Kaffir (ethnic slur)

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Kaffir, or kafir, which once was a blanket term for black southern Africans (see South Africa Kaffir people), 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) and in the Caribbean, especially in Jamaica (where it is also spelled kaphar, kaphir, or kafari), by Jamaicans of Indian nationality or ancestry to refer to Jamaicans of African ancestry.

[edit] 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 "unbeliever". 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 perjoratively, unknowingly stating a fact when using it; Africans were generally animists, and not Muslim.

Some indicative examples:

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".

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 nigger". 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.

[edit] Jamaica and Suriname

In Jamaica and Suriname the term is used exclusively by people of Indian ancestry to refer to the native Jamaicans of African ancestry. That use was presumably derived from the Dutch/South African usage. The word is mainly used in its Hindustani form kaphar.