Taxacom: botanical names with racist history

[Lynn Raw]

John, 
The adjectival name caffer, caffra, caffrum meaning “from Kaffraria” refers to an area of the Eastern Cape Province of South African formerly known as Kaffraria and later as the Transkei including Pondoland and other areas. The suggested alternative name is a misspelling of afer, afra, afrum meaning “from Africa”. Erythrina caffra and other similarly named plants and animals were first described from this area and are not generally found across Africa, not that this matters.
See also https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.5281%2Fzenodo.6497956&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C69f86816b47944b9916b08dcaa23ebea%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638572318934291632%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C40000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Bu0NMv%2F3Cmg2sVvgvZdSIIIJA0SY8q6refli1PBQ1lE%3D&reserved=0 and
 https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FKaffraria&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C69f86816b47944b9916b08dcaa23ebea%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638572318934291632%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C40000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=qJmiUGBqWrNnosXk9b0ss123ia5YQaCA0ujzCRZy%2FpA%3D&reserved=0 for more details
Lynn

> On 22 Jul 2024, at 05.58, John Grehan via Taxacom <taxacom at lists.ku.edu> wrote:
> 
> Statements below from a web site. Can any botanist on Taxacom comment
> further on this?
> 
> Scientists have voted to eliminate the names of certain plants that are
> deemed to be racially offensive. The decision to remove a label that
> contains such a slur was taken last week after a gruelling six-day session
> attended by more than 100 researchers, as part of the International
> Botanical Congress, which officially opens on Sunday in Madrid.
> 
> The effect of the vote will be that all plants, fungi and algae names that
> contain the word *caffra*, which originates in insults made against Black
> people, will be replaced by the word *affra* to denote their African
> origins. More than 200 species will be affected, including the coast coral
> tree, which will be known as *Erythrina affra* instead of *Erythrina caffra*
> .
> 
> The scientists attending the nomenclature session also agreed to create a
> special committee which would rule on names given to newly discovered
> plants, fungi and algae. These are usually named by those who first
> describe them in the scientific literature. However, the names could now be
> overruled by the committee if they are deemed to be derogatory to a group
> or race
> 
> --
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fhepialidsoftheworld.com.au%2F&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C69f86816b47944b9916b08dcaa23ebea%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638572318934447848%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C40000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=P6OW4%2FLMi5Dwj5Xv9mSrMbUIRF%2BHDL94lKnj9fYjLhU%3D&reserved=0 (use the 'visit archived web site'
> link, then the 'Ghost Moth Research page' link.
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> Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity for about 37 years, 1987-2024.
> 
>