Kaffir (Arabic, Kâfir, an infidel).
A name given to the Hottentots, who reject the Moslem faith. Kafiristan, in Central Asia, means “the country of the infidels.”
“The affinity of the Kafir tribes … including the Kafirs proper and the people of Congo, is based upon the various idioms spoken by them, the direct representatives of a common, but now extinct, mother tongue. This aggregate of languages is now conveniently known as … . the Bantu linguistic system.”—K. Johnston: Africa, p. 447.
