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)

1 South Africa
2 Jamaica and Suriname
3 Afghanistan
4 See also
5 External Links

[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 "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 Ghandi, 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 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 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.
In the movie Blood Diamond Danny Archer (played by Leonardo Dicaprio) calls Solomon Vandy (played by Djimon Hounsou) a kaffir in an angry exchange, causing Vandy to attack Archer.

[edit] 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 Dutch/South African usage. The word is mainly used in its Hindustani form kaphar.

[edit] 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.