Kaffir (racial term)

Kaffir () is an exonym and ethnic slur directed at Black people in South Africa and, to a lesser extent, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

The word originates from the Arabic word kāfir ("unbeliever"), which was originally applied to non-Muslims of any ethnic background before becoming predominantly directed at pagan zanj (sub-Saharan Africans), who were increasingly used as slaves. During the Age of Exploration in early modern Europe, variants of the Latin term cafer (pl. cafri) were adopted in reference to non-Muslim Bantu peoples. During the Apartheid era, the slur was used, particularly in Afrikaans (Afrikaans: kaffer), to refer pejoratively to any black person, and has come to be closely associated with racism in South Africa.

The word had become a pejorative by the mid-20th century and is considered extremely offensive in post-apartheid South Africa. The use of the slur, euphemistically termed the "K-word" in South African English, has been found to constitute hate speech and crimen injuria in South African law.

Etymology

The term has its etymological roots in the Arabic word kāfir (كافر), usually translated as "disbeliever" or "non-believer". The word was primarily used without racial connotation, although in some contexts it was particularly used for the pagan zanj along the Swahili coast who were an early focus of the Indian Ocean slave trade and Red Sea slave trade. Portuguese explorers who arrived on the East African coast in 1498 en route to India found it in common use by coastal Arabs, although the Muslim Swahili locals preferred to use washenzi ("uncivilised") for the pagan people of the interior.