High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Historically, a coolie (variously spelled cooli, cooly, kuli, quli, koelie etc.) was a manual labourer or slave from Asia, particularly China, India, and the Phillipines during the 19th century and early 20th century. It is also a contemporary racial slur or ethnic nickname for people of Asian descent, including people from India, Central Asia, etc, particularly in South Africa.