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Kaffir

In the early 1990s, discreet geographic elements and national groupings of the so-called "boers", "rooineks", "coolies", "boesmans" and various "kaffir" groupings came together to lay the foundation for a new, nonracial, society. It was a hectic period, full of excitement and great expectations, fear, uncertainty and intensified conflict. The people of South Africa, black and white, had to take a special route out of a terrible past.

Kaffir (Arabic Kafir, an unbeliever or "infidel"), was a name given by the Arabs to the native races of the east coast of Africa. The term was current along the east coast at the arrival of the Portuguese, and passed from them to the Dutch and English, and to the natives themselves under the form of Kafula. There was no general or collective national names for these peoples, and the various tribal divisions were mostly designated by historical or legendary chiefs, founders of dynasties or hereditary chieftaincies. The term had no real ethnological value, for the Kaffirs had no national unity. By the end of the 19th Century the term was used to describe that large family of Bantus inhabiting the greater part of the Cape, the whole of Natal and Zululand, and the Portuguese dominions on the east coast south of the Zambezi. The name was also loosely applied to any negro inhabitant of South Africa. For example, the Bechuana of the Transvaal and Orange Free State were usually called Kaffirs. The nickname of Kaffir, commonly given to the South African Bantus by Cape colonists and others, was significant. It was the same nickname as was given to the luckless dwellers in the Hindu Kush whom Great Britain allowed the Amir of Afghanistan to ruthlessly subjugate. The Kaffirs of the Hindu Kush contrived to hold their own against Moslem persecution in Central Asia until the late 19th Century.

In South Africa, the Kaffirs were divisible into two great branches: the AmaZulu with the Ama-Swazi and Ama-Tonga and the Kaffirs proper, represented by the Ama-Xosa, the Tembu and the Pondo. Hence the compound term Zulu-Kaffir applied in a collective sense to all the Kaffir peoples. Intermediate between these two branches were several broken tribes now collectively known as Ama-Fengu, i.e. "wanderers" or " needy" people, from fenguza, to seek service.

The term Kaffir was not initially a term of deprecation. Hence the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica wrote that "Mentally the Kaffirs are superior to the Negro. In their social and political relations they display great tact and intelligence; they are remarkably brave, warlike and hospitable, and were honest and truthful until through contact with the whites they became suspicious, revengeful and thievish, besides acquiring most European vices."

The making of apartheid and its manifestations in the forced movement of people, the metamorphosis of racial classification of white people from Europeans to whites and that of black people from kaffir, natives plural and finally to blacks, the crystalisation of classification of coloured people into Cape coloureds and other coloureds, the classification of the Cape Malay as distinct from people of Asiatic origin and the current practice of a classification of black, coloured, white and Indian in the demographic landscape, constitute a nation’s collective inheritance and treasure and a nation’s coming to terms with a bitter history.

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. Various places around Free State with offensive names such as "Boesmanskop and Kaffir Rivier" are set to be changed and given names acceptable to all people. But then there are the kaffir melons, Kaffir ironwood [Millettia grandis], Kaffir Hut [Euphorbia obesa], Kaffir plum [Harpephyllum caffrum], Kaffir thorn [Acacia caffra], and Kaffir tree [Erythrina lysistemon].

Calling a person a "kaffir" is a dismissible offence and whether the word is uttered off duty is immaterial. In January 2000 the Food and Allied Workers Union came across correspondence in the electronic mail of one of our companies. This correspondence originated from an engineer within this company, who was dismissed. Among other things, this engineer wrote: "I would like to summarise what the Kaffirs have done to stuff up this country since they came into power...If a white buys a house, he pays transfer duties. If a kaffir buys a house it is free of duties because he was 'previously disadvantaged'...More than 20% of the GDP is embezzled by the kaffir politicians and corrupt civil servants...The UIF and state pension funds have been embezzled...Our girlfriends/wives are in constant threat of being brutally raped by some AIDS infected Kaffir (or gang of Kaffirs)...Everyday someone you know is either robbed, assaulted, hijacked or murdered...Half these black bastards have bought their (drivers) licences from corrupt traffic cops....All I am saying is that AIDS isn't working fast enough!!!"