Kafir

Kaffir (or Kafir or Kuffar or Kuffaar) is an Arabic word meaning denier or concealer. In a religious context it is often used to mean infidel, unbeliever, i.e., a non-Muslim. However the reach of the term is somewhat ambiguous. Some Muslims would contend that it only applies to those who deny God, not to all non-Muslims.

The word 'Kaffir' was also used by White Afrikaaner settlers in South Africa as a highly derogatory term for native Africans. It is a counterpart of the North American word nigger. The source of this usage is disputed. It may derive from a Dutch term for 'beetle', possibly merged with the Muslim word, as applied by Arabs to non-Muslim Africans in the south of the continent. However it has also been suggested that it comes from the Hebrew word for village, "kafar" or "kefar".

Because both the Muslim and White African usages are pejorative, the term Kaffir is often considered to be a culturist, and racist term.

Kuffaar is also used to represent the enemy of Muslims who are... "doomed to Hell eternally".

In South Africa, 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 1995 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.