bantu people
Bantu: The People
The Bantu can erroneously be defined as an ethnic group or group of people. However, Bantu is a language family that is a derivative of the Niger/Congo language group. The influence of the Bantu language and its cultural impacts in Africa are astronomical. After the Bantu migration, their culture and language spread through Africa. According to the Cambridge Review, “The Bantu language contains hundreds of languages that are spoken by 120 million Africans in Angola, the Congo Basin, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, The Republic of South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.” The totality of Bantu languages is uncertain, but the most important is the Swahili, which is spoken by more than 30 million people and about another 20 million people understand it, as it is the chief trade language of East Africa. By constructing an integrated historical framework of explanations for these multi-regional Bantu language speakers, the foundation of their connecting thread will be proven through understanding and defining the Bantu language and culture, pinpointing agricultural crops that indicate contact diffusion, and by specifying technological practices that are spread to various African provinces simultaneously. The definition of Bantu is ntu the common root for person- and ba the common plural prefix, hence the people in its complete, formal meaning. The Bantu developed farming after they emerged from their nomadic stage; they were first to move from the hunter/gatherer phase into the earliest stages of farming. The Bantu were separated into groups dispersed through the lower regions of Africa connected by their identical religions and purpose. The Bantu believed in polytheism, and in order to receive a successful harvesting year, the followers had to practice a particular set of rules. Any offender to these rules was said to be punished, and they also believed in many smaller deities that influenced the daily affairs of the people. Religion
The Bantu can erroneously be defined as an ethnic group or group of people. However, Bantu is a language family that is a derivative of the Niger/Congo language group. The influence of the Bantu language and its cultural impacts in Africa are astronomical. After the Bantu migration, their culture and language spread through Africa. According to the Cambridge Review, “The Bantu language contains hundreds of languages that are spoken by 120 million Africans in Angola, the Congo Basin, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, The Republic of South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.” The totality of Bantu languages is uncertain, but the most important is the Swahili, which is spoken by more than 30 million people and about another 20 million people understand it, as it is the chief trade language of East Africa. By constructing an integrated historical framework of explanations for these multi-regional Bantu language speakers, the foundation of their connecting thread will be proven through understanding and defining the Bantu language and culture, pinpointing agricultural crops that indicate contact diffusion, and by specifying technological practices that are spread to various African provinces simultaneously. The definition of Bantu is ntu the common root for person- and ba the common plural prefix, hence the people in its complete, formal meaning. The Bantu developed farming after they emerged from their nomadic stage; they were first to move from the hunter/gatherer phase into the earliest stages of farming. The Bantu were separated into groups dispersed through the lower regions of Africa connected by their identical religions and purpose. The Bantu believed in polytheism, and in order to receive a successful harvesting year, the followers had to practice a particular set of rules. Any offender to these rules was said to be punished, and they also believed in many smaller deities that influenced the daily affairs of the people. Religion
Cited: Kevin Shillington, History of Africa, 3rd ed. St. Martin 's Press, New York, 2005 Jan Vansina, Paths in the Rainforest: Toward a History of Political Tradition in Equatorial Africa, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1990 Gilbert,Reynolds, Africa in World History: From Prehistory the Present, 9th ed. Pearson Printice Hall Press, New Jersey, 2004