Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (S.Afr.) a white sympathizer with black causes.

1939		R.F.A. Hoernlé S. Afr. Native Policy and Liberal Spirit vii: To plead for fuller knowledge, or for more humane consideration, of non-European needs and interests, is to earn ... the title of ‘negrophile,’ kafir-boetie, or – most scathing of all – ‘liberal’ [DSAE].
1948		A Paton Cry, Beloved Country 166: All the welfare workers and this Father Beresford and the other Kafferboeties say it must not be so.
1958		Church Times (U.K.) 21 Nov. 6: You can call a man a Kaffir-Boetie in Johannesburg and a nigger lover in the Southern States; but both mean precisely the same thing and have the same accent [DSAE].
1960		D. Lytton Goddam White Man 58: The other whites have no time for them, call them ‘kaffirboeties’ which means ‘brother to kaffirs’ and say that it is such people, softies, who make all the trouble.
1964		G. Gordon Four People 39: Her uncles [...] used to call her father a ‘Kafferboetie’, and condemn him as a traitor of their ancestral code of colour.
1983		Cooke, Honeyman & Keogh This is for Keeps in Gray Market Plays (1986) 34: Nice name for a group, hey. Kaffirboeties.
1990		(con. 1938) R. Malan My Traitor’s Heart (1991) 22: ‘The Nats are kefferboeties!’ cried Dr. Loek of the SAP. A kafferboetie is a ‘brother of blacks’ – a nigger lover.
2005		A. Lovejoy Acid Alex 157: I would become the worst of all evils in their eyes – a kaffirboetie.
2006		C. Miller Salt and Honey 144: I can see Auntie’s still a kaffirboetie.
2008		Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg) 19 Mar. 🌐 In the old days it used to be kafferboetie, but that’s using a no-no word.
2010		Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg) 12 Feb. 🌐 White South Africa was fed a lie and those who resisted it were [...] labelled kafferboeties.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1963		A. Fugard Notebooks (1983) 80: Saying No [...] will result in all likelihood of your being dragged out and shot by the whites as a ‘kafferboetie’ traitor.
2002		G. Evans Dancing Shoes is Dead 114: Some fucking do-good kaffirboetie businessman is sponsoring him.
2005		A. Lovejoy Acid Alex 257: Deep down in me – in my sinful, rebellious kaffirboetie heart – he was just another mad religious Dutchman.