Note 253 — Chapter IV

In preference to the more popular form Zulu-Kafir, where Kafir is merely the Arabic "Infidel" applied indiscriminately to any people rejecting Islám; hence the Siah Posh Kafirs ("Black-clad Infidels") of Afghanistan; the Kufra oasis in the Sahara, where Kufra, plural of Kafir, refers to the pagan Tibus of that district; and the Kafirs generally of the East African seaboard. But according to English usage Zulu is applied to the northern part of the territory, mainly Zululand proper and Natal, while Kafirland or Kaffraria is restricted to the southern section between Natal and the Great Kei River. The bulk of these southern "Kafirs" belong to the Xosa connection; hence this term takes the place of Kafir, in the compound expression Zulu-Xosa. Ama is explained on p. 86, and the X of Xosa represents an unpronounceable combination of a guttural and a lateral click, this with two other clicks (a dental and a palatal) having infected the speech of these Bantus during their long prehistoric wars with the Hottentots or Bushmen. See p. 129.