Brian Mujati is the Northampton Saints player who says he was a called a baboon by two Leinster players at a match in Donnybrook last night.
But why ‘baboon’?
The accused players, Heinke van der Merwe and Steven Sykes are white South Africans. Mujati, although born in Zimbabwe, is a black South African.
Being called a baboon or ‘bobbie’, a derivative of Bobbejaan, the Afrikaans for baboon, in South Africa is like being called a kaffir or a nigger.
And it is forbidden under South Africa’s post-apartheid hate speech laws.
Still, while van der Merwe has one national cap to his name and Sykes has none, Mujati has earned 12 caps for the Springboks.
Some baboon.
Former Bok Claims Racism Alive (Mail And Guardian, South Africa)
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