What is the definition of kazis?

Answer 1

It is said to have originated from the African language Zulu or Swahili and brought back by soldiers serving there during the Zulu wars 1879. There it would have been M'khazi.

But since British soldiers had learned the word khaki as a description of a brown die used by Indian women during British rule and this was then a typical word used by the army to describe uniforms later coloured by the same means. It therefore sounds like a similar Indian work and uses an 'H' in a similar way...khazi. The Indian mutiny was in 1857 and so it is likely that servants and soldiers of Indian extraction travelled with British troops to Africa and there was more banter going on between them than Zulu and Swahili I would gone for Indian since these words were integrated into our slang more often than African words.

However, we have heard of 'Punkah Wallah' Gin Wallah (Wallah is man) and this man would be a servant but I have never heard of a 'Kahzi Wallah' as a servant to look after the latrine. So the spelling may be Hindi but the origins Zulu or Swahili possibly originally 'Kaazi'.

Since soldiers were fond of a joke and Kaazi is a name for a place in Uganda which could have been considered a 's*^t hole' among those who recalled the Uganda Martyrs in 1857, some quick wit of the day may a drawn a comparison with the place and with the latrine and the term soon got around. So its origins may be like those of the word 'Banter' and derived from no single source.