A Dictionary of Epithets and Terms of Address
In the eighteenth century, in South America, this word described a mulatto of mixed negro and Indian or negro and European blood. By the mid-nineteenth century ‘Sambo’ was being used as an automatic nickname for a black male.
The two uses of the word may not be connected. A Spanish origm would suggest itself for the South American usage: it has been suggested that a word in an African language meaning ‘uncle’ may account for the later nickname, but see also the discussion under -bo for an alternative suggestion. ‘Sambo’ is used in Vanity Fair, by William Thackeray, to a black servant.
In An American Dream, by Norman Mailer, a white man addresses a black man by saying: ‘Listen, Sambo, you look like a coonass blackass nigger jackaboo to me.’ Sammy Davis Junior says in his autobiography Yes I Can! that he was called ‘Sambo’ by fellow American soldiers, who meant the term to be insulting.
It would certainly be avoided by speakers who wished to avoid givingr offence.
That was not the view taken by a British judge in 1974, however. A West Indian factory worker who was addressed as ‘Sambo’ by a white colleague responded by resorting to fisticuffs. The white worker needed treatment in hospital, and subsequently charged the West Indian with assault. The judge’s comment was that ‘Sambo’ was no more than a playful name of the type frequently used by one workman to another, and that it did not justify the assault. One wonders how much account was taken of the way the word was said, which could have made it friendly or insulting.
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