Kafir

Kafir (Arab.Kafir, plural Kufra= "infidel," "unbeliever"), originally a term of contempt applied by Mohammedans to all pagan peoples who reject the tenets of the Koran; hence there are "Kafirs" in Asia (the Siah Posh of Kafiristan) and in North Africa (the heathen Tibbus from whom the Kufra Oasis was named). When the Portuguese penetrated into the Indian Ocean, they found the word, which they wrote "Caffre," current amongst the Arabs of Sofala and Zanzibar, with special reference to the pagan Negroid populations of the east coast. In this more restricted sense it passed from the Portuguese to the English, who have always applied it almost exclusively to the heathen peoples with whom they came in contact on the south-east seaboard (Caffraria, Kafirland) after their occupation of Cape Colony. The true name of most of these Kafirs is Ama-Xosa (Ama-Khosa), and they form, with their northern neighbours, the Ama-Zulu, a distinct and important division of the Bantu family.