The Bang-Bang Club (38 page)

intelezi:
(Nguni) war medicine, magic potion used to render one invulnerable to harm, often only effective if facing enemy. Most intelezi needs human ingredients, most potent are body parts from slain enemies.

isazi:
(Zulu) slang for ‘clevers’ meaning urban sophisticates.

 

joint:
marijuana cigarette.

jackrolling:
abduction and gang-rape of girls, often over extended periods.

 

klapping:
(Afrikaans) slapping.

kaffir:
offensive term for black people, from Moslem term of abuse for non-Moslems.

Kaffirboetie:
(Afrikaans) ‘lit-kaffir-brother’ - offensive term for white thought to be a ‘kaffir-lover’.

kaffirskiet-piekniek:
(Afrikaans) ‘Ons is op ’n kaffirskiet-piekniek’ - ‘We are on a kaffir-shooting picnic.’

kafir:
archaic spelling of ‘kaffir’.

Kalashnikov:
(Russian) automatic Kalashnikov - see AK.

khakibos:
weed, alleged to be brought in with British horse feed during Boer Wars.

kommunis:
(Afrikaans) communist.

kraal:
(Dutch) rural African homestead, also refers to cattle enclosure.

kwash:
slang - home-made gun that usually only shoots one bullet at a time; from the sound it makes when fired.

KwaZulu:
self-governing territory of the Zulu people in Natal; officially KwaZulu never accepted full independence, but had its own administration, police force and parliament and was controlled by Inkatha. Now part of KwaZulu-Natal province.

Kwela:
(Nguni) music, played primarily on a penny-whistle, famously by Lemmy ‘Special’ Mabaso in the 50s.

laager:
(Afrikaans) defensive encampment of wagons, historic, now used as ‘laager mentality’ to describe voluntary isolation or insular thinking.

Lebowa:
former homeland of the north Sotho people, consisting of six pieces of land.

Lungile, ai problem:
(pidgin Zulu) ‘It’s OK, no problem.’

 

Mandrax:
tranquillizer, banned.

matchbox:
sub-standard township house, mostly council built.

mdlwembe:
(Zulu) wild dog, derogatory reference to Zulu hostel dwellers.

mielie meal:
(Afrikaans) maize meal, staple food in SA.

migrant labourer:
person who moves from one part of the country to another in search of employment, usually from homelands to industrial or mining regions of ‘white’ SA.

mixed marriage:
union between a white and a person of another race, especially black or coloured, outlawed between 1949 and 1985.

mjita:
urban black slang for ‘one of the boys’, friend.

MK:
nickname of Umkhonte we Sizwe, the military wing of the ANC.

mlungu:
(Nguni) mode of address to white man, whitey, can be derogatory.

Molotov cocktail:
home-made petrol bomb. Fuel-filled glass bottle with cloth wick, named after Soviet Second World War general.

Mshaya’zafe:
(Zulu) ‘Beat him to death.’

 

Nando’s:
fast food franchise, slang for necklace.

National Party, NP, Nats:
party formed in 1914 to represent Afrikaner interests. Went through various splits, fusions and name changes until it came to power in 1948. Introduced apartheid. Ruled until 1994. Now renamed the New National Party, and has opened its doors to race groups other than whites. Incorporated in the Democratic Party in June 2000.

Nats:
sometimes derogatory abbreviation for National Party.

necklace:
rubber tyre fitted with petrol, forced over a victim’s head and then set alight.

Nguni:
group of south-east Bantu people and languages, including Zulu, Xhosa, Pondo, Ndebele, Swazi.

Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika:
(Xhosa) ‘God bless Africa’, a hymn of which first verse was written by Enoch Sontonga in 1897. Adopted by the ANC in 1925 and now one of two national anthems with ‘Die Stem’, which was the white regime’s anthem.

non-white:
apartheid term for person falling into race classification other than white, i.e. black, coloured, Indian, etc.

NPKF:
National Peace-Keeping Force, a transitional force made up of members of the SA Defence Force, the SA police force, former homeland armies and guerrillas from the liberation movements. Plagued by racial and political infighting. Was disbanded after Thokoza April 1994 fiasco. Most members now in renamed and reformed army, the SA National Defence Force.

nyaga-nyaga:
Tsotsietaal slang for trouble, as in ‘nyaga-nyaga with the fokken amaZulu’ - ‘trouble with the fucking Zulus’.

 

ous:
(Afrikaans) slang for boys, in reference to colleagues or members.

 

PAC:
Pan-Africanist Congress, established 1959 by break-away Africanist members of the ANC. Followers of Black Consciousness, an ideology that preaches psychological liberation from white racism and white liberalism. Non Charterist. Commonly perceived as a racist organization.

paparazzi:
Italian term referring to overly-persistent celebrity photographers. After the death of Princess Diana in 1997, it became a byword for photographers as scavengers.

pass book:
document that Africans were required to carry by law to prove they had permission to be in a white area. (See dompas.)

pass laws:
restricting black people’s movements. Repealed 1986.

panga:
(poss. Nguni) machete, broad bladed slashing knife.

peckies:
derogatory term for blacks, origin obscure.

penny-whistle:
cheap flute used by shepherds and cowherds; made
famous as primary instrument in 50s kwela music. Used to cost one penny.

people’s court:
unofficial township court set up by activists to try criminals and political offenders, especially impimpis.

petty apartheid:
enforced segregation of public and private amenities, buses, beaches, toilets. For example, architects designed banks to allow the separation of entrances and exits for blacks and whites.

poyisa:
(Xhosa) police.

 

Rain Queen:
queen of the BaLobedu tribe in the Northern Province of South Africa, whose great-grandmother had been the model for novelist Rider Haggard’s heroine Ayesha. Widely believed to be able to control the rains.

rand:
South African unit of currency. 100 cents in one rand.

Rand:
common abbreviation of Witwatersrand, the gold bearing ‘ridge of white waters’, upon which Johannesburg and the other Reef towns were built.

Reef, the:
South Africa’s most highly industrialized region, from the reef of gold that followed the Witwatersrand.

rinderpest:
(German + Latin) virulent, highly infectious cattle disease that swept through South Africa in 1896. Likened to the plague.

RSA:
Republic of South Africa.

 

SAP:
South African Police, former police force now called the SAPS.

sangoma:
(Nguni) traditional African diviner/herbalist, ‘witchdoctor’.

self-defence unit (SDU):
neighbourhood-based underground liberation-movement-aligned vigilantes, often youths; some were members of MK, APLA.

separate development:
euphemism for apartheid.

shebeen:
(Irish) place where liquor is sold and often consumed; informal and/or illegal bar.

shebeen queen:
owner of shebeen, often larger-than-life character referred to as magrizza, ‘grandmother’ in Tsotsitaal.

shisanyama:
(Nguni) burnt or cooked meat, slang for necklace.

‘Shoota, baas, shoota us’:
(pidgin Zulu) ‘Take a picture of us, boss.’

skip:
large open garbage container that can be picked up by truck.

skuif:
(Afrikaans) joint, or a hit on a white pipe.

slivovic:
potent Yugoslav plum brandy, often home-distilled.

South West Africa:
former German colony that was given to SA by the UN as a protectorate after the First World War; gained independence as Namibia in 1990.

State of Emergency:
suspension of certain civil liberties in order to strengthen the arm of the executive in controlling a perceived threat to the state. Also gives police and military extended powers which often contravene basic human rights.

stoep:
veranda, stoop.

stringer:
freelancer working regularly for publication or agency.

Struggle, the:
opposition to apartheid, from the struggle to be free.

SWAPO:
South West African People’s Organization, now ruling party in Namibia.

swartgevaar:
(Afrikaans) literally ‘black peril’ - rallying cry for white South Africans fearing majority rule.

 

takkies:
rubber-soled laced canvas shoes (sneakers/tennis shoe).

terr:
abbreviation of ‘terrorist’, refers to guerrilla in liberation movement armies. White SA slang.

third force:
shadowy elements of the intelligence community, as well as the security forces and government officials, who colluded with Inkatha and right-wing white extremists to undermine the transition to democratic rule.

three cents:
at one time the price of a box of matches, slang for necklace.

Total Onslaught:
term used by SA government under P.W. Botha to describe an international conspiracy to force one-person, one-vote on white South Africa. His regime devised a Total Strategy to counteract this.

toyi-toyi:
high-stepping militant dance used at protest rallies and funerals, allegedly started by exiles in the military training camps outside SA.

Transkei:
former homeland, the first to take independence. One of two for the Xhosa people. The other was Ciskei.

tsotsis:
petty street thugs, small-time township criminals. Perhaps refers to the stove-pipe trousers fashionable in the 40s.

Tsotsitaal:
The constantly changing informal but ubiquitous township language that is a mixture of Afrikaans, English and several African languages, with different languages predominating from place to place.

Transvaal & Free State Boer Republics:
short-lived independent Afrikaner republics, now an ideal that a minority of secessionist Afrikaners yearn for - see Boer Wars.

 

UN:
United Nations.

United Democratic Front (UDF):
umbrella organization of anti-apartheid movements, many of which were, in practice, internal organs of the then-banned ANC. Disbanded after ANC legalized in 1990.

United Democratic Movement (UDM):
Political party formed and led by former NP minister Roelf Meyer and former Transkei military dictator General Bantu Holomisa. Meyer resigned his leadership position in 2000.

Umkhonto we Sizwe:
(Nguni) ‘spear of the nation’ - ANC’s military wing, abbreviated as MK.

‘Umlunghu shoota’:
(pidgin Zulu) ‘The white man is shooting.’

usuthu:
traditional Zulu war cry.

 

Vaal Triangle:
a roughly triangular grouping of towns and townships in the industrial area some 60 kilometres south of Johannesburg; from the Vaal River.

veld:
(Afrikaans) rural South African countryside or landscape; grazing land.

vierkleur:
(Afrikaans) ‘four-colour’ flag of the South African Republic and the Transvaal, symbol of Afrikaner yearning for a homeland. Still occasionally waved at rugby and cricket matches by racist white fans.

Volk:
(Afrikaans) people, nation, usually Afrikaner nationalists.

volkstaat:
(Afrikaans) homeland for white Afrikaners.

vula:
(Nguni) open.

 

white pipe:
mixture of Mandrax and dagga in a broken-off bottle neck.

Witwatersrand:
the gold-bearing ‘ridge of white waters’ (Afrikaans) upon which Johannesburg and the other Reef towns were built - see Rand, Reef.

 

young lions:
youthful ANC supporting militants, upon whom the duty fell to make the townships ungovernable in the 80s as part of the ANC’s strategy to topple the apartheid regime.

 

Zaïre:
large central African state now Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly the Congo-aBelgian colony.

Zionist:
separatist African churches or cults. No affiliation to Judaism or Israel. The name is from the desire to find a promised land, usually spiritual.

zol:
marijuana cigarette, or reference to the marijuana itself.

zombie:
undead, believed to be a person under the spell of a sorcerer.

Zulu:
collective name for the northern Nguni who were forged into a militaristic tribe by Shaka Zulu in the 19th century.

SOUTH AFRICAN TIMELINE