Controversy recently erupted in Parliament over the reported use of the iTaukei word kaisi.
The word was said to have been uttered just as Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama stood for an address.
To date it is still unclear on whether the derogatory term kaisi was uttered, or was it kaise — a greeting in Hindi.
This article is not on the furore raised as a result of someone allegedly using kaisi in such an important institution as Parliament.
Rather, this article endeavours to shed light on the origins of the word.
THERE recently was an uproar in Parliament over the apparent use of an iTaukei word — which can be used to describe one’s rank or to cause injury.
The iTaukei term kaisi is used occasionally by Fijians either in good hearted jest or in a genuine effort to insult.
Unfortunately the February 10 session of Parliament was seemingly one of those latter moments.
Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says he heard the word kaisi, the lowest form of insult in the iTaukei culture, uttered from the Opposition side of this August body.
The furore raised through the alleged use of kaisi is understandable given the extremely derogatory context of the word in the iTaukei language.
As an iTaukei himself the PM was obviously very irritated by the alleged remark.
“It is very insulting to hear one of my members being insulted by one from across the room that side, with the iTaukei insult kaisi. This is not good in this House,” Mr Bainimarama had said.
“When you walk through that door nobody really gives two hoots about your title or I suppose your blue blood.”
Speaker of Parliament Dr Jiko Luveni was, initially, also adamant someone uttered this offensive word although Hansard reporters failed to pick it up.
Yet, apparently, this isn’t the first time kaisi has emerged in Parliament.
Following the 1982 general election, firebrand nationalist Apisai Tora reportedly claimed in Parliament that the action of the National Federation Party in the then election was a show of arrogance and that they were viavialevu ( cheeky).
According to Victor Lal’s book, Fiji: Coups in paradise — Race, Politics and Military Intervention, Tora said insults heaped on Fijian chiefs could only be made by people who were kaisi bokola botoboto ( lowest caste).
NFP parliamentarian Jai Raj Singh had protested against the Fijian terms used by Tora, but then Speaker Tomasi Vakatora over-ruled the objection saying the words had been used in the Fijian Parliament.
Yet, such words as kaisi did not appear out of thin air. They have an origin, a history if you will.
According to University of the South Pacific associate professor of linguistics, Paul Geraghty, the it is derived from the word kai.
“The origin of the word kaisi is only partially known. The first morpheme is kai-, which means a person of a particular place or rank, eg kai Suva ‘person from Suva’, kaivesu ‘convict’, kaimua ‘crew member’, kaiwai ‘fisherman’, but the origin of the rest of the word is unclear,” said Prof Geraghty.
“It’s meaning has not changed since Fijian was first recorded about 200 years ago.”
Prof Geraghty said the word kaisi was and is used throughout Fiji, though with pronunciations in some instances varying from area to area.
“In Nadroga it is kwaihi,” he said.
He said it could be used as a description — describing standings in a relationship as in: “O Tui C e kaisi vei Tui N Tui C is of lower rank than Tui N.”
Dr Geraghty said kaisi was normally used in Fiji as a derogatory term indicating someone of lower social rank or status.
“It’s most common use is as a noun meaning ‘person of the lowest rank’, and it can be used as a purely descriptive term or as an insult, equivalent to the English ‘pleb’ or ‘peasant’.”
He said the kaisi is also the root of the causative verb vakaisina, literally to make into a kaisi, metaphorically “make a fool of, deceive”.
“These meanings are based on the idea that chiefs are well-mannered and have high moral values, whereas the opposite is true of kaisi.”
However the linguist said demeaning words used in anger always had repercussions.
In saying that, Dr Geragthy said “there is no record of any particular punishment for calling someone a kaisi, though if used by a chief to a commoner it would be considered not necessarily demeaning but factual”.
Author and educationist Kolinio Meo is convinced the word originated from the term kaisia.
“It’s likened to the India caste system where you have all the untouchables at the bottom.
“Kaisia, in the chiefly household, they are regarded as slaves who work for the chiefly household doing menial tasks.”
Kaisia, Meo maintains, was used to describe the group of people who had travelled with the second group of voyagers from the African continent thousands of years ago through Papua on their way to colonising the Fijian group of islands.
“When they came through from Africa on the second boat — they stopped over at Papua.
“That’s when a group of Fijians were left stranded there because they disobeyed the chief.”
Apparently this kaisia group led by an individual named Kiranamoli, decided to eat a large turtle they caught rather than keep it for the chief, resulting in their exile in Papua.
“From then on anyone who would be ridiculed by the chiefs would be called that name — it was later shortened to kaisi,” said Meo, who referred to his book, Viti Makawa, History of the Native Fijians.
Meo said eventually along the way the word bokola, was added to the word kaisi for emphasis.
Bokola in the Fiji of old, referred to the individuals, mostly captured enemies who were normally trussed up to be cooked and eaten by their rivals.
Kaisi bokola is a particularly insulting term and not too many iTaukei use it unless under extreme provocation, anger or after being insulted themselves.
Interestingly, kaisi (how), is also used in the Hindi language but used primarily on feminine subjects.
It is a variation of the Hindi term kaise, which is a normal greeting in that language.
Opposition leader Ro Teimumu Kepa has offered as a possible explanation, that on the day in question in Parliament, she may have heard the word kaise instead of kaisi.
It’s ironic that the two words are so similar and yet utterly different in meaning.
It still isn’t exactly clear what word was uttered in Parliament that day.
What we can be sure of however, is that more people, particularly younger generations, are now aware of another term they can use when deciding to hurl insults at each other.
