Kufr

I was watching an old video of Osama on youtube. (Kill the infidels blah blah blah....) But then a word that was already in my vocabulary popped into his speech.
Kafir; (Spelt kufr in these particular subtitles) it means "unbeliever" and usually when uttered from the mouth of an Islamic Fundamentalist that implies Atheist. (And in this case Soviet, as well)
But in the Rambow Nation it has another meaning. A darker meaning. A mean meaning.
To call a black man a Kafir is possibly the worst racial slur I've ever heard. (Especially when the worst the black man can say back is "Stupid Mulungu") But I couldn't help but laugh at a story told by my cousin when I went back to visit.

"When I was still working for Grandad, [installing air conditioners] we were out at Riverside [hotel] and the technician [mike I think] turns to this black guy, [who was slacking off or something]... and shouts 'HEY KAFIR!' and the guy turns round, and I was like fully expecting him to klap (hit) [ mike] in the face, but he just turns around and says 'Yeas, Boss!' like apartheid never ended."

I cracked up!

Racism has never been an issue of import for me. I've used racial slurs, had them used back to me, and in my opinion South Africa wouldn't be South Africa without mutual discrimination between everybody. Blacks, whites, coloureds[a race uniquely South African, really], Indians, Asians, Jews, Portuguese, "Engles Manne" en "Boere Mense." No one could function in such a confusing society without making fun of everyone else.

My point about the word Kafir? I am one. More so than the labourer 'mike' insulted.

As a foot note one of the first people to call blacks Kafirs was a young intellectual lawyer named Mahadis K. Ghandi.