Chapter 29: When the K-Word is Used
…continued from 7 June 2026...
FIRST TIME HERE? NO PROBLEM – START AT THE BEGINNING – WARNING YOU WILL BECOME ADDICTED TO THE STORY.
WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE AND DESCRIPTIONS OF RACISM – DO NOT READ IF THIS OFFENDS YOU!
By all accounts Whitey was an enigmatic teenager, he stood out from the rest with his pale complexion and angry pale blue eyes. His heart and resolve were hardened as a child, but it still could not save him from the trauma of the repeated sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of the orphanage owner and his wife. Their depravity knew no bounds and after enduring it for almost a year, he managed to escape and joined some of the other escapees on the streets.
Years later after he had become a gang boss, Whitey returned to the orphanage late one night and abducted the owner and his wife. They did not die quickly or without considerable pain. Their bodies were never found.
Today he walked a little way behind Themba around the local flea market. Themba was in his element, flouncing around in high heels and squealing in delight at the various goods on offer. The flea market had everything from fragrant spices, to high-end perfumes to art, furniture, clothing and even appliances. It was an institution in the area and was a very busy place on the weekends, filled with people from all over the region who came long distances just to pick up a bargain.
Whitey kept his agitation in check, knowing that he had to be submissive today and that by tonight all would be well with him and Themba.
He saw the beer tent up ahead, a few stalls away from the shoe stall Themba was browsing at now.
“Ek gat gou ‘n bier drink,” he grunted as he walked pass Themba. Themba just gave him a look as if to say, “you’re on thin ice Mr.”
Whitey did not look back, instead he hurried on into the tent and went to the back where he found a trestle-table and chairs big enough to accommodate him and his entourage. It seemed the five other guys were just as relieved to be out of the hot sun and ready to down a few ice-cold beers.
“Kyk nogal die rich bitch,” Themba heard the slur and spun around. His initial anger turned to fear when he noticed that the person who had called her a rich bitch, was a huge brute who was accompanied by two other sinister looking thugs.
“En dan is djy nogal ‘n kaffir oek,” said the voice. This was a particularly derogatory comment, calling someone a kaffir in South Africa was like calling a black person a nigger in the US.
Themba felt his blood turn to ice and he began to tremble with fear. His head darted from left to right as he searched for Whitey.
The brute moved forward and grabbed Themba’s balls and squeezed it hard. Themba shrieked. “Dink djy djy own die plek naier (Do you think you own the place fucker?),” he said.
Themba tried to respond, but found that no words could escape his mouth.
Over in the beer tent, Whitey and company were thoroughly enjoying their drinks.
The thugs harassing Themba were white and appeared to be extreme homophobes.
“Security, security, help me, help me please,” Themba somehow managed to scream at the top of his lungs.
The brute brought his hand down across Themba’s face in an almighty slap that could be heard a mile away. Themba heard the ringing in his ear and the painful sting across his face before he hit the ground.
The next thing, about five flea market security guards appeared on the scene and tackled the thugs, using their batons to dispense law and order.
Immediately chaos ensued, Themba came to his senses and shrieked like a banshee running barefoot across hot coals. He managed to hit the brute across the face with his handbag, causing the brute to roar in pain as his nose exploded with blood.
People from neighbouring stalls joined in the milieu and soon shoes, fruit, vegetables, even pots and pans were being flung around, connecting with heads and bodies on various levels of pain.
Whitey was blissfully unaware of it all, slugging down his third beer, enjoying the quiet in the back of the tent.
Continued tomorrow 9 June 2026, before 12pm
Reader Reviews (4)
Tebogo
31 August 2026It's actually such an interesting question. I saw Trevor Noah talking about how we should embrace the K word, that was a kak-funny show btw. And he regularly uses the N word in his stand up routine, and I mean, he is like literally only 50% black, lol. I find it very weird that in this day and age we are having this conversation and what's even more weird, is that it feels perfectly relevant. Eish, lekker storie broer.
Riyaaz Ismail
31 August 2026Much like the term 'moffie' that we use d to use when describing a whimp when we were younger. As a small boy, I was always reading and at the time I never came across it meaning a homosexual. Today one will get into trouble using the term. We need to be careful how we describe people. I am aware that we (our generation) still want to know the race of the person when we hear them on radio as an example. This is so yesterday.
Marshal B Roaman
31 August 2026In today’s Author Insights, I ask, purely in the spirit of intellectual mischief: what percentage of black do you have to be before you officially qualify to use the N or K word? Fifty percent? Twenty-five? One suspiciously Black great-grandparent? (By being Coloured, by definition, we’re bound to have some percentage in our DNA) It’s an amusing question, perhaps, until we realise how casually we still throw certain words around among ourselves. Kaffir is one of them, along with a colourful collection of other derogatory terms we seem perfectly comfortable using, provided, of course, that the people they describe are safely out of earshot. But perhaps that is the point. Words survive because we keep giving them oxygen. We inherit them, repeat them, laugh at them and pass them down, often without stopping to ask why. Maybe we don't need a committee, a law or a political campaign to change that. Maybe we simply stop using them. And perhaps, if we do it long enough, our grandchildren will eventually ask us what the hell we were talking about.
Tania
8 June 2026Omg,👊,,can't wait for next chapter when Whitey hears about Themba and the "brutes"!!Will definitely not be pretty,that much I know!!but it surely will earn him some brownie points as he's not completely out the dog box yet 🤭🤭this chapter was extremely entertaining 🔥,loved it