In alphabetical order. Page numbers given after the word.
amagoduka 174 (Xhosa) migrant workers; from‚ ukugoduka meaning to go home eg Ndiyagoduka = I am going home
askari 306 East-African soldier or police. Used to describe blacks who enforced colonial / apartheid rule
AWB 245 Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (Afrikaans Resistance Movement) an armed Neo-Nazi organisation
baas 24 boss (blacks were expected to use this as a term of address for any white man)
bakkie 247 pickup truck
balsak 71 slang for a duffel bag (literally ball bag, as in scrotum)
boep 183 pot belly
boetie 30 little brother
boma 113 grandma
Buffel 257 a type of armoured car
char 24 to clean, a cleaning lady (yes)
daggakop 156 slang for a person, literally – cannabis head
donga 266 dry watercourse
duwweltjies 249 a thorn (of Tribulus terrestris)
Fapla 283 People’s Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola
goggas 27 creepy crawleys
gogo 224 affectionate term for a grandma or any older woman
gunge 155 mess, sticky substance
gyppo guts 190 diarrhoea
igeza 98 mad person
impi 72 warrior
impimpi 235 a police informer
imbongi 343 a traditional praise singer
induna 146 the chief’s advisor, but on the mines a black overseer
ingcibi 80 the witchdoctor who does the circumcision
intwaso 22 the process of weird dreams that begins the possession by the ancestors
jalabia 307 the long Moslem dress
kaffertije 29 black person, dimunitive form (insulting)
kak 47, kakgat 85 shit; shit trench/hole
karoo 194 plain with no water – the large interior desert of South Africa Kei the Kei river
kikoi 160 an East African cloth worn by men and women
klong 29 offensive racist term usually applied to a coloured or black youth (from klein (small) + jong (young))
knobkierie 25 a club which one throws OR walking stick with a knob at the top used in fighting
koevoet 171 “crowbar”, the term for an elite counter-terrorism squad
koppie 290 hill
lobola 332 bride price
mielie, mielicobs 41, 82 corn; corn cob
mofgat 156 Derogatory for a homosexual, meaning “homo arse”
morogo 127 a wild spinach
mpundulubird 31 a mythical bird
oshona 120 a dry riverbed or plane
oubaas 320 old boss, affectionate term for an older white man or patriarch
panga 25 a machete
poephol 110 arsehole
poesboekie 110 literally – vagina book; softporn magazine
pondok 26 a hovel
rooinek 316 Englishman
samajoor 71 sergeant major
silindele We are waiting expectantly
shebeen 26 speakeasy
sjambok 197 whip
soutpiel 156 salt penis (used for English South Africans, the Afrikaners said they had one leg in Europe and the other in Africa and their penis hanging in the sea)
spaza 124 a local general trading shop
squeegee 178 a sponge mop
staban 146 homosexual (derogatory)
a Standard Eight 18 Having had 10 years of school only, or junior certificate
stoep 236 terrace, veranda
trilby 42 a type of hat
tsotsi 21 a gangster
voetsek 57 get lost (exclamation)
