witdoeke

W4I1T1D2O1E1K5E1

noun

Members of conservative black vigilante groups in the South African provinces of the Cape and Orange Free State in the 1980s.

OriginAfrikaans wit →
Scrabble 16
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nounwitdoeke pl (plural only)
  1. historicalpluralplural onlyMembers of conservative black vigilante groups in the South African provinces of the Cape and Orange Free State in the 1980s.

    ‘They were shooting again yesterday. They were giving guns to the witdoeke and the witdoeke were shooting.’

    1990, J. M. Coetzee, Age of Iron, London: Secker & Warburg, Part III, p. 83
    1 more example

    1998, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Final Report, Volume 3, Chapter 5, Subsection 29, After the witdoeke attacks of May and June 1986, thousands of refugees were forced to live in schools and churches. Refugees were arrested from these centres and tortured to make them confess to a range of public violence crimes. […] It is notable that few if any witdoeke were arrested or charged.

Origin

  1. Afrikaanswit“white”
  2. Englishwitdoeke

From Afrikaans wit (“white”) + doek (“cloth”), referring to the strips of white cloth members wore on their heads or arms.

More words from Afrikaans

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

witdoeke. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/witdoeke

MLA

“witdoeke.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/witdoeke. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “witdoeke,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/witdoeke.

Source: witdoeke on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.