Kaffir
Kaffir (or Kafir) is an Arabic word meaning denier. In a religious context it is often used to mean infidel, unbeliever, i.e., a non-Muslim.In South Africa, the word Kaffir, now rarely-heard in public, has traditionally been used as a highly derogatory term to refer to persons of indigenous African descent. It is a counterpart of the North American word nigger.
While the term is still seen as too wounding and offensive for appropriation by black South Africans - in the way that "nigger" has come to be used as a casual term of endearment in black hip-hop culture - "Kaffir" was used in 2000 as the title of a hit song by the Johannesburg Kwaito artist, Arthur Mafokate.
The lyrics included a plea to white South Africans to drop the term from their vocabulary for good: "I don't come from the devil, don't call me a kaffir, you won't like it if I call you baboon".
The word is also used to stinging effect in the title of "Kaffir Boy", the autobiography of Mark Mathabane, who grew up in the black township of Alexandra, travelled to America on a tennis scholarship, and became a successful author in his adoptive homeland.
In the culinary arts, Kaffir is also a variety of lime, the Kaffir lime leaves typically used in Thai cooking.
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