Meanings
plural amakwerekwere · alternative kwiri-kwiri
- South AfricaA foreign visitor to a township.
If they see you are foreigner, you are “kwerekwere”. [They] give the name for all foreigners, “kwerekwere”.
2003, a refugee in Cape Town named Hélène, quoted in “Living with prejudice - xenophobia and race”2 more examples
We came here just like every other nation. Just like Indians, Asians, Europeans. But we are the only people they call ‘kwerekwere’. They call the blacks ‘kwerekwere’, they don’t call the whites ‘kwerekwere’.
2000, Nigerian man, interviewed by Zaa Nkweta for Carte Blanche, “Fighting a stereotype”the township residents involved in the attacks invaded the homes and businesses owned by 'amakwerekwere' and stole their money and other property.
2006 Weekend Argus May 13/14 2006 p.1
Origin
Onomatopoeic. Foreigners who came to the townships could not speak the local languages. One theory on the origin of this term is that their own languages sounded like kwirikwirikwiri to the locals. A more plausible theory is that this term was a corruption of the word "korekore". The Korekore are a sub-group of the Shona people in neighboring Zimbabwe.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
kwerekwere. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kwerekwere
“kwerekwere.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kwerekwere. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “kwerekwere,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kwerekwere.
Source: kwerekwere on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.