage. The word is mainly used in its Hindustani form 'kaffir'.

Afghanistan

The north-eastern Afghan province of Nurestan was once known as Kafiristan. In 1895, following conquest by Emir Abdur Rahman Khan, the population of Kafiristan Kafiri were forcibly converted to Islam and renamed Nuristani (''The Enlightened Ones'').
The derivation of the name Kafiristan, meaning ''Land of the Kafirs'' in Persian, is disputed. Some historians claim that the name derives simply from the name of the indigenous inhabitants, the Kafiristan Kafiri but the most commonly accepted etymology of the name is that it derives from ''Land of the Infidels'' or ''Land of the Unbelievers'', Kafir being a derogatory Persian term for infidels.

See also

★ Coolie, ethnic slur

★ Colored

★ Kafir

★ Kaffir lime

External Links

★ Kaffirs in Sri Lanka: Descendants of enslaved Africans

★ The Global African Community: History Notes