Bantu expansion
The Bantu expansion is a hypothesis about the history of the major series of migrations of the original Proto-Bantu-speaking group,[3][4] which spread from an original nucleus around West-Central Africa. In the process, the Proto-Bantu-speaking settlers displaced, eliminated or absorbed pre-existing hunter-gatherer and pastoralist groups that they encountered.
There is linguistic evidence for this expansion – a great many of the languages which are spoken across
The expansion is believed to have taken place in at least two waves, between about 4,000 and 2,000 years ago (approximately 2,000
Theories on expansion
Bantuists believe that the Bantu expansion most probably began on the highlands between Cameroon and Nigeria.[17] The 60,000-km2 Mambilla region straddling the borderlands here has been identified as containing remnants of "the Bantu who stayed home" as the bulk of Bantu-speakers moved away from the region. Archaeological evidence from the separate works of Jean Hurault (1979, 1986 and 1988) and Rigobert Tueché (2000) in the region indicates cultural continuity from 3000 BC until today.[18] The majority of the groups of the Bamenda highlands (occupied for 2000 years until today), somewhat south and contiguous with the Mambilla region, have an ancient history of descent from the north in the direction of the Mambilla region.
Initially, archaeologists believed that they could find archaeological similarities in the region's ancient cultures that the Bantu-speakers were held to have traversed. Linguists, classifying the languages and creating a genealogical table of relationships, believed they could reconstruct material culture elements. They believed that the expansion was caused by the development of agriculture, the making of ceramics, and the use of iron, which permitted new ecological zones to be exploited. In 1966, Roland Oliver published an article presenting these correlations as a reasonable hypothesis.[19]
The hypothesized Bantu expansion pushed out or assimilated the hunter-forager proto-Khoisan, who had formerly inhabited Southern Africa. In Eastern and Southern Africa, Bantu speakers may have adopted livestock husbandry from other unrelated Cushitic-and Nilotic-speaking peoples they encountered. Herding practices reached the far south several centuries before Bantu-speaking migrants did. Archaeological, linguistic, genetic, and environmental evidence all support the conclusion that the Bantu expansion was a significant human migration. Generally, the movements of Bantu language-speaking peoples from the Cameroon/Nigeria border region throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa radically reshaped the genetic structure of the continent and led to extensive admixture between migrants and local populations.[7] In 2023, using 1,487 Bantu speakers sampled from 143 populations across 14 African countries, revealed that the expansion occurred ~4,000 years ago in Western Africa. The results showed that Bantu speakers received significant gene-flow from local groups in regions they expanded into.[6]
Based on dental evidence, Irish (2016) concluded that the common ancestors of West African and
Atlantic–Congo languages
The Atlantic-Congo family comprises a huge group of languages spread throughout Western, Central and Southern Africa. The Benue–Congo branch includes the Bantu languages, which are found throughout Central, Southern, and Eastern Africa.
A characteristic feature of most Atlantic–Congo languages, including almost all the Bantu languages except Swahili, is their use of tone. They generally lack case
Pre-expansion-era demography
Before the expansion of Bantu-speaking farmers, Central, Southern, and Southeast Africa was populated by
Central Africa
It is thought that
Southern Africa
Before the Bantu expansion,
Southeast Africa
Prior to the arrival of Bantus in Southeast Africa, Cushitic-speaking peoples had migrated into the region from the Ethiopian Highlands and other more northerly areas. The first waves consisted of Southern Cushitic speakers, who settled around Lake Turkana and parts of Tanzania beginning around 5,000 years ago. Many centuries later, around AD 1000, some Eastern Cushitic speakers also settled in northern and coastal Kenya.[23]
Khoisan-speaking hunter-gatherers also inhabited Southeast Africa before the Bantu expansion.[24]
Nilo-Saharan-speaking herder populations comprised a third group of the area's pre-Bantu expansion inhabitants.[25][26][27]
History and development
Expansion
Linguistic, archeological and genetic evidence indicates that during the course of the Bantu expansion, "independent waves of migration of western African and East African Bantu-speakers into southern Africa occurred."
c. 3000 BC to c. AD 500
It seems likely that the expansion of the Bantu-speaking people from their core region in West Africa began around 4000–3500 BC. Although early models posited that the early speakers were both iron-using and agricultural, definitive archaeological evidence that they used iron does not appear until as late as 400 BC, though they were agricultural.[31] The western branch, not necessarily linguistically distinct, according to Christopher Ehret, followed the coast and the major rivers of the Congo system southward, reaching central Angola by around 500 BC.[32]
It is clear that there were human populations in the region at the time of the expansion, and
Further east, Bantu-speaking communities had reached the great Central African rainforest, and by 500 BC, pioneering groups had emerged into the
.Another stream of migration, having moved east by 3,000 years ago (1000 BC), was creating a major new population center near the
Movements by small groups to the southeast from the Great Lakes region were more rapid, with initial settlements widely dispersed near the coast and near rivers, due to comparatively difficult farming conditions in areas farther from water. Archaeological findings have shown that by 100 BC to 300 AD, Bantu speaking communities were present at the coastal areas of Misasa in
From the 11th century to 17th century
Between the 11th and 16th centuries, powerful Bantu-speaking states on a scale larger than local
Criticism
Manfred K. H. Eggert stated that "the current archaeological record in the Central African rainforest is extremely spotty and consequently far from convincing so as to be taken as a reflection of a steady influx of Bantu speakers into the forest, let alone movement on a larger scale."[46]
See also
References
- ^ Derek Nurse and Gérard Philippson: The Bantu Languages. Routledge, London 2003.
- S2CID 3094410.
- ISBN 978-0-520-04574-3.
- ISBN 978-0-495-50262-3.
- PMID 19369595.
- ^ S2CID 258009425.
- ^ PMID 36989356.
- ISBN 978-0-3939-1847-2.
- S2CID 162117464.
- PMID 19407144.
- S2CID 13213447.
- S2CID 7760419.
- PMID 21109585.
- S2CID 20841059.
- PMID 19425093.
- ^ "Carte Blanche > M-Net". Beta.mnet.co.za. Archived from the original on 7 January 2012. Retrieved 2011-12-31.
- PMID 35914165.
- ^ Zeitlyn, D and Connell, B (2003): Ethnogenesis and Fractal History on an African Frontier: Mambila-Njerep, -Mandulu. Journal of African History, Vol. 44, No 1, pp. 117-138, June 11, 2003. C.U.P.
- S2CID 162287894.
- ^ S2CID 131878510.
- ^ Awad, Elias. "Common Origins of Pygmies and Bantus". CNRS International Magazine. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
- )
- ^ "Early migrations into East Africa | Enzi".
- ^ Ambrose, S.H. (1986). "Hunter-gatherer adaptations to non-marginal environments: an ecological and archaeological assessment of the Dorobo model". Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika (SUGIA). 7 (2): 11.
- ^ Ehret, Christopher (1980). The Historical Reconstruction of Southern Cushitic Phonology and Vocabulary. Vol. 5 of Kölner Beiträge zur Afrikanistik. Berlin: Reimer. p. 407.
- ISBN 9781872566047.
- )
- ^ Michael C. Campbell and Sarah A. Tishkoff, "The Evolution of Human Genetic and Phenotypic Variation in Africa," Current Biology, Volume 20, Issue 4, R166–R173, 23 February 2010
- ^ PMID 19360089.
- PMID 8900243
- ISBN 978-0-2991-2573-8.[page needed]
- JSTOR 3097285.
- S2CID 8686183.
- hdl:1854/LU-3118804.
- S2CID 162233816.
- S2CID 37926350.
- ^ JSTOR 220701.
- ISBN 9780813920573.[page needed]
- ISBN 978-0-300-07280-8.[page needed]
- ^ Shillington, Kevin (2005). History of Africa (3rd ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press.[page needed]
- S2CID 162627912.
- ISBN 978-1-118-45507-4.
- ^ Shillington (2005).
- .
- S2CID 166283404.
- .
Further reading
- Bostoen, Koen; Clist, Bernard; Doumenge, Charles; Grollemund, Rebecca; Hombert, Jean-Marie; Muluwa, Joseph Koni; Maley, Jean (June 2015). "Middle to Late Holocene Paleoclimatic Change and the Early Bantu Expansion in the Rain Forests of Western Central Africa". Current Anthropology. 56 (3): 354–384. S2CID 129501938.
- Bousman, C. Britt (June 1998). "The Chronological Evidence for the Introduction of Domestic Stock into Southern Africa". The African Archaeological Review. 15 (2): 133–150. S2CID 161428419.
- Currie, Thomas E.; Meade, Andrew; Guillon, Myrtille; Mace, Ruth (2013). "Cultural phylogeography of the Bantu Languages of sub-Saharan Africa". Proceedings: Biological Sciences. 280 (1762): 1–8. PMID 23658203.
- de Filippo, Cesare; Bostoen, Koen; Stoneking, Mark; PMID 22628476.
- Grollemund, Rebecca; Branford, Simon; Bostoen, Koen; Meade, Andrew; Venditti, Chris; Pagel, Mark (2015). "Bantu expansion shows that habitat alters the route and pace of human dispersals". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 112 (43): 13296–13301. PMID 26371302.
- Holden, Clare Janaki (2002). "Bantu Language Trees Reflect the Spread of Farming across Sub-Saharan Africa: A Maximum-Parsimony Analysis". Proceedings: Biological Sciences. 269 (1493): 793–799. PMID 11958710.
- Li, Sen; Schlebusch, Carina; Jakobsson, Mattias (2014). "Genetic variation reveals large-scale population expansion and migration during the expansion of Bantu-speaking peoples". Proceedings: Biological Sciences. 281 (1793): 1–9. JSTOR 43600725.
- Njoku, Raphael Chijioke (2020). "Bantu Migrations and Cultural Transnationalism in the Ancient Global Age, c. 2500 BCE–1400 CE". West African Masking Traditions and Diaspora Masquerade Carnivals. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 67–88. JSTOR j.ctv114c79k.8.
- Vansina, Jan (1984). "Western Bantu Expansion". The Journal of African History. 25 (2): 129–45. S2CID 163034445..
External links
- Berniell-Lee, G.; Calafell, F.; Bosch, E.; Heyer, E.; Sica, L.; Mouguiama-Daouda, P.; van der Veen, L.; Hombert, J.-M.; Quintana-Murci, L.; Comas, D. (1 July 2009). "Genetic and Demographic Implications of the Bantu Expansion: Insights from Human Paternal Lineages". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 26 (7): 1581–1589. PMID 19369595.
- Bantu Expansion and Hunter-gatherers
- Patin, Etienne; Lopez, Marie; Grollemund, Rebecca; Verdu, Paul; Harmant, Christine; Quach, Hélène; Laval, Guillaume; Perry, George H.; Barreiro, Luis B.; Froment, Alain; Heyer, Evelyne; Massougbodji, Achille; Fortes-Lima, Cesar; Migot-Nabias, Florence; Bellis, Gil; Dugoujon, Jean-Michel; Pereira, Joana B.; Fernandes, Verónica; Pereira, Luisa; Van der Veen, Lolke; Mouguiama-Daouda, Patrick; Bustamante, Carlos D.; Hombert, Jean-Marie; Quintana-Murci, Lluís (5 May 2017). "Dispersals and genetic adaptation of Bantu-speaking populations in Africa and North America". Science. 356 (6337): 543–546. S2CID 3094410.