Fuzzy Wuzzy
Meaning
A derogatory term for a black person, especially one with fuzzy hair.
Origin
This term was used by 19th century British colonial soldiers for the members of an East African nomadic tribe- the Hadendoa. White settlers and military tribe from other countries also later used the term to denote the indigenous dark skinned and curly haired population. For example, the US military in Papua New Guinea and white European settlers in Australia. The term has always been derogatory but wasn’t considered so by the white population at the time.
From ‘Fuzzy Wuzzy’, one of Rudyard Kipling’s Barrack Room Ballad poems, written in 1918. The poem is in the voice of an unsophisticated British soldier and expresses admiration rather than contempt, although expressed in terms that sound patronizing today.
