ha-ja, noun

/haˈdʒaː/
Forms:
Also hajaa.
slang
In urban (especially township) Eng.:
a. half-jack.
1966 K.M.C. Motsisi in Post 16 Jan. (Drum) 19Sleeping tablets in the form of a hajaa of mahog.
1973 K.M.C. Motsisi in Drum 8 Oct. 41I prefer this brew myself when I find myself not in the financial position to patronise Aunt Peggy for a ha-ja of mahoga.
1978 Staffrider Vol.1 No.2, 54Kid Casey old feller — We’ve loved your adventures of Hajas, Beeyahs, Die Hardes, Shake the Contents.
1980 B. Setuke in M. Mutloatse Forced Landing 58The amateur gangsters..pay their way to and from the ghetto by bribing the barrier-attendants with a nip or ‘ha-ja’ of mahog as they pick the pockets of innocent passengers throughout the day in each and every train on the railway-line.
1987 O. Musi in Drum Apr. 61Hazardous pastimes in those parts include..boozing. Yes, grog is taboo and if you are caught with a haja they first ask you which hand you used to pour and you tell them the left.
b. transferred sense mahog.
1975 K.M.C. Motsisi in M. Mutloatse Casey & Co. (1978) 57The haja he makes me as a curtain-raiser makes me feel that the more the merrier like any non-voter who has this healthy habit will tell you.
1978 S. Mhlongo in Staffrider Vol.1 No.2, 10But my grimace (if you could see it) is actually the child of the ‘bikinyana’ from yesterday’s booze supply, which those clevers and know-alls care to dub ‘haja’, or brandy to be formal.
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19661987

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slang
hairyback, nounn.halala, interjectionint.
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