In Arabic there aren’t such distinctions between 2 f’s and an f. Kafir, Kaffir, Kafer are all transliterations with the same root k-f-r in Arabic.
The Afrikaners borrowed the word, from Kaffir which was used by Arabic and European settlers, merchants and administrators to refer to the black population since they were neither Muslims nor Christians (they were mostly animist or pagans) in Africa to mean all black non-muslims, ultimately borrowed (just as they do every symbol or words) by South African white minority settlers to derogatorily refer to black people.
How they spell it doesn’t really matter. It’s like N-word with an -er or an a, said by the wrong race is still racist however they spell it.
They are different words with one “f” and two “ff”s Kafir isn’t offensive. The other word is.
In Arabic there aren’t such distinctions between 2 f’s and an f. Kafir, Kaffir, Kafer are all transliterations with the same root k-f-r in Arabic.
The Afrikaners borrowed the word, from Kaffir which was used by Arabic and European settlers, merchants and administrators to refer to the black population since they were neither Muslims nor Christians (they were mostly animist or pagans) in Africa to mean all black non-muslims, ultimately borrowed (just as they do every symbol or words) by South African white minority settlers to derogatorily refer to black people.
How they spell it doesn’t really matter. It’s like N-word with an -er or an a, said by the wrong race is still racist however they spell it.