You taking offence offends me

By Mike Smith
29th of February 2020

So, it was with interest that I noticed this past week that the Greek South African Adam Catzavelos was sentenced to pay R150,000 for making a video being happy on a beach in Greece that there was “not a single kaffir in sight”.

Adam Catzavelos back in the dock for sentencing over k-word rant in Greece

And then in another incident a 41-year-old woman has been sentenced to six months behind bars for calling a black woman "K-word bitch" although she insisted to the end that she never did.

Woman who called another 'K-word bitch' sentenced to six months jail time

This was followed by High Court Judge Richard Brooks, who also sentenced a woman for a R2,000 fine or four months in prison, after a 2017 altercation with a black handyman who works at the retirement village where she lives, and of which she is a trustee.

She argued that the complainant was a single witness who had contradicted himself about the details of their argument, and that she had been wrongly convicted. She denied calling the complainant the k-word.

But given the circumstances, such as testimony of people who had seen the later stages of the altercation, the original magistrate had correctly considered the probabilities, Brooks found.

Judge Brooks also suggested that the South African government should consider setting up a register of racists in part to keep South Africa's progressive agenda on track.

It may be time for SA to get a k-word register for habitual racists, a high court judge says

It made me wonder…seeing that in two of the cases above, there was a complete lack of evidence and credible witnesses and the cases should have been thrown out for wasting the court’s time, yet despite the obvious lack of evidence Judge Brooks found the woman guilty on “probabilities”.

You have to ask, “WTF?”

Emotions aside…Let us look at this rationally: In South Africa, you can be fined and sent to prison for a bullshit charge of hurting someone’s feelings with a single word, whether it is true or not does not matter, all that matters are that it was PROBABLY true.

And this they call a “Free Society”? With a proudly “liberal constitution”?... that incidentally guarantees you the freedoms of thought, belief, opinion, expression, etc.

Nevertheless, Judge Brook’s brain fart with his suggested “Register of Racists” made me think about how objective, multicultural and multiracial this list would be.

Would it also contain names of black racists like Julias Malema, Andile Mngxitama and Velaphi Khumalo…to name, but a few, who have repeatedly and publicly called for the genocide of whites in South Africa?

What about Mbongeni Ngema, famous for “Sarafina”, but also the writer of an extremely racist and hateful song aimed at Indians called “AmaNdiya (The Indians)”. Anti Indian lyrics sow seeds of hatred

What about President Thabo Mbeki who used the word “Kaffir” 17 times in a speech during his State of the Nation address in 2000? He said he was quoting an “engineer” who wrote stuff online, but it turned out that this “engineer” was nothing but a figment of his twisted imagination.

Nevertheless, today people think that the word “Kaffir/Kaffer” was created by the Apartheid government or during the Apartheid era, but ironically, it was the Apartheid government who started outlawing the word “Kaffir” as far back as 1950, two years after they came to power. Use of the word has been actionable in South African courts since at least 1976 (the height of Apartheid) under the offense of Crimen Injuria: "the unlawful, intentional and serious violation of the dignity of another".

I once asked a lawyer about “crimen injuria” and he said to me that it is a bullshit law found only in South Africa basically used to lay a charge against someone when you don’t know what to charge them with. The phrase “Crimen Injuria” is Latin, short for crimen injuria datum, meaning "offence committed without lawful cause".

I am sorry , but with idiots as judges such as Judge Brooks and their pathetic rulings with bullshit laws such as Crimen Injuria…I have no other choice but to call upon the black civil rights messiah, Martin Luther King, Jr. who commented in his famous 1963 letter from Birmingham Jail: "One has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws."

For those interested you can read the origins of the word “Kaffir” here:

Oxford dictionary: Origins of the word "Kaffir"

There you will see that historically the word was Arabic used for “Non-believers” and the British actually had a colony named British Kaffraria which the Apartheid government later called the “Ciskei”, an independent country (one of two, the other being the Transkei) for the Xhosa people.

Following the great Xhosa suicide of 1856-1857, it was ironically the White British and German settlers of Kaffraria who saved the Xhosa people from total self-inflicted extinction.

For those who do not know, the bulk of German settlers arrived during 1858–1859, and again in 1877–1878. That is why you still have those little German towns there called, Hamburg, Berlin and Stutterheim.

So, the word “Kaffir was still used neutrally by then. The 11th edition of Encyclopedia Britannica even had an entry “Kaffirs” in 1911 (Encyclopædia Britannica. 15. 1911. pp. 627–629.)

The late nineteenth–early twentieth century novelist, H. Rider Haggard, frequently used the term "kaffir" in his novels of dark Africa, especially those of the great white hunter, Allan Quartermain, as a then inoffensive term for black people in the region. Similar non-derogatory usage can be found in the John Buchan novel Prester John from 1910.

So, one can conclude that somewhere between World War I and World War II the term somehow became derogatory in South Africa…only. In Sri Lanka there is a mixed Bantu-Portuguese tribe called the Sri-Lankan Kaffirs to whom it is not derogatory at all. Quite the contrary, they are extremely proud of their “Kaffir Culture”.

Read about the Sri Lankan Kaffirs .

The ingredient and word “Kaffir-Lime” (Citrus hystrix) used in Asian cooking gets its name from there and not from South Africa. So, is it then a banned word in South Africa?

The scientific Latin name for the African Buffalo is “Syncerus caffer” and German people still use that word completely neutral today…”Kaffernbüffel”.

The same goes for Dutch, "De kafferbuffel", Spanish "El búfalo cafre" or Italian "bufalo cafro".

I don’t think the poor Buffalo gives a toss what you call him, but the blacks might be offended that you are insulting such a majestic animal…or are you then insulting them or the buffalo?

Imagine German tourist on Safari in the Kruger Park talking amongst themselves and the black guides get offended and lay charges against them. Shock and horror.

When I grew up, the word, “kafferwaatlemoen”, Citrullus amarus (syn. C. caffer), was quite common. As can be seen the now derogatory former name came from the Latin classification of the fruit. Our parents used to make a really good preserve out of it. Now Afrikaans people call it a “Tsamma”.

At the end of the day, are you responsible for someone else’s feelings or is he/she responsible for it themselves?

Believe it or not, there are actually scientific studies that explain why the word/name “Kaffir” used in Sri Lanka is carried with pride and not derogatory at all, whereas in South Africa the thin skinned souls experience it in a similar way as Superman experiences Kryptonite…like a needle through the heart.

Study: From adorable to worthless, University of Michigan, Vanderbilt University

Apparently, people feel hurt when words conveying negative evaluations are used. They exemplify four themes. Those themes are worthlessness, stupidity, depravity and peculiarity.

Words conveying “worthlessness” – such as piddling, pointless or incapable – signify that a person lacks all value or merit. Those conveying “stupidity” – brainless, dumb or moronic – communicate a lack of intellect. Those conveying “depravity” – beastly, disgraceful or deplorable – indicate immorality. “Peculiarity” terms – odd, bizarre, warped – signal violations of social convention.

Now there you have it. The word “Kaffir” is offensive in South Africa, because it conveys all of those negative evaluations and that is why people feel hurt about it.

The researchers also found that in collectivist cultures, people see themselves as inextricably embedded in a web of family relationships. Insults will therefore tear at the web rather than targeting the person in isolation. In individualist cultures, where people see themselves as autonomous and separate, insults are more likely to disparage the singular person.

The question thus becomes: “On whom is the onus of responsibility for the bad or hurtful feeling?”

Black South Africans refer to whites as uMlungu which means “Scum from the sea”, but blacks deny this, saying it simply means “White Person”…

Experts say uMlungu is not negative in meaning

What if whites deny the that the word “Kaffir” has any negative meanings and simply means “Black Person”?

We know that this reasoning is obviously a one-way street in South Africa. Blacks can call other people what they like. If the receivers find it derogatory, it is simply their problem, but don’t let anybody call a black person a “Kaffir”, then he is responsible for all the bad feelings and hurt that black person feels, to the point where blacks can literally get away with murder if they claim the other person used “The K-Word” and as we have seen in the case of Judge Richard Brooks, the claim doesn’t even have to be true; it just needs to be “probably” true.

What these geniuses seem to miss, is that the mere usage of terms such as “White” or “Black” to refer to South Africans, should already be offensive to all New South Africans seeing that according to the libtard constitution all South Africans are supposedly equal and should simply be, well, South Africans.

However, this is exactly what the ANC does. The ANC regime, 26 years after taking over from the Apartheid government (with 17 racial laws), still classify people along racial lines and still advantage some over others (with 114 racial laws).

That nobody is offended by that, boggles the mind.

Another thing these intellectually gifted on the Left seem to miss, is that insults have a tendency to lose its power the more frequently and openly they are used. By banning an insult, you give it more power.

By being offended by it, you are giving the user power over you. He now has the ability to hurt you and leave scars on you. By simply not being offended by it, the insult becomes completely useless and powerless…like water off a duck’s back.

By being offended you allow a person to toy with your emotions and manipulate you. He can press the right buttons at the right time to elicit a reaction almost at will. Your offence that you took can be weaponized against you. By simply not being offended, you are turning the sharpest blade into a rubber knife…the deadliest bullet into a dud.

So, who cares if the other person meant worthlessness, stupidity, depravity or peculiarity with his insult?

As Alan Cohen said, “It is not insult from another that causes you pain. It is the part of your mind that agrees with the insult. Agree only with the truth about you, and you are free.”

Whether people will ever be “Free” to have an open discussion about it in South Africa depends on how long the ANC still stays in power.