AAC Anglo American Corporation
amakhanda Zulu military quarters
amakhosi chiefs
amasi fermented milk
ANC African National Congress
APLA Azanian People’s Liberation Army
ASM Azanian Students’ Movement
AWB Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging
Azapo Azanian People’s Organization
baas boss
baasskap white tyranny over blacks
bakkie small pick-up van
BC Black Consciousness
BCMA Black Consciousness Movement of Azania
biltong strips of salted and dried meat
bittereinder Boer commando who fought to the end of the Anglo-Boer War
Black Sash anti-apartheid white women’s organization (usually middle-class, middle-aged, English-speaking women) founded in 1955 and famous for its members’ courage
boere (derogatory) police, specifically security police, and prison warders
boerebiskuite substantial homemade biscuits
boerewors large sausages
Bop the ex-‘homeland’ of Bophuthatswana
BOSS Bureau of State Security
boy (derogatory) male servant of any age
braaivleis (braai) barbecue
brakbos heathery plant with tiny dark blue flower
Broederbond an Afrikaner Masonic-type semi-secret society founded in 1918, powerful in the setting up of apartheid
bywoner tenant farmer
Codesa Convention for a Democratic South Africa
Contralesa Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa
coolie (derogatory) a South African of Indian descent
coon (derogatory) a Cape Coloured person
COSAS Congress of South African Students
COSATU Council of South African Trade Unions
CP Conservative Party
dagga cannabis
dassies rock-rabbits
DCC Directorate of Covert Collection
DEIC Dutch East India Company
dominee Dutch Reformed Church minister
donga ditch
dorp village or small town
DP Democratic Party
DRC Dutch Reformed Church
ET Eugene Terre’ Blanche (AWB leader)
FNB First National Bank
FW Frederik Willem de Klerk (NP leader)
fynbos indigenous heather-like scrub
GNU Government of National Unity
IEC Independent Electoral Commission
IFP Inkatha Freedom Party
IMF International Monetary Fund
impi Zulu footsoldiers
impimpi spies or informers
indaba formal collection
ISU Internal Stability Unit (of SAP)
jolling enjoying a jolly social occasion
kaffir (derogatory) a black person
kaffirboetie ‘nigger-lover’
kombi minibus
kraal African homestead, traditionally with cattle-protecting fence
KZP kwaZulu Police
ladies bar whites’ bar
lekker good, nice, approved of
LMS London Missionary Society
lobola bride price
mealie/mealie-meal maize
meerkat ground squirrel
mense white people, who are ‘human’
MI Military Intelligence
MK Umkhonto weSizwe (pre-election armed wing of ANC)
MPLA Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola
munts (derogatory) blacks
muti traditional medicines or magical concoctions
muzungu white person
Nats the National Party, which established Grand Apartheid
NCRC National Children’s Rights Committee
NEON National Elections Observer Network
NGO Non-Governmental Organization
nooi polite form for addressing a woman or sweetheart; servile form for addressing a white woman
NP National Party
NUM National Union of Miners
Numsa National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa
Nusas National Union of South African Students
Obs Observatory, a district of Cape Town
ouma grandma
oupa grandpa
PAC Pan-Africanist Congress, founded in 1959 by those who rejected the Freedom Charter’s non-racist ideology
pap thick mealie porridge
public bar blacks’ bar
PWV Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging (region around Johannesburg, renamed Gauteng after the elections of 1994)
RDP Reconstruction and Development Programme
rondavel round thatched hut
RTZ Rio Tinto Zinc
SAAF South African Air Force
SAAU South African Agricultural Union
SABC South African Broadcasting Corporation
SACC South African Council of Churches
SACP South African Communist Party
SADF South African Defence Force (changed to SANDF on 27 April 1994)
SANCO South African National Civic Organization
SANDF South African National Defence Force
sangoma traditional healer
SAP South African Police (changed to SAPS on 27 April 1994)
SAPPI South African Paper and Pulp Industries
SAPS South African Police Service
SASCO South African Students’ Congress
SDU Self-Defence Unit
skepsels non-white people, who are ‘creatures’
snoek South African barracuda
SOMAFCO the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College, established by the ANC at Mazimbu in Tanzania
stoep verandah
swart gevaar ‘black peril’
TEC Transitional Executive Council
TLC Transitional Local Council
tokoloshe malevolent spirit who appears in the form of a hairy dwarf
township residential area to which blacks were consigned under apartheid laws, always at some distance from white areas
toyi-toyi dance performed in mass demonstrations and to celebrate victory
trekboer nomadic stock-farmer who gradually migrated north from the Cape during the eighteenth century
Tripartite Alliance alliance between the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)
tsotsi township hooligan
TTC Teacher Training College
tuinhuis a farmer’s town house
ubuntu African view of the individual in relation to the community, with emphasis on the greater importance of the community
UCT University of Cape Town
UDF United Democratic Front
uitlander foreigner
umzi group of huts
Unisa University of South Africa
USAID US Aid for International Development
UWC University of the Western Cape
UZ University of Zululand
Vaalies (mildly derogatory) white inhabitants of the Transvaal
Vierkleur four-coloured flag of the old Transvaal Republic
volkstaat independent homeland for Afrikaners
Voortrekker participant in the Boers’ Great Trek of 1838 from the Cape Colony to Natal and the Transvaal
WHO World Health Organization
WM&G Weekly Mail & Guardian
Young Lions members of the ANC Youth League and other youngsters previously involved in the Struggle to ‘make South Africa ungovernable’ and win liberation
ZCC Zionist Christian Church