The protobantu migrants in the process assimilated andor displaced a number of earlier inhabitants that they came across, including pygmy and khoisan populations in the center and south, respectively. Bantu encompasses a group of related languages belonging to the nigercongo family greenberg, 1972 with wide distribution throughout subsaharan africa. The somali bantu lutheran family services rocky mountains. Western bantu expansion volume 25 issue 2 jan vansina. The bantu expansion is the name for a postulated millennialong series of migrations of speakers of the original proto bantu language group. During their initial migration across most of central, eastern, and southern africa, which took place between approximately 5,000 and.
The map population is composed, primarily of bantu lineages 95%, including a high percentage of the bantu expansion signature markers, e1b1am2 71. May 06, 2017 how the bantu people surged across twothirds of africa. The bantu languages stretch out from cameroon in the west to southern somalia in the east and as far as southern africa in the south. In southwestern africa angola and the angolan enclave cabinda there is. However, this estimated expansion time could represent an underestimation and may simply show the expansion of a subset of the diversity within haplogroup r1b1 to west central africa through the bantu expansion, having been shown to be especially frequent in northern cameroon, near the putative bantu expansion origin cruciani et al. Reviewers were unanimous in their praise of vansina s success in subjecting oral traditions to intense functional analysis. Bringing together linguistic and genetic evidence to test. An estimated 2,5003,000 years ago bc to 500 bc, although other sources put the start of the bantu expansion closer to 3000 bc, speakers of the protobantu language began a series of migrations eastward and southward, carrying. Pdf the problem of the bantu expansion noisette du.
Vansina university of wisconsinmadison m os t historians believe in the bantu expansion. Jan vansina, new linguistic evidence on the expansion of bantu, journal of african history 36. Paths in the rainforests isbn 9780299125745 pdf epub jan. How the bantu people surged across twothirds of africa. How the bantu people surged across twothirds of africa ars. The somali bantu iii preface this booklet is a basic introduction to the people, history, and cultures of the somali bantu. Other sampled bantu groups from southern angola that are not as cattle dependent as the kuvale exhibit much lower levels of khoesan lineage assimilation figure figure2, 2, table table2 2 and additional file 1, suggesting that most gene flow occurred between the herding khoe peoples and the herding bantu, probably due to the similarity of. Historians like jan vansina focusing on the western bantu. Attempts to trace the exact route of the expansion, to correlate it with. The bantu peoples are the speakers of bantu languages, comprising several hundred ethnic groups in subsaharan africa, spread over a vast area from central africa across the african great lakes to southern africa. The short, accessible excerpt in klieman 2003 places the development of scholarship on the bantu expansion in the context of developments in academic thinking more generally. Bantu expansion bantu migration was the expansion of bantu speaking people in africa, resulting in the subgroup being the most widely spoken language in the southern half of the continent.
The bantu expansion is a major series of migrations of the original protobantu language speaking group, who spread from an original nucleus around west africacentral africa across much of subsaharan africa. It is believed that the protobantu language originated in west africa in what is now north cameroon about 5000 years ago ya greenberg, 1972, vansina, 1995. The expansion of bantuspeaking peoples is not only debated with regard to the underlying events and the routes taken, but also whether the spread of the languages took place as the result of demic diffusion via an actual movement of people, or whether it was rather a cultural diffusion involving the movement of languages via language shift without. They were spread across central, eastern and southern africa in the bantu expansion, a rapid succession of migrations during the 1st millennium bc, in one wave moving across the congo basin towards. About 30 percent of that, the researchers found, originated near angola, a core area of early bantu expansion. Jan vansina s 1961 book, oral tradition, was hailed internationally as a pioneering work in the field of ethnohistory. In the process, the protobantuspeaking settlers displaced or absorbed preexisting hunte.
Vansina in a littlenoticed observation in his 1995 publication says first, the original bantu language became different from the mbamnkam. Nevertheless, bantu is commonly seen as one of the most recent. The principal writers are daniel van lehman and omar eno. Bantu is a subgroup of the nigercongo languages, with the. The bantu expansion stands for the concurrent dispersal of bantu languages and bantuspeaking people from an ancestral homeland situated in the grassfields region in the borderland between currentday nigeria and cameroon. Mukongo are now split by three different national boundaries, they share common social, the bantukongo concept of time 19 artistic, economic, and spiritual traditions as descendants of the historic state and speak a common kikongo language.
Harms, is the lunda empire a result of the slave trade. Subsequently, the expansion is thought to have continued along the southeastern coast eastbantu route. Bantu maritime vocabulary and its implications for. The lemba tribe is bantu and ancient hebrews and so are the. Toward a history of political tradition in equatorial africa, university of wisconsin press, madison, 1990 jan vansina, new linguistic evidence on the expansion of bantu, journal of african history 36. Bantu expansion african studies oxford bibliographies. The distribution of the various forms for iron, iron ore, to forge, smith and hammer in the area support various. Bantu expansion article about bantu expansion by the free. The problem of the bantu expansion so rapidly that the aboriginal inhabitants were soon left behind as unimportant minorities. Belgiumborn and educated, jan vansina is known internationally for his many contributions to social anthropology and to african history.
Linguistic studies are now advanced enough to allow us to sketch how central africa was settled by farmers who spoke western bantu languages. Bantu expansion wikimili, the best wikipedia reader. The bantu expansion is a postulated series of major migrations of the supposed original. Sep 22, 2017 mukongo are now split by three different national boundaries, they share common social, the bantu kongo concept of time 19 artistic, economic, and spiritual traditions as descendants of the historic state and speak a common kikongo language. The hypothesized bantu expansion pushed out or assimilated the hunterforager protokhoisan, who had formerly inhabited southern africa. Molecular perspectives on the bantu expansion royal museum for. Expansion into the forest and then split between eastern and. Bringing together linguistic and genetic evidence to test the. This migration, was fueled by a population explosion which. The classification is primarily linguistic, and there are almost a hundred bantu languages, including luganda, zulu, and swahili. During their initial migration across most of central, eastern, and southern africa, which took place between approximately 5,000 and 1,500 years ago, bantu speech.
The theory has been criticised by the likes of jan vansina, as it appears to involve an. The bantu language most often taught in american universities is swahili, but there are many others. The bantu expansion first introduced bantu peoples to central, southern, and southeast africa, regions they had previously been absent from. These include the luba the mulopwe titleholders, lunda the nuclear lunda, also termed rund, of the mwant yav titleholders, lundandembu, chokwe, pende, luvale, luluwa, kanyok, lubakasai, kuba. The historian roland oliver, whom jan vansina considered as one of the very few institutional founders in the research field of african history, 91 was probably even the first to posit the problem of the bantu expansion in the journal of african history. Bantu languages derive from a protobantu language, estimated to have been spoken about 4,000 to 3,000 years ago in westcentral africa the area of modernday cameroon. An estimated 2,5003,000 years ago bc to 500 bc, although other sources put the start of the bantu expansion closer to 3000 bc, speakers of the protobantu language began a series of migrations eastward and. It is designed primarily for service providers and others assisting somali bantu refugees in their new communities in the united states. If bantu expansion is fully rejected then is is either extremely new or the view of a partiality of the scholarship.
The current distribution of bantu languages is commonly considered to be a consequence of a relatively recent population expansion 35kya in central western africa. In eastern and southern africa, bantu speakers may have adopted livestock husbandry from other unrelated cushitic and nilotic speaking peoples they encountered. Currently a professor at the university of wisconsin at madison, he received his ph. The bantu expansion is a major series of migrations of the original proto bantu language speaking group, who spread from an original nucleus around west africacentral africa across much of subsaharan africa. The term bantu is found in few languages but in m any others, such a word with its. The scrapping of the hypothesis will make room for more realistic and quite different interpretations and research hypothesis vansina, 1995. Jan vansina oral tradition as history pdf i was expecting more generalizations about oral traditions. Vansina 16 proposes that an initial rapid expansion. Bantu expansion oxford research encyclopedia of african. The bantu languages descend from a common protobantu language, which is believed to have been spoken in what is now cameroon in central africa.
The bantu expansion an overview for college students the word bantu the word bantu which means people in many bantu languages refers to a group of about 500 african languages and to their speakers, today numbering about 90 million people. Originally published in french, it was translated into english, spanish, italian, arabic, and hungarian. The fact that bantu languages must have spread over their current distribution area in a relatively fast way has favored the idea of mass migration. The bantu expansion is the name for a postulated millennialong series of migrations of speakers of the original protobantu language group. The bergdamara and coroka of namibia and angola may have abandoned a bantu language for khoi and san languages over a millennium ago. New linguistic evidence and the bantu expansion the journal of. Bantuists believe that the bantu expansion most probably began on the highlands between cameroon and nigeria, and the 60,000 km 2 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. A wave model of language evolution vansina 1995, however, 6 mohlig 1977, 1981 maintains the hypothesis of the eastern bantu languages having. It turns out that, apparently, the bantu expansion was far worse than anyone could have imagined. Genetic and demographic implications of the bantu expansion. European journal of logistics purchasing and supply chain. Scott maceachern, genetics and african archaeology, in field manual for african.
The primary evidence for this expansion has been linguistic, namely that the languages spoken in subequatorial africa are remarkably similar to each other. New linguistic evidence and the bantu expansion the. The bantu expansion stands for the concurrent dispersal of bantu languages and bantu speaking people from an ancestral homeland situated in the grassfields region in the borderland between currentday nigeria and cameroon. Bantu expansion article about bantu expansion by the. Belgiumborn and educated, jan vansina is known internationally for his many contributions to. Bantu expansion oxford research encyclopedia of african history. In his influential book, kingdoms of the savanna 1966, jan vansina described the rise of the kingdoms of the southcentral african interior from the 15th century. The bantu expansion stands for the concurrent dispersal of bantu. In the process, the protobantuspeaking settlers displaced or absorbed preexisting huntergatherer and pastoralist groups that they encountered. Bantu expansion happened southwards from here, with the area to the west of the.
The bantu inhabit most of the continent s of the congo river except the extreme southwest. Western bantu expansion the journal of african history. Pdf the problem of the bantu expansion noisette du bresil. Pdf the expansion of bantuspeaking peoples over large parts of subsaharan. Vansina 1979 is certainly the bestknown general overview, but it is very detailed, often technical, and not as accessible to nonspecialists. Paths in the rainforests isbn 9780299125745 pdf epub jan m. If this is the sort of analogy which we have to seek in investigating the bantu expansion, then the mind obviously travels first to the supersession of hunting and gathering cultures by foodproducing cultures in africa. Evidence from ychromosome analysis for a late exclusively.
These include the luba the mulopwe titleholders, lunda the nuclear lunda, also termed rund, of the mwant yav titleholders, lundandembu, chokwe, pende, luvale, luluwa, kanyok, lubakasai, kuba, eastern lunda, yeke, and the bemba. Chokwe expansion or angola, the ovimbundu and the chokwe in the xix century trade on the coast or the jellaba in the upper nile or another trade topicxi. In the process, the proto bantu speaking settlers displaced or absorbed preexisting hunte. Bantuspeaking communities live in africa south of a line from nigeria in the west, across the. Bantu is a subgroup of the nigercongo languages, with the basic root ntu meaning man. Linguistically, the bantu languages belong to the southern bantoid branch of benuecongo, one of the language families grouped within the nigercongo phylum. The lemba tribe is bantu and ancient hebrews and so are. A synthesis article pdf available in language dynamics and change 11.