The word is derived from the Arabic kafir that is usually translated into English as "disbeliever" or "non-believer", i.e. a non-Muslim or "one without religion".

[4] The word was originally applied to non Muslims in general, and therefore to non-Muslim black peoples encountered along the Swahili coast by Arab traders.

Similar to elsewhere in Southern Africa, the aboriginal inhabitants of the area were the Khoisan hunter gatherers and herders.

[5] The authority of the Xhosa chiefs was recognised to a limited degree since their decisions were subject to review by the British colonial government.

[5] British commander Sir Harry Smith initially arrived in the Cape Of Good Hope in 1828 to lead colonial forces in the region.

The province was divided into small chiefdoms that were controlled by magistrates who lived in the various chiefs’ Great Places.

Magistrates were appointed to administer the territory in the hope that they would gradually, with the help of missionaries, undermine tribal authority.

When news of the annexation reached the Colonial Office, the authorities in London expressed their disapproval of D’Urban’s processes.

The British government, along with the rest of Europe, was in the wake of the Romantic Age in 1835 and prescribed to a philanthropic approach.

[8] After the 7th Frontier War ("Amatola War"), on 17 December 1847, the area was again seized by the new British Governor Harry Smith, and again annexed to the Cape Colony, this time as the British Kaffraria Colony, with King William's Town as its capital.