The Bantu World History/Napp
“Early Africans made some of the greatest migrations in history. When the migrationswere over they or their descendants populated the southern third of the continent. Starting in the first few centuries A.D. and continuing over 1,500 years, small groupsmoved southward throughout Africa, spreading their language and culture. Historians refer to these people as the Bantu-speaking peoples. (The word Bantu itself means ‘the people.’) The Bantu-speaking peoples originally lived in thesavanna south of the Sahara, in the area that is now southeastern Nigeria.
Bantu speakers were not one people, but rather a group of peopleswho shared certain cultural characteristics. They were farmers and nomadicherders who developed and passed along the skill of ironworking. Many expertsbelieve they were related to the Nok peoples.
Beginning at least 2,000 years ago, small groups of Bantu speakersbegan moving to the south and east. The farming techniques used by these peopleforced them to move every few years. The technique is called slash and burn. Apatch of the forest is cut down and burned. The ashes are mixed into the soil creatinga fertile garden area. However, the land loses its fertility quickly and is abandonedfor another plot in a new location. When they moved, the Bantu speakersshared their skills with the people they met. During the migration, the Bantu spread farming techniques, knowledge about smelting iron, and the Bantu language.
As they moved eastward into the savannas, they adapted their techniques forherding goats and sheep to raising cattle. Passing through what is now Kenya andTanzania, they learned to cultivate new crops. One such crop was the banana,which came from Southeast Asia via Indonesian travelers.”~ World History
- Who were the Bantu?
- Why did the Bantu migrate?
- Define migration.
- What did the Bantu spread?
- What new crop did the Bantu learn to cultivate?
- How did the Bantu change world history?
- Experts suggest that once the Bantu developed agriculture, theywere able to produce more food than by hunting and gathering
- As a result, the population of West Africa increased
- Because this enlarged populationrequired more food, the earliest Bantu speakers planted more land
- Soonthere wasn’t enough land to go around
- The Bantu then moved in search of new farm land / - As the Bantu speakers spread south into hunter-gatherers’lands, territorial wars often broke out
- Fightingwith iron-tipped spears, the Bantu easily drove off the people they met
- But the Bantu speakers also exchanged ideas and intermarriednew people
- They brought new techniques of agriculture to the lands they occupied
- The Bantu spread agriculture, iron-making and language to the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa / - An estimated 240 million people in Africaspeak one of the Bantu languages as their first language
- Of that number, about 50
million people in central and east Africa speakSwahili (also known as Kiswahili)
- The word swahili means “the coast”
- Swahili is widelyused on the east coast of Africa, but is found elsewhere, too
- Swahiliuses Bantu words along with Arabic and
Persian words
- It probably developed as
people of East Africa interacted with traders
from the Indian Ocean
- Which effects of the Bantu-speakingmigrations do youthink had the most long-termimpact? Explain.
- What are push-pull factors inmigration?
- Into which regions of Africa didthe Bantu-speaking migrationmove?
- How can the effects of onemigration become a cause of another migration?
- How does migration shape themodern world?
- How might the population of Africa bedifferent today if the Bantu-speaking migrations had nottaken place?
- Write acompare-and-contrast paragraphaddressing how migratingBantu speakers and the peoples they encountered mayhave reacted to each other?
- What geographic features did the Bantu speakers encounter inthe course of theirmigrations?
- Why didn’t the Bantu speakers migrate northward?
All of the following are causes of migration EXCEPTA) the spread of languages
B) shift in climate
C) population
D) repression
The native languages of most African peoples fall into which linguistic group?
A) Niger-Congo
B) Bantu
C) Afro-Asiatic
D) Nilo-Saharan / Which of the following best describes the Bantu migration?
A) a long, complex process in which two different waves of Bantu-speaking peoples eventually linked up
B) a single, overwhelming force of Bantu-speaking people who absorbed all other speakers they encountered
C) a fairly quick (at least historically) development in which non-Bantu speakers migrated into Bantu areas and were absorbed
D) None of these answers is correct
-How did the Bantu provide a common linguistic foundation in Sub-Saharan Africa?
-Why do people migrate?
-What are the positive and negative aspects of migration?