Sri Lanka Kaffir people
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Few thousand (2005) ~1,000 (2009) |
|
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Sri Lanka
|
~1,000 |
| Languages | |
| Sri Lankan Portuguese Creole, Sinhala, Tamil language | |
| Religion | |
| Originally folk religion, (Christianity:Roman Catholic), Buddhism |
|
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Burgher people, Sinhalese, Sri Lankan Tamils | |
The Sri Lankan Kaffirs (cafrinhas in Portuguese, කාපිරි kāpiriyō in Sinhala, and காப்பிலி kāpili in Tamil) are an ethnic group in Sri Lanka who are partially descended from 16th century Portuguese traders and Bantu slaves who were brought by them to work as labourers and soldiers to fight against the Sinhala Kings. They are very similar to the Zanj-descended populations in Iraq and Kuwait, and are known in Pakistan as Sheedis and in India as Siddis. The Kaffirs spoke a distinctive creole based on Portuguese, and the "Sri Lankan Kaffir language" (now extinct). Their cultural heritage includes the dance styles Kaffringna and Manja and their popular form of dance music Baila.
The word Kaffir is an obsolete English term once used to designate natives from the African Great Lakes and Southern Africa coasts. In South Africa, it became a slur. "Kaffir" derives in turn from the Arabic kafir, "unbeliever".
Kaffirs have an oral history maintained by families that are descended from slaves from Africa. While Arabs were the original slave traders in the African Great Lakes slave trade, European colonialists later brought Bantu slaves to the Indian subcontinent. However fragmented official documentation may be, the recent public promotion of their music and dance forms allows the broader Sri Lankan society to acknowledge and better understand Kaffir history.
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Wikipedia