Bantu Expansion

The Bantu Expansion (-2000 to +500) spread Bantu languages, iron and farming across most of Africa south of the equator, between roughly 4,000 and 1,500 years ago. It gave rise to Swahili civilization, Great Zimbabwe, and the Zulus. And the Mbundus of Angola – who in turn were the first recorded Black people brought to the Thirteen Colonies.

Today Bantu-speaking people make up most of the people south of the equator of Africa, a third of Africa overall. They account for a fourth of Africans brought to mainland North America and most of those brought to southern Brazil (Rio, Minas Gerais).

Proto-Bantu: Most of the hundreds of African languages spoken south of the equator are so alike that it could not be an accident or just due to borrowing words. By comparing the languages and working backwards you can recreate the language they all came from, called Proto-Bantu. It had words for yam, goat, warthog, sorcery, leaders, specialists, religious experts, and, most of all, fishing. It seemed to have no word for iron or any kind of metal.

Homeland: Proto-Bantu was most likely spoken somewhere near the border of Cameroon and Nigeria some 4,000 years ago. That is before metal-working and where you see the greatest differences between Bantu languages, meaning that is where it was most likely spoken the longest.

The spread of Bantu languages: You can also work out roughly how Bantu languages spread. One branch spread slowly south down the west coast to Angola and inland up rivers. Another branch went east to the Great Lakes region of what is now Uganda and Tanzania. From there Bantu languages spread southward all the way to South Africa.

Migration: Languages do not always spread by migration. Latin, for example, was spread by conquest. But the genetics seem to show a movement of people roughly in line with the Bantu expansion. The spread of iron seems to match the later stages of the expansion. In general, Bantu-speaking people mixed with farmers and herders, especially in the Great Lakes region and South Africa, but not with hunter-gatherers, especially in Angola.

Technological edge: While iron and farming gave them an edge, especially over hunter-gatherers, they spread so slowly it was apparently not decisive. As late as 1900 there were still plenty of people who used digging sticks or who got much of their food from hunting and gathering.

Genetic edge: If you look at where they live now in Africa – in the malaria and tsetse fly belt of Africa – their edge seems to have been more genetic: they and animals were less likely to die of malaria or sleeping sickness. On top of that, their way of farming helped to spread malaria!

European Expansion: The Bantu Expansion never spread into the south-western corner of Africa. Its summer-rain crops did not grow well in the winter rains there. But European crops did. That gave the Dutch and other Europeans a toehold. In 1702 in South Africa the European Expansion met the Bantu Expansion, leading to 177 years of war.

– Abagond, 2018.

See also:

• Africa: the last 13,000 years
• Swahili
  • Swahili civilization
  • Kilwa
• Mbundu
  • Queen Nzingha
• Great Zimbabwe
• The Proto-Indo-Europeans
• European Expansion
• Austronesian Expansion

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