‖amakhafula, plural noun
- Forms:
- Also amakafula, kafula, and with initial capital.
- Origin:
- IsiZuluShow more IsiZulu, ‘contemptible or ill-mannered persons’ (singular ikhafula), from khafula ‘to spit out, shout abuse at’, from ideophone khafu of spitting, of talking inconsiderately. The word’s similarity in sound to kaffir causes some confusion (see quotations 1913 and 1961) but is probably coincidental.
‘Barbarians’: among Zulu people, a contemptuous name for people considered to be uncivilized, especially those from outside the speaker’s home area; applied in the nineteenth century to Zulu soldiers from Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal) who collaborated with the British, and more recently used of migrant workers, and as a general term of abuse.
1894 B. Mitford Curse of Clement Waynflete (1896) 235Of those yonder — those red cattle and the amakafula, who are aiding them to fight against us — there will soon be not one left alive — not one. [Source Note: Natal natives.]
1980 S. Sepamla in M. Mutloatse Forced Landing 81Quite likely Amakhafula, who lived here sometime back, in their effort to reduce the dust..from the nearby mine-dump, must have poured down ash and water to lay it to sleep over the years.
‘Barbarians’: among Zulu people, a contemptuous name for people considered to be uncivilized, especially those from outside the speaker’s home area; applied in the nineteenth century to Zulu soldiers from Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal) who collaborated with the British, and more recently used of migrant workers, and as a general term of abuse.
Chrome
Firefox
Internet Explorer
Safari