![]() ![]() For example, just as the use of ‘Mexican’ in reference to the indigenous languages of Mexico develops out of its use as a term for a native or inhabitant of Mexico (see MEXICAN n. In later centuries we can observe the development from this use of several other (originally) inoffensive uses relating to the Nguni peoples – uses of a type that is fairly usual for a neutral way of referring to a people to develop. Since it seems that this use developed from Kaffir being used by Muslims in Africa as a derogatory way of referring to the non-Muslim indigenous peoples, it is difficult to explain this neutrality in tone, but it persisted for a period. To Hickock, it seems, ‘the Cafer’ was as natural and inoffensive a way of referring to the Nguni peoples as ‘the Portugal’ was of referring to the Portuguese. For Thomas Hickock in 1588, translating into English Cesare Federici’s account (in his native Italian) of his travels across the world, the use of ‘the Cafer’ to refer to the Nguni peoples and the description of Nguni traders as ‘Cafer merchants’, in both instances corresponding to Italian Cafero in Federici’s text, appears to have been just as neutral in tone as the nouns and adjectives we use today when simply conveying that a person is from a particular group or region – ‘Belarusian’, for example, or ‘Fijian’. ![]() Neutral designation to racist slurįrom this starting point it is perhaps a little surprising that just over a decade later we find evidence of Kaffir being used (both as a noun and as an adjective) in reference to the Nguni peoples of south-eastern Africa without any detectable offensive impact or derogatory intent. During the 450 or so years that the word has been used in this way it has spread across numerous different regions, including those which are now the countries Egypt, India, and Afghanistan (to which I’ll return later). With religious disagreement being at the core of this use, it has not remained restricted to a single geographical area, instead being used in many different parts of the world with Muslim communities. In the earliest individual instance we have found in written English (from 1577) the author, Richard Willes, explains ‘Caffer’ as meaning ‘mysbeleeuer’ (= ‘misbeliever’) and many other instances give similar glosses, such as ‘infidel’ or ‘idolater’. Labelling non-MuslimsĪt the heart of the origin of Kaffir is religious disagreement. The earliest evidence of its usage in English attests that it is used as a noun by Muslims as a pejorative term for a person who does not follow Islam – a use that is both considered offensive and intended to offend. Add to these its origins as a pejorative term used by Muslims to refer to non-Muslims and it starts to become apparent that there is a rich and complex story to be told here. A feature of the different Englishes used in several geographically quite disparate parts of the world, it ranges from being a racial insult considered so offensive in South Africa that its usage is now legally actionable there to being a perfectly neutral name for an ethnic group of South and mainland South-East Asia. ![]() On looking at the OED’s revised entry for Kaffir, originally a noun but later also developing adjectival uses, perhaps the most striking aspect of the picture that emerges is the diversity that so characterizes the word’s current and historical usage. ![]()
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