DOCSLIB.ORG

The Bantu Peoples (C.1200B.C.–C. 500 A.D.)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Bantu Peoples (C.1200B.C.–C. 500 A.D.) The Bantu peoples (c.1200B.C.–c. 500 A.D.) Source: "Africa." Ancient Civilizations Reference Library. Ed. Judson Knight and Stacy A. McConnell. Detroit: UXL, 2000. Student Resources in Context. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. Document URL http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/suic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?query=&prodId=SUIC&contentModules=&displayGroupName=Reference&limiter=& disableHighlighting=false&displayGroups=&sortBy=&search_within_results=&p=SUIC&action=2&catId=&activityType=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ2173150025&source =Bookmark&u=cobb90289&jsid=12014b7b7403f7ce1fe03dbbe6faade6 Around the area of modern-day Nigeria, the Bantu (BAHN-too) peoples had their origins. In some regards, the Bantu do not qualify as a full-fledged civilization. They had no written language, nor did they build cities or even stay in one spot. Theirs was a history characterized by migration, as they moved out of their homeland in about 1200 B.C. to spread throughout southern Africa. In fact, the Bantu were not even a nation or a unified group of people in the way that the Egyptians, Kushites, or Aksumites were. They were simply a group of more or less related peoples, all sub-Saharan African (i.e., "black") in origin. However, as in many other instances, the important distinction is one of language, not race. It was language that gave the Bantu peoples their distinctive character, which has influenced the culture of southern Africa up to the present day. Though they spoke a variety of tongues, they all used the same word for "people": bantu. Whether or not they qualified as a true civilization, the Bantu had a strongly developed culture based on family ties. Families became grouped into clans, and clans into tribes. Loyalty to the extended family— including one's ancestors—was the most important bond in Bantu society. As in China, the ancestors played an important role in Bantu religion, which also deified the forces of nature. Though they had a variety of gods, the Bantu also believed in a supreme being above all. The world of the Bantu peoples was a tightly knit one, in which everyone had a place and everyone belonged. In modern-day southern Africa, where the Bantu peoples settled, this is symbolized by the carefully organized layout of family compounds, or enclosed areas with a number of buildings. In the compound, there are specific areas for each family member, as well as areas for the animals and for cooking and other facets of daily life. No one, it seems, lacked a place in Bantu society. To further strengthen the bonds among people, the Bantu were organized by age and gender groups, for instance, older men often belonged to secret societies. This is not unlike the idea of the Masonic lodge in modern America. For the Bantu, however, the strength of the ties between people meant much more than such ties do to Americans. Whereas Americans are defined partly by their independence, interdependence was and is a defining characteristic of Bantu society. Each society has a certain way that it transmits its values: that is, the things that are important to it. In modern America, values are transmitted primarily through the media: TV, movies, radio, magazines, and newspapers. The Bantu, lacking a written language, had a strong oral tradition. In other words, they transmitted their values, and indeed much of their cultural heritage, primarily through stories committed to memory by elders. Music was also an important part of the Bantu oral tradition. At musical performances, everyone present participated. Participation was easy, because every member of the tribe knew the songs—which concerned aspects of daily life as well as the stories of legendary heroes—from early childhood. Greek culture in Homer's time was likewise centered around oral traditions, stories memorized by wandering poets who sang them to listeners, often over a period of days. Ironworking and agriculture Another notable quality of the Bantu was their technological advancement in the area of ironworking, a remarkable achievement for a people who had no written language. The Olmec of Mesoamerica, by contrast, did have a written language, yet they never progressed beyond the Bronze Age—and then only in about A.D. 1200. Since the Sahara Desert provided a virtually impenetrable barrier between the Bantu peoples and the Egyptians, it is apparent that they developed their iron-smelting technology entirely on their own. The same is true of Bantu agriculture: studies by archaeologists and linguists suggest that domestication of plants occurred more or less simultaneously—and independently—in several parts of Africa before the Sahara became a desert. By about 1600 B.C., the Bantu peoples had a set of staple crops that included rice, yams, and various grains. As for iron-working, it flourished as early as 1000 B.C. among the Nok (NAWK) people, a Bantu group in what is now Nigeria. The Nok also excelled in textile-weaving, sculpture, and jewelry-making. Based on the large number of high-quality figurines (FIG-yoo-reenz), or small sculptures, found at Nok archaeological sites, they must have been wealthy. As with the ancient Saharan culture at its high point, only people well past the point of mere survival could afford to spend so much energy on creating beauty. The spread of Bantu culture In their migration southward and eastward into the savanna, which contains the continent's best land, the Bantu displaced a number of native peoples in southern Africa. These included the Pygmies, a group whose average height was under five feet, who were forced into the less desirable rain forest. There were also the Khoisan (koy-SAHN) peoples, speakers of the so-called "click language"—one can hear it spoken in the 1980 movie The Gods Must Be Crazy, which humorously contrasts Khoisan and Western societies. The Bantu peoples drove the Khoisan-speaking tribes into the much less favorable Kalahari (kahl-ah-HAHR-ee) Desert. It is doubtful that the Bantu waged war against the native peoples of these areas; they probably did not have to, since they were the more technologically sophisticated group. By about A.D. 500, the ethnic map of southern Africa was more or less complete. The Bantu controlled the best areas. They would continue to do so until the Europeans arrived more than 1,000 years later. Africa: Human Geography SOURCE: National Geographic Education http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/africa-human-geography/?ar_a=1 Cultural Geography Historic Cultures The African continent has a unique place in human history. Widely believed to be the “cradle of humankind,” Africa is the only continent with fossil evidence of human beings (Homo sapiens) and their ancestors through each key stage of theirevolution. These include the Australopithecines, our earliest ancestors; Homo habilis, our tool-making ancestors; andHomo erectus, a more robust and advanced relative to Homo habilis that was able to walk upright. These ancestors were the first to develop stone tools, to move out of trees and walk upright, and, most importantly, to explore and migrate. While fossils of Australopithecines andHomo habilis have only been found in Africa, examples ofHomo erectus have been found in the Far East, and their tools have been excavated throughout Asia and Europe. This evidence supports the idea that the species of Homo erectusthat originated in Africa was the first to successfully migrate and populate the rest of the world. This human movement, or migration, plays a key role in the cultural landscape of Africa. Geographers are especially interested in migration as it relates to the way goods, services, social and cultural practices, and knowledge are spread throughout the world. Two other migration patterns, the Bantu Migration and theAfrican slave trade, help define the cultural geography of the continent. The Bantu Migration was a massive migration of people across Africa about 2,000 years ago. The Bantu Migration is the most important human migration to have occurred since the first human ancestors left Africa more than a million years ago. Lasting for 1,500 years, the Bantu Migration involved the movement of people whose language belonged to the Kongo-Niger language group. The common Kongo-Niger word for human being is bantu. The Bantu Migration was a southeastern movement. Historians do not agree on why Bantu-speaking people moved away from their homes in West Africa’s Niger Delta Basin. They first moved southeast, through the rain forests of Central Africa. Eventually, they migrated to the savannas of the southeastern and southwestern parts of the continent, including what is today Angola and Zambia. The Bantu Migration had an enormous impact on Africa’seconomic, cultural, and political practices. Bantu migrants introduced many new skills into the communities they interacted with, including sophisticated farming and industry. These skills included growing crops and forging tools and weapons from metal. These skills allowed Africans to cultivate new areas of land that had a wide variety of physical and climatic features. Many hunter-gatherer communities were assimilated, or adopted, into the more technologically advanced Bantu culture. In turn, Bantu people adopted skills from the communities they encountered, including animal husbandry, or raising animals for food. This exchange of skills and ideas greatly advanced Africa’s cultural landscape, especially in the eastern, central, and southern regions of the continent. Today, most of the population living in these regions is descended from Bantu migrants or from mixed Bantu-indigenous origins. BBC “The Story of Africa” : Early History http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/2chapter5.shtm l People on the Move Armed with iron smelting technology the Bantu of west and central Africa dispersed across the continent, changing its linguistic and cultural landscape. A number of theories have been put forward to explain this migration. NEED TO MOVE "When people move they move for a reason.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Barly Records on Bantu Arvi Hurskainen
    Remota Relata Srudia Orientalia 97, Helsinki 20O3,pp.65-76 Barly Records on Bantu Arvi Hurskainen This article gives a short outline of the early, sometimes controversial, records of Bantu peoples and languages. While the term Bantu has been in use since the mid lgth century, the earliest attempts at describing a Bantu language were made in the lTth century. However, extensive description of the individual Bantu languages started only in the l9th century @oke l96lab; Doke 1967; Wolff 1981: 2l). Scholars have made great efforts in trying to trace the earliest record of the peoples currently known as Bantu. What is considered as proven with considerable certainty is that the first person who brought the term Bantu to the knowledge of scholars of Africa was W. H. L Bleek. When precisely this happened is not fully clear. The year given is sometimes 1856, when he published The lnnguages of Mosambique, oÍ 1869, which is the year of publication of his unfinished, yet great work A Comparative Grammar of South African Languages.In The Languages of Mosambiqu¿ he writes: <<The languages of these vocabularies all belong to that great family which, with the exception of the Hottentot dialects, includes the whole of South Africa, and most of the tongues of Western Africa>. However, in this context he does not mention the name of the language family concemed. Silverstein (1968) pointed out that the first year when the word Bantu is found written by Bleek is 1857. That year Bleek prepared a manuscript Zulu Legends (printed as late as 1952), in which he stated: <<The word 'aBa-ntu' (men, people) means 'Par excellence' individuals of the Kafir race, particularly in opposition to the noun 'aBe-lungu' (white men).
    [Show full text]
  • Odoki, B. Challenges of Constitution-Making in Uganda
    264 ConstiiuIioaalis,,i ii, Africa 15 challenge in courts of law. The controversialprovisionsmainlyrelate to the politicalsystemespecially the issue ofsuspension ofpoliticalpartyactivities, TheChallenges ofConstitution-makingand thereferendum on politicalsystems, the entrenchmentofthemovementsystem in the constitution,federalism, and the issue of land. in Implementation Uganda The implementation of the constitutionposesperhapsmore difficult challengesthan its making.There is a need to make theconstitution a dynamic Benjamin J. Odoki instrument, and a livinginstitution, in the minds and hearts of all Ugandans. Theconstitutionmust be iiiternalised and understood in order for the people to trulyrespect,observe and uphold it. It must be implemented in both the and to the letter.There is a need to establish and nurturedemocratic Themaking of a newconstitution in Ugandamarked an importantwatershed in spirit the history of the country. It demonstrated the desire of the people to institutions to promotedemocraticvalues andpracticeswithin the country. It is then that a culture of constitutionalism can be the fundamentallychange their system of governance into a truly democratic only promotedamongst and theirleaders. one. The process gave the people an opportunity to make a fresh start by people This examines the and that reviewingtheirpastexperiences,identifying the rootcauses oftheirproblems, chapter challenges problems wereexperienced the actors in the theNRM learninglessonsfrompastmistakesandmaking a concertedeffort to provide by major constitution-makingprocess:
    [Show full text]
  • Genomic Evidence for Shared Common Ancestry of East African Hunting-Gathering Populations and Insights Into Local Adaptation
    Genomic evidence for shared common ancestry of East African hunting-gathering populations and insights into local adaptation Laura B. Scheinfeldta,1,2, Sameer Soia,b,1, Charla Lamberta,3, Wen-Ya Koa,4, Aoua Coulibalya, Alessia Ranciaroa, Simon Thompsona, Jibril Hirboa,5, William Beggsa, Muntaser Ibrahimc, Thomas Nyambod, Sabah Omare, Dawit Woldemeskelf, Gurja Belayf, Alain Fromentg, Junhyong Kimh, and Sarah A. Tishkoffa,h,6 aDepartment of Genetics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104; bGenomics and Computational Biology Graduate Program, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104; cDepartment of Molecular Biology, Institute of Endemic Diseases, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan; dDepartment of Biochemistry, St. Joseph University College of Health Sciences, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; eKenya Medical Research Institute, Center for Biotechnology Research and Development, Nairobi, Kenya; fDepartment of Biology, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; gUMR 208, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement-Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Musée de l’Homme, 75116 Paris, France; and hDepartment of Biology, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104 Contributed by Sarah A. Tishkoff, January 5, 2019 (sent for review October 15, 2018; reviewed by Rob J. Kulathinal and Mark D. Shriver) Anatomically modern humans arose in Africa ∼300,000 years ago, lithic ∼5 kya (7). This expansion, commonly referred to as the but the demographic and adaptive histories of African populations “Bantu expansion,” significantly impacted the landscape of ge- are not well-characterized. Here, we have generated a genome- netic and cultural diversity in Africa (8, 9). While Bantu lan- wide dataset from 840 Africans, residing in western, eastern, guages, which belong to the Niger-Congo (NC) language family, southern, and northern Africa, belonging to 50 ethnicities, and are widely spoken across Africa, languages belonging to two speaking languages belonging to four language families.
    [Show full text]
  • Minorities and Indigenous Peoples Current Issues Background Contacts Resources
    Angola - Minority Rights Group https://minorityrights.org/country/angola/ Minorities and indigenous peoples Current issues Background Contacts Resources Main languages: according to the 2014 Census, while the majority (71 per cent) of Angolans speak Portuguese – the only official language – at home, other languages spoken include Umbundu (23 per cent), Kikongo (8 per cent), Kimbundu (8 per cent), Chokwe (7 per cent), Nhaneca (3 per cent), Nganguela (3 per cent), Fiote (2 per cent), Kwanhama (2 per cent), Muhumbi (2 per cent), Luvale (1 per cent), others (4 per cent) Main religions: indigenous beliefs, Christianity Angola’s 2014 Census, the first since 1970, included information on language most used in the home, but not on ethnicity. Other sources indicate that Angola’s ethnic groups include Ovimbundu (37 per cent), Mbundu (25 per cent), Bakongo (13 per cent) and mestiço (2 per cent), Lunda-Chokwe (8 per cent), Nyaneka-Nkumbi (3 per cent), Ambo (2 per cent), Herero (up to 0.5 per cent), San 3,600 and Kwisi (up to 0.5 per cent). However, the international indigenous peoples’ rights organization IWGIA puts the number of indigenous people including San, Himba, Kwepe, Kuvale and Zwemba at around 25,000, amounting to 0.1 per cent of the total population, with San alone numbering between 5,000 and 14,000. The majority of today’s Angolans are Bantu peoples, including Ovimbundu, Mbundu and Bakongo, while the San belong to the indigenous Khoisan people. Traditionally a largely rural people of the central highlands, Ovimbundu migrated to the cities in large numbers in search of employment in the twentieth century.
    [Show full text]
  • Appendix 1 Vernacular Names
    Appendix 1 Vernacular Names The vernacular names listed below have been collected from the literature. Few have phonetic spellings. Spelling is not helped by the difficulties of transcribing unwritten languages into European syllables and Roman script. Some languages have several names for the same species. Further complications arise from the various dialects and corruptions within a language, and use of names borrowed from other languages. Where the people are bilingual the person recording the name may fail to check which language it comes from. For example, in northern Sahel where Arabic is the lingua franca, the recorded names, supposedly Arabic, include a number from local languages. Sometimes the same name may be used for several species. For example, kiri is the Susu name for both Adansonia digitata and Drypetes afzelii. There is nothing unusual about such complications. For example, Grigson (1955) cites 52 English synonyms for the common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) in the British Isles, and also mentions several examples of the same vernacular name applying to different species. Even Theophrastus in c. 300 BC complained that there were three plants called strykhnos, which were edible, soporific or hallucinogenic (Hort 1916). Languages and history are linked and it is hoped that understanding how lan- guages spread will lead to the discovery of the historical origins of some of the vernacular names for the baobab. The classification followed here is that of Gordon (2005) updated and edited by Blench (2005, personal communication). Alternative family names are shown in square brackets, dialects in parenthesis. Superscript Arabic numbers refer to references to the vernacular names; Roman numbers refer to further information in Section 4.
    [Show full text]
  • Tribes” to “Regions”;
    revista de recerca i formació en antropologia perifèria Número 20 (2), diciembre 2015 revistes.uab.cat/periferia From “tribes” to “regions”; Ethnicity and musical identity in Western Uganda Linda Cimardi1-University of Bologna DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.5565/rev/periferia.478 Abstract This article looks at how the paradigm of ethnicity in Uganda has influenced the conception and perception of cultural identity, and specifically of music identity. According to the 2002 Census, Uganda counts more than 50 different peoples within its territory. For most of these, the language spoken locally and the complex of musics and dances characterize their identity. These elements are currently fostered by the Government also by promoting annually a national festival where each area presents, among other items, its own music and dance repertoires. The structure of the present school festival intends to follow historical and cultural sedimentations (identifying “regions”), but it can still be tracedto the colonial classification of peoples (“tribes”). Considering data especially from western Uganda, the intermingling of the paradigm of ethnicity with the ones of music representativeness and identity will be observed. Discussion will consider the repertoires chosen for representativeness in the national context and concentrate on the ambiguity of the ethnic uniqueness of these musics and on the possibilities of expression of minorities. Key words: ethnicity, music, Uganda. Resumen El presente artículo trata de cómo el paradigma de la etnicidad ha influenciado el concepto y la percepción de la cultura identitaria, y específicamente de la música. De acuerdo con el censo realizado en el año 2002, Ugandacuenta con más de 50 tipos diferentes de pueblos dentro de su territorio.
    [Show full text]
  • The Student Will Describe the Diverse Cultures of the People Who Live in Africa
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> SS7G4 The student will describe the diverse cultures of the people who live in Africa. a. Explain the differences between an ethnic group and a religions group. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 1 An ethnic group is a group of people who share cultural ideas and beliefs that have been a part of their community for generations. The above photos are of the Masai, a tribe in Kenya. This ethnic group is well-known for being a warrior tribe. 2 The characteristics they have in common could include language, religion, a shared history, types of food, and a set of traditional stories, beliefs, or celebrations. Meat is reserved only for very special occasions like feasts and celebrations when the Masai cash in their precious capital and kill a bull. Only the murran, shown here preparing for the occasion, are allowed to witness the slaughter which3 is carried out with skill and respect for the animal. A religious group shares a belief system in a god or gods, with a specific set of rituals and literature like the Bible or the Quran. People from different ethnic groups may share the same religion, though they may be from very different cultures. Above are photos of different Christian worship services. 4 ***************************** SS7G4 The student will describe the diverse cultures of the people who live in Africa. b. Explain the diversity of religions within the Arab, Ashanti, Bantu, and Swahili ethnic groups. **************************** 5 Arab Arab people began to spread into North Africa in the late 600’s AD, when the first Muslim armies arrived in Egypt. From there, Arab armies, traders, and scholars spread across northern Africa all the way to Morocco.
    [Show full text]
  • A Journal of African Studies
    UCLA Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies Title Outlining Southern African History: A Re-evaluation A.D. 100-1500 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0k49j9nf Journal Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies, 3(1) ISSN 0041-5715 Author Ehret, Christopher Publication Date 1972 DOI 10.5070/F731016384 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California -9- OUTLINING SOUTHERN AFRICAN HISTORY: A Re-evaluation A.D. 100-1500 by Christopher Ehret, contributor and compiler; Meera Bink, Thoko Teresa Ginindza, Evelyn Gotschall, Beverly Hall, Madoda Hlatshwayo, Douglas H. Johnson, and Randall L. Pouwels, contributors Southern African history over the period of the first fifteen hundred years A.D. is often treated as if its entire content was the expansion of Bantu-speaking peoples over territories previously inhabited only by hunter-gatherers. Partly this treatment is due to the present paucity of archeological evidence for sites other than those occupied by Bantu-speakers during those centuries; partly it results from a lingering tendency of historians to fall back on a simplistic migrational theory of history when they deal with preliterate eras. To begin the process of defining the fuller complexities of human interaction that in the long run will give shape and movement to the depiction of early southern African history, we recently initiated an investigation of the linguistic evidence for events in the eastern half of southern Africa. The results of this investigation show that a greater complexity of peoples than simply Bantu-speaking farmers and Khoisan hunters were involved in the shaping of later societies, and suggest that to view southern African history in terms of the spread of peoples is a less adequate approach than to view southern African history in terms of the spread of new ideas and values and, at the same time, the spread of new languages associated with those ideas and values.
    [Show full text]
  • Pop Quiz! ANSWER SHEET This Test WILL NOT Count Toward Your Grade, but Instead Will Serve As an Evaluation to See One’S Individual Progress
    Name: ______________________ Date:___________________ Pop Quiz! ANSWER SHEET This test WILL NOT count toward your grade, but instead will serve as an evaluation to see one’s individual progress. READING SECTION Agriculture, Iron, and the Bantu Peoples There is evidence of agriculture in Africa prior to 3000 BCE. It may have developed independently, but many scholars believe that the spread of agriculture and iron throughout Africa linked it to the major ce Near East and Mediterranean world. The drying up of what is now the Sahara desert had pushed many peoples to the south into sub-Saharan Africa. These peoples settled at first in scattered hunting-and-gathering bands, although in some places near lakes and rivers, people who fished, with a more secure food supply, lived in larger population concentrations. Agriculture seems to have reached these people from the Near East, since the first domesticated crops were millets and sorghums whose origins were not African, but West Asian. Once the idea of planting diffused, Africans began to develop their own crops, such as certain varieties of rice, and they demonstrated a continued receptiveness to new imports. The proposed areas of the domestication of African crops lie in a band that extended from Ethiopia across southern Sudan to West Africa. Subsequently, other crops, such as bananas, were introduced from Southeast Asia. Livestock also came from outside Africa. Cattle were introduced from Asia, as probably were domestic sheep and goats. Horses were apparently introduced by the Hyksos invaders of Egypt (1780-1560 BCE.) and then spread across the Sudan to West Africa.
    [Show full text]
  • Drc Survey: an Overview of Demographics, Health, and Financial Services in the Democratic Republic of Congo
    DRC SURVEY: AN OVERVIEW OF DEMOGRAPHICS, HEALTH, AND FINANCIAL SERVICES IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON STRATEGIC ANALYSIS, RESEARCH & TRAINING (START) CENTER OVERVIEW REPORT TO THE BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION MARCH 29, 2017 PRODUCED BY: NAUGHTON B, ABRAMSON R, WANG A, KWAN-GETT T EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The DemOcratic Republic Of COngO is One Of Africa’s largest cOuntries, but ranks near the bottom in most glObal indicatOrs. Weakened by decades Of viOlence, instability, and unchecked epidemics, the DRC faces challenges On many frOnts, with a nearly collapsed and Overburdened health system, crippled infrastructure, humanitarian crises, and persisting cOnflict in the Eastern regions. Despite these formidable challenges, and with the suppOrt Of private, bilateral, multilateral, and nOn-profit organizations, the DRC has seen imprOvements in sOme areas Over the past few decades. However, further investments targeted at the key catalysts Of develOpment are required as the cOuntry seeks health, financial, and physical security amidst a rapidly changing and uncertain landscape. To help infOrm strategic investments in the DRC, the Integrated Delivery team asked the Strategic Analysis and Research Training (START) Center at the University of Washington (UW) to develop an overview of demographics, health, and financial well-being in the DRC. The START team fOund concerns abOut the quality of much of the published data on the DRC. The data that was available showed stark health and social disparities by gender, class, geography, and urban vs. rural setting. Key challenges that were identified in the DRC include the fOllOwing: Demographics & Infrastructure § Weak infrastructure is a majOr hindrance tO ecOnOmic develOpment.
    [Show full text]
  • The Bantu Migrations Bantu Migrations, 1000 B.C.–A.D
    20°N The Bantu Migrations Bantu Migrations, 1000 B.C.–A.D. 1100 ESSENTIAL QUESTION Where 0 400 800 miles Earliest migrations to A.D. 1 0 400 800 kilometers did the Bantu peoples first live, and Later migrations where did they move to? The Bantu people lived in the o Cong R iv er same area as the Nok. The Bantu Equator 0° Lake N spread across Africa in what was A F R I C A Victoria one of the greatest movements W E Lake in history. They slowly moved Tanganyika S Lake south and east along a frontier, Nyasa Z opening up new lands to a ATLANTIC m b e farming and herding. The Bantu z OCEAN i er iv R brought farming and iron to N a m 20°S Africa south of an imaginary i b D o Ri op ve p r line from Nigeria in the west to e im s Tropic of Capricorn L e Kalahari r Kenya in the east. t Desert Orange INDIAN River Bantu Speakers Some African GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER OCEAN peoples spoke similar languages INTERPRETING MAPS based on a parent language that Movement Compare this map with the one on page 185. Why didn’t the historians called Bantu. The word 0° 20°E 40°E Bantu speakers migrate north? Bantu itself means “the people.” The Bantu-speaking peoples were MapQuest.Com, Inc. not one group. They were many groups who had similar cultures. wh06pe-030603-004-m-a.ai They were farmers, herders, and eventually ironworkers. Bantu Migrations 1000 B.C.–A.D.
    [Show full text]
  • Revising the Bantu Tree
    Cladistics Cladistics (2018) 1–20 10.1111/cla.12353 Revising the Bantu tree Peter M. Whiteleya, Ming Xuea and Ward C. Wheelerb,* aDivision of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, 200 Central Park West, New York, NY, 10024-5192, USA; bDivision of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, 200 Central Park West, New York, NY, 10024-5192, USA Accepted 15 June 2018 Abstract Phylogenetic methods offer a promising advance for the historical study of language and cultural relationships. Applications to date, however, have been hampered by traditional approaches dependent on unfalsifiable authority statements: in this regard, historical linguistics remains in a similar position to evolutionary biology prior to the cladistic revolution. Influential phyloge- netic studies of Bantu languages over the last two decades, which provide the foundation for multiple analyses of Bantu socio- cultural histories, are a major case in point. Comparative analyses of basic lexica, instead of directly treating written words, use only numerical symbols that express non-replicable authority opinion about underlying relationships. Building on a previous study of Uto-Aztecan, here we analyse Bantu language relationships with methods deriving from DNA sequence optimization algorithms, treating basic vocabulary as sequences of sounds. This yields finer-grained results that indicate major revisions to the Bantu tree, and enables more robust inferences about the history of Bantu language expansion and/or migration throughout sub-Saharan Africa. “Early-split” versus “late-split” hypotheses for East and West Bantu are tested, and overall results are com- pared to trees based on numerical reductions of vocabulary data. Reconstruction of language histories is more empirically based and robust than with previous methods.
    [Show full text]