Bantu
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Map showing the approximate distribution of Bantu (dull yellow) vs. other Niger-Congo languages and peoples (bright yellow). |
Bantu is a general term for over 400 different
ethnic groups in
Africa, from
Cameroon to
South Africa, united by a common
language family, the
Bantu languages, and in many cases common
customs.
"Bantu" simply means "people" in many
Bantu languages. Dr.
Wilhelm Bleek defined "Bantu" in his 1862 book
A Comparative Grammar of South African Languages, in which he proposed a
hypothesis that a vast number of languages spread across central, southern, eastern, and even western Africa shared so many characteristics that they must be part of a single language group. This basic thesis is still accepted today, although there have been many modifications to the details of the theory since 1862.
The Bantu languages are very closely related considering the vast territory they cover, leading historians to believe the Bantu came to dominate sub-equatorial Africa relatively recently and quickly. This is borne out by early
North African and
Middle Eastern sources that do not report Bantus north of
Mozambique before the year 1000.
Before the Bantu, the southern half of Africa is believed to have been populated by
Khoisan speaking people, today relegated largely to the arid regions around the
Kalahari and a few isolated pockets in
Tanzania.
Pygmies inhabited central Africa, whereas
Cushites and other people speaking
Afro-Asiatic languages inhabited north-eastern and northern Africa. Northwestern Africa, the Sahara, and the Sudan were inhabited by people speaking
Mandé and
West Atlantic languages(such as the
Fulani and
Wolof) and other people speaking
Nilo-Saharan languages.
There are two basic theories of Bantu origins. The first was advanced by
Joseph Greenberg in 1963. He had analyzed and compared several hundred African languages and found that a group of languages spoken in Southeastern
Nigeria were the most closely related to Bantu. He theorized that Bantu was one of these languages that spread south and east over hundreds of years.
This was quickly challenged by
Malcolm Guthrie who analyzed each Bantu language and found that the most stereotypical were those spoken in
Zambia and in the southern
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This provided the alternate theory that Bantu speakers had spread from this location in all directions.
It could be that the southward expansion of the Bantu into
tsetse fly country had to wait until their
cattle evolved to be resistant to the
nagana disease.
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One common hypothesis of the Bantu expansion |
Today the accepted truth is a synthesis of the above named theories. The Bantu first originated around the
Benue-
Cross rivers area in southeastern Nigeria and spread over Africa to the Zambia area. Sometime in the
second millennium BC, perhaps triggered by the drying of the
Sahara and pressure from the migration of people from the
Sahara into the region, they were forced to expand into the
rainforests of central Africa (phase I). About 1000 years later they began a more rapid second phase of expansion beyond the forests into southern and eastern Africa. Then sometime in the first millennium new agricultural techniques and plants were developed in Zambia, likely imported from
South East Asia via
Malay speaking
Madagascar. With these techniques another Bantu expansion occurred centered on this new location (phase III).
By about AD 1000 it had reached modern day
Zimbabwe and
South Africa. In Zimbabwe a major southern hemisphere empire was established, with its capital at
Great Zimbabwe. It controlled trading routes from South Africa to north of the
Zambezi, trading gold, copper, precious stones, animal hides, ivory and metal goods with the Arab traders of the
Swahili coast. By the 14th or 15th centuries the Empire had surpassed its resources and had collapsed, with the city of Great Zimbabwe being abandoned.
Black
South Africans were at times officially called "Bantus" by the
apartheid regime. The term "Bantu" is considered pejorative in South Africa.
