Foreign Word of the Day: Cafuné

There are words we need to borrow from other languages.  From Brazilian Portuguese, that word of the day is “cafuné”.  “Cafuné” is an interesting word, since it is not of Portuguese origin, but Yoruba, a West African language with an origin 11,000 years ago.  Yoruba is the most widely spoken African language outside Africa. 

In English, we translate this as “running your fingers through the hair of someone you love”, but it has a deeper meaning than mere physical display of affection.  It is about affection for people, even amidst hardship, loss, and deprivation.  It is the merest hint of a deeper love, commitment, and sacrifice.  The reason a Yoruba word came into Brazilian Portuguese is the story of almost 5 million West African slaves kidnapped across the Atlantic to the New World to work the plantations, and die there.  They may have been taken in family groups, but they were often separated, or barely had time with each other.  These hints of affection were all they had. 

Brazil itself received almost half of the estimated 10 million slaves.  In comparison, North America received around 4%.  The majority of these slaves arrived in Brazil’s northeast region, concentrating Bahia’s capital, Salvador, which is still home to the largest population of African descendants outside of Africa.  It was these African slaves in Brazil who used “cafuné” on each other.  The slaves would caress each other’s hair, fazer cafuné, and this is how “cafuné” became part of Brazilian Portuguese.