BANTU

GENERAL INFO

The Bantu-speaking peoples were initially small, hunter-gatherer tribes in a savanna south of the Sahara (now known as Nigeria). They were especially known for developing and passing on ironworking. The group remained a in the Southern Saharah until around 1000 B.C.E, when the migration(s) began; scientists believe the main reason behind the migration(s) was a common one: the assumption of why they continued to travel was because as they learned new ways of obtaining food, their population(s) kept growing, forcing them to expand to other regions of Africa. It is also suspected that because of the need for charcoal to smelt iron, the Bantu-speaking peoples had to travel south for hardwood to burn (Beck, et. al). Early on, Bantu-speaking nomads used slash and burn methods of farming to allow smalls groups to migrate small distances southward at a time, following the Congo River until reaching what is now central Angola at around 500 B.C.E. (Classic Africa). Slowly but surely, they spread their ways of life, and adopted new ones. Moving East, they picked up new ways of herding livestock from groups in what is now Kenya and Tanzania, and learned to grow bananas. Eventually, the Bantu-speaking people traveled around the Kalahari and Namib deserts. After about 2,700 years since they had began, they reached the southern tip of Africa. Each time they moved into a new area, the Bantu often encountered groups like BaMbuti, or the San. They had different interactions with various groups, and were rather technologically and agriculturally advanced comparatively: the small groups they came into contact with were still farming with slash-and-burn, and had no ironworking - like lots of Africa, they were still in the stone age. Because of this, the Bantu speaking peoples were easily able to spread across the continent quickly -- today, the BaMbuti only maintain a small part along the Congo River, and the San live around the Kalahari Desert. These groups live a simplistic life, and there culture nor language reflect that of the Bantu-speaking people. Arguably the most important and long-standing thing that the Bantu integrated into society is language. The Bantu language is suspected to have combined with Persian and Arabic words as the Bantu-speaking peoples traded with Arab traders around the Indian Ocean as early as 1000 A.D. For the next seven centuries (and onward), the Bantu people were important for trade with Arabs and Persians, and vise-versa. The centuries of trading and such between cultures went on to form Swahili, aka Kiswahili. The word itself means “the coast.” Today, Swahili is the second most common language in Africa, with around 240 million people speaking it now. The groups continued on and grew for thousands of years, having such high points as formation of the kingdom of the great Mapungubwe. By the end of the migrations, they populated the southern third of the continent. Between the 13th and 15th centuries, local chiefdoms were being replaced with larger governmental systems in various regions of Africa, like along the Zambezi river. The governments grew and grew, and villages became powerful cities with specialized workers. Trade continued on, and the Bantu-speaking peoples were dominant forces to be reckoned with. This power came to a halt however by the colonial times around the 15th-16th century(ies), when the powerful -- and even more technologically advanced -- Portuguese fought and conquered most of Africa, stripping the Bantu-speaking people of their power. In 1730, the Omani Arabs overcame Portugal, enslaving the conquered portions of African groups. This slavery continued on through various decades and leaders.