ICAFTIR, or KAFIR, the name of a great family of the human race inhabiting the s. part of the continent of Africa, classed by Dr. Latham in division B of the variety At,lontidai, their physical conformation being modified negro, and which also includes the Betjaans (q.v.), Ovampos, Damaras, and other similar tribes living in the region s. of 18' s: latitude, and extending to the boundaries of the Cape Colony. By the term Kaffir, however, the tribes inhabiting the coast-country on the e. side of s.e. Africa are generally understood, and recent events have further narrowed the designation in a popular sense as more particularly applying to the tribes living in the country between the Cape Colony and Natal, those e. of the latter colony, as u. as Delagoa,• being now better known as Zulus or Zulu Kaffirs. General distribution of the Krdlir races• 1 Tribes (Amatabele, Amazulu, etc., n. of Natal; Amampondo, Amaxcsa,* etc., in Kaffraria proper) speaking the Zulu language and its dialects, inhabiting the east-coast re ion; 2. Tribes (Makololo, a., and Bakuku, n.w. of lake Ngami; Bakalihari, etc.) speaking the Siehuana language and its dialects, inhabiting the central region, and known under the general name of Betjuans; 3. Tribes (Ovampos and Damaras) speaking the Ovampo or Orjiherero and its dialects, inhabiting west-coast region.
Ilistom word Kaffir is derived from the Arabic Kieft, on unbelieve•," which was applied by the Mohammedan inhabitants of the c. coast to the native tribes living south of them, and adopted by the Portuguese, after their settlements at Melinda and Mozambique, to designate the inhabitants of the vast region lying to the south, and extending to the country of the Hottentots, now the Cape Colony.
The oldest genealogical records of the Kaffir chiefs go back to 1617. In 1688 the old Dutch colonial records first mention the Kaffirs as having at that early period driven the Hottentot aborigines as far south as the Great Fish river; and in 1784 the latter was declared the boundary of the Cape Colony to the east. In 1798 commenced our series of Kaffir wars, and between that and 1811 they were repeatedly attacked and driven across the Fish river. In 1819, under the leadership of a false prophet called illakanna, they ventured to attack Graham's Town,- but were repulsed with great slaughter. A period of broken peace and ill-kept treaties then succeeded, during which time a consid erable European and Hottentot population had been settled the frontier (1820).
In 1828 they were driven out of the Kat river valley, which was along with Hottentot settlers: then came the great war of 1834-35, which cost upwards of a million sterling, and (muted in the Kaffirs being driven to the e. of the Great Kci, and the territory between it and the Great Fish river was taken possession of by sir B. Durbin, but immediately restored by the then colonial secretary, lord Glcnclg. In 1846 war, which had been long inevitable, again broke out, and the Gaika and Islambie Kaffirs, members of the great Amaxosa tribe, invaded the colony, and overran the whole of the frontier districts as far w. as Uitenhage, and n. to the Stormbergen, inflicting great loss ¥ on the imperial troops on many occasions. Again, under sir H. Smith, they were in 1848 driven back, and the country they inhabited once more annexed to the British crown, under the title of British Kaffraria. Unfortunately, however, the influence of the chiefS remained unbroken, and they used it for evil by again invading the colony in 1851, and this time not only the Gaika tribes, but the whole of the Amaxosa arid Ainamtembu, besides a numerous body of rebel Hottentots, all well armed and provided with ammu nition. Again, after a struggle of many months, the enemy was finally repulsed; and sir H. Smith being relieved by sir H. Pottinger, and he by sir George Grey, the latter, by his wise and astute policy, succeeded in breaking up the Dower of the chiefs, dis persing the tribes amongst the European settlers, and utterly destroying their strength, in which he was not a little assisted by a terrible famine which about that period HI on the unfortunate people, they having neglected to plant their fields, and having killed nearly all their cattle at the command of a false prophet called Umlangeni. whose influence the deluded chiefs used to urge their people to this last war. In 1877 a new disturbance out amongst the Galeka Kafiirs in the Tranakei territory, extended to the Gaikas, and was followed by the war with the Zulus. There was sharp fighting between the Kaffirs and the English and colonial forces; and the anxiety created by the war inflicted a serious check on the prosperity of the frontier settlements. A well-armed European population now occupies British Kaffraria, and the natives look for justice to local magistrates instead of to their former chiefs. Beyond the Kei river the chiefs still rule, but their power is very much broken.