View source for Bantu expansion

{{Short description|Postulated millennia-long series of migrations}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2014}}
[[File:Bantu Phillipson.png|thumb|320px|Chronological overview after Nurse and Philippson (2003):<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nurse |first1=Derek |last2=Philippson |first2=Gérard |title=The Bantu Languages |date=2003 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-7007-1134-5 }}{{page needed|date=March 2024}}</ref>
<br/>'''1''' = 4,000–3,500{{nbsp}}[[Before Present|BP]]: origin
<br/>'''2''' = 3,500{{nbsp}}BP: initial expansion  
<br/>"early split": '''2.a''' = Eastern, {{nbsp|2}} '''2.b''' = Western<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Patin |first1=Etienne |last2=Lopez |first2=Marie |last3=Grollemund |first3=Rebecca |last4=Verdu |first4=Paul |last5=Harmant |first5=Christine |last6=Quach |first6=Hélène |last7=Laval |first7=Guillaume |last8=Perry |first8=George H. |last9=Barreiro |first9=Luis B. |last10=Froment |first10=Alain |last11=Heyer |first11=Evelyne |last12=Massougbodji |first12=Achille |last13=Fortes-Lima |first13=Cesar |last14=Migot-Nabias |first14=Florence |last15=Bellis |first15=Gil |last16=Dugoujon |first16=Jean-Michel |last17=Pereira |first17=Joana B. |last18=Fernandes |first18=Verónica |last19=Pereira |first19=Luisa |last20=Van der Veen |first20=Lolke |last21=Mouguiama-Daouda |first21=Patrick |last22=Bustamante |first22=Carlos D. |last23=Hombert |first23=Jean-Marie |last24=Quintana-Murci |first24=Lluís |display-authors=1|title=Dispersals and genetic adaptation of Bantu-speaking populations in Africa and North America |journal=Science |date=5 May 2017 |volume=356 |issue=6337 |pages=543–546 |doi=10.1126/science.aal1988 |pmid=28473590 |bibcode=2017Sci...356..543P |hdl=10216/109265 |s2cid=3094410 |url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02277558 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>
<br/>'''3''' = 2,000–1,500{{nbsp}}BP: [[Urewe]] nucleus of Eastern Bantu
<br/>'''4'''–'''7''': southward advance
<br/>'''9''' = 2,500{{nbsp}}BP: Congo nucleus
<br/>'''10''' = 2,000–1,000{{nbsp}}BP: last phase]]
[[File:East and southern africa early iron age.png|thumb|300px|Map indicating the spread of the Early Iron Age across Africa; all numbers are AD dates except for the "250 BC" date.]]
The '''Bantu expansion'''<ref name=":1">{{cite book |last1=Bostoen |first1=Koen |url=https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-191 |title=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History |date=2018 |isbn=978-0-19-027773-4 |chapter=The Bantu Expansion |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.191}}</ref><ref name=legacy /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Grollemund |first1=Rebecca |last2=Branford |first2=Simon |last3=Bostoen |first3=Koen |last4=Meade |first4=Andrew |last5=Venditti |first5=Chris |last6=Pagel |first6=Mark |title=Bantu expansion shows that habitat alters the route and pace of human dispersals |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |date=27 October 2015 |volume=112 |issue=43 |pages=13296–13301 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1503793112 |doi-access=free |pmid=26371302 |pmc=4629331 |bibcode=2015PNAS..11213296G }}</ref> was a major series of migrations of the original [[Proto-Bantu language|Proto-Bantu]]-speaking [[Bantu peoples|group]],<ref name=Clark>{{Cite book| last1 = Clark  | first1 = John Desmond |author-link=J. Desmond Clark | last2 = Brandt  | first2 = Steven A.  | title = From Hunters to Farmers: The Causes and Consequences of Food Production in Africa | publisher = [[University of California Press]]  | year = 1984  | page = 33  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=dftPHu1o2s8C&pg=PA33  | isbn =978-0-520-04574-3
}}</ref><ref name=Adler>{{Cite book| last1 = Adler  | first1 = Philip J.  | last2 = Pouwels  | first2 = Randall L.  | title = World Civilizations: Since 1500  | publisher = [[Cengage Learning]]  | year = 2007  | page = 169  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=mPoqfoiIp4sC&pg=PA169  | isbn =978-0-495-50262-3
}}</ref> which spread from an original nucleus around [[West Africa|West]]-[[Central Africa]] across Central Africa, [[Eastern Africa]], and [[Southern Africa]]. In the process, the Proto-Bantu-speaking settlers absorbed, displaced, and possibly in some cases replaced pre-existing [[hunter-gatherer]] and [[Pastoralism|pastoralist]] groups that they encountered.

There is linguistic evidence for this expansion – a great many of the languages which are spoken across [[Southern Africa|sub-Equatorial Africa]] are remarkably similar to each other, suggesting a recent common cultural origin of their original speakers. The linguistic core of the Bantu languages, which constitute a branch of the [[Atlantic-Congo|Atlantic-Congo language family]], was located in the southern regions of [[Cameroon]].<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Gemma |last1=Berniell-Lee |first2=Francesc |last2=Calafell |first3=Elena |last3=Bosch |first4=Evelyne |last4=Heyer |first5=Lucas |last5=Sica |first6=Patrick |last6=Mouguiama-Daouda |first7=Lolke |last7=van der Veen |first8=Jean-Marie |last8=Hombert |first9=Lluis |last9=Quintana-Murci |first10=David |last10=Comas | display-authors=3 |title=Genetic and Demographic Implications of the Bantu Expansion: Insights from Human Paternal Lineages |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |volume=26 |issue=7 |pages=1581–9 |date=2006 |doi=10.1093/molbev/msp069 |pmid=19369595 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Genetic evidence also indicates that there was a large human migration from central Africa, with varying levels of admixture with local population.<ref name=legacy/><ref name=dense/>

The expansion is believed to have taken place between about 6,000 and 1,500 years ago (approximately 4,000 BCE to 500 CE). Linguistic analysis suggests that the expansion proceeded in two directions: the first (termed the "Western Stream") proceeded south either along the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] coast or following rivers through the [[Congo rainforest]], reaching central Angola around 500 BCE. The second (termed the "Eastern Stream") proceeded east either along the northern fringe of the forest or along the [[Ubangi River]], and reached west of [[Lake Victoria]] around 500 BCE. From there, they split into two groups, with one heading west to regroup with the Western Stream, and the other dispersing over Eastern and Southern Africa. The expansion reached South Africa, probably as early as 300 CE.<ref>{{Cite journal |first=J. |last=Vansina |title=New Linguistic Evidence and 'The Bantu Expansion' |journal=Journal of African History |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=173–195 |year=1995 |jstor=182309 |doi=10.1017/S0021853700034101 |s2cid=162117464 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1126/science.1172257 |title=The Genetic Structure and History of Africans and African Americans |year=2009 |last1=Tishkoff |first1=S. A. |last2=Reed |first2=F. A. |last3=Friedlaender |first3=F. R. |last4=Ehret |first4=C. |last5=Ranciaro |first5=A. |last6=Froment |first6=A. |last7=Hirbo |first7=J. B. |last8=Awomoyi |first8=A. A. |last9=Bodo |first9=J.-M. | display-authors=3 |journal=Science |volume=324 |issue=5930 |pages=1035–44 |pmid=19407144 |pmc=2947357 |bibcode=2009Sci...324.1035T }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |pmid=15340834 |year=2004 |last1=Plaza |first1=S |last2=Salas |first2=A |last3=Calafell |first3=F |last4=Corte-Real |first4=F |last5=Bertranpetit |first5=J |last6=Carracedo |first6=A |last7=Comas |first7=D |s2cid=13213447 |title=Insights into the western Bantu dispersal: MtDNA lineage analysis in Angola |volume=115 |issue=5 |pages=439–47 |doi=10.1007/s00439-004-1164-0 |journal=Human Genetics}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |pmid=19383166 |year=2009 |last1=Coelho |first1=M |last2=Sequeira |first2=F |last3=Luiselli |first3=D |last4=Beleza |first4=S |last5=Rocha |first5=J |s2cid=7760419 |title=On the edge of Bantu expansions: MtDNA, Y chromosome and lactase persistence genetic variation in southwestern Angola |volume=9 |page=80 |doi=10.1186/1471-2148-9-80 |pmc=2682489 |journal=BMC Evolutionary Biology |issue=1 |bibcode=2009BMCEE...9...80C |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |pmid=21109585 |year=2011 |last1=De Filippo |first1=C |last2=Barbieri |first2=C |last3=Whitten |first3=M |last4=Mpoloka |first4=SW |last5=Gunnarsdóttir |first5=ED |last6=Bostoen |first6=K |last7=Nyambe |first7=T |last8=Beyer |first8=K |last9=Schreiber |first9=H |last10=De Knijff |first10=P. |last11=Luiselli |first11=D. |last12=Stoneking |first12=M. |last13=Pakendorf |first13=B. | display-authors=3 |title=Y-chromosomal variation in sub-Saharan Africa: Insights into the history of Niger–Congo groups |volume=28 |issue=3 |pages=1255–69 |doi=10.1093/molbev/msq312 |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |pmc=3561512 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |pmid=21453002 |year=2011 |last1=Alves |first1=I |last2=Coelho |first2=M |last3=Gignoux |first3=C |last4=Damasceno |first4=A |last5=Prista |first5=A |last6=Rocha |first6=J |s2cid=20841059 | display-authors=3 |title=Genetic homogeneity across Bantu-speaking groups from Mozambique and Angola challenges early split scenarios between East and West Bantu populations |volume=83 |issue=1 |pages=13–38 |doi=10.3378/027.083.0102 |journal=Human Biology}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |pmid=19425093 |year=2009 |last1=Castrì |first1=L |last2=Tofanelli |first2=S |last3=Garagnani |first3=P |last4=Bini |first4=C |last5=Fosella |first5=X |last6=Pelotti |first6=S |last7=Paoli |first7=G |last8=Pettener |first8=D |last9=Luiselli |first9=D | display-authors=3 |title=MtDNA variability in two Bantu-speaking populations (Shona and Hutu) from Eastern Africa: Implications for peopling and migration patterns in sub-Saharan Africa |volume=140 |issue=2 |pages=302–11 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.21070 |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology }}</ref>

==Theories on expansion==
Bantuists believe that the Bantu expansion most likely began on the highlands between [[Cameroon]] and [[Nigeria]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Koile |first1=Ezequiel |last2=Greenhill |first2=Simon J. |last3=Blasi |first3=Damián E. |last4=Bouckaert |first4=Remco |last5=Gray |first5=Russell D. |date=2022-08-09 |title=Phylogeographic analysis of the Bantu language expansion supports a rainforest route |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |language=en |volume=119 |issue=32 |article-number=e2112853119 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2112853119 |doi-access=free |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=9372543 |pmid=35914165|bibcode=2022PNAS..11912853K }}</ref> The 60,000-km<sup>2</sup> [[Mambilla Plateau|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 BCE until today.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zeitlyn |first1=David |last2=Connell |first2=Bruce |title=Ethnogenesis and Fractal History on an African Frontier: Mambila-Njerep-Mandulu |journal=The Journal of African History |date=2003 |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=117–138 |doi=10.1017/S002185370200823X |jstor=4100385 |url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:c536bd12-0c24-4444-bfc5-d2471fbbfdb2 }}</ref> The majority of the groups of the [[Western High Plateau|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 assumed 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, thought they could reconstruct material culture elements. They presumed 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.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1017/S0021853700006472 |jstor=180108 |title=The Problem of the Bantu Expansion |year=1966 |last1=Oliver |first1=Roland |journal=The Journal of African History |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=361–376 |s2cid=162287894 }}</ref>
The hypothesized Bantu expansion pushed out or assimilated the hunter-forager proto-[[Khoisan]], who had formerly inhabited Southern Africa. In [[East Africa|Eastern]] and [[Southern Africa]], Bantu speakers may have adopted livestock husbandry from other unrelated [[Cushitic languages|Cushitic]]-and [[Nilotic languages|Nilotic]]-speaking peoples they encountered. Herding practices reached the far south several centuries before Bantu-speaking migrants did. [[archaeology|Archaeological]], [[linguistics|linguistic]], [[genetics|genetic]], and [[natural environment|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.<ref name=dense>{{Cite journal |last1=Bird |first1=Nancy |last2=Ormond |first2=Louise |last3=Awah |first3=Paschal |last4=Caldwell |first4=Elizabeth F. |last5=Connell |first5=Bruce |last6=Elamin |first6=Mohamed |last7=Fadlelmola |first7=Faisal M. |last8=Matthew Fomine |first8=Forka Leypey |last9=López |first9=Saioa |last10=MacEachern |first10=Scott |last11=Moñino |first11=Yves |last12=Morris |first12=Sam |last13=Näsänen-Gilmore |first13=Pieta |last14=Nketsia V |first14=Nana Kobina |last15=Veeramah |first15=Krishna |display-authors=1|title=Dense sampling of ethnic groups within African countries reveals fine-scale genetic structure and extensive historical admixture |journal=Science Advances |date=2023 |volume=9 |issue=13 |article-number=eabq2616 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.abq2616 |issn=2375-2548 |pmid=36989356|pmc=10058250 |bibcode=2023SciA....9.2616B }}</ref> A 2023 genetic study of 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.<ref name=legacy>{{cite journal |last1=Fortes-Lima |first1=Cesar A. |last2=Burgarella |first2=Concetta |last3=Hammarén |first3=Rickard |last4=Eriksson |first4=Anders |last5=Vicente |first5=Mário |last6=Jolly |first6=Cecile |last7=Semo |first7=Armando |last8=Gunnink |first8=Hilde |last9=Pacchiarotti |first9=Sara |last10=Mundeke |first10=Leon |last11=Matonda |first11=Igor |last12=Muluwa |first12=Joseph Koni |last13=Coutros |first13=Peter |last14=Nyambe |first14=Terry S. |last15=Cikomola |first15=Cirhuza |last16=Coetzee |first16=Vinet |last17=De Castro |first17=Minique |last18=Ebbesen |first18=Peter |last19=Delanghe |first19=Joris |last20=Stoneking |first20=Mark |last21=Barham |first21=Lawrence |last22=Lombard |first22=Marlize |last23=Meyer |first23=Anja |last24=Steyn |first24=Maryna |last25=Malmström |first25=Helena |last26=Rocha |first26=Jorge |last27=Soodyall |first27=Himla |last28=Pakendorf |first28=Brigitte |last29=Bostoen |first29=Koen |last30=Schlebusch |first30=Carina M. |display-authors=1|title=The genetic legacy of the expansion of Bantu-speaking peoples in Africa |journal=Nature |date=5 April 2023 |volume=625 |issue=7995 |pages=540–547 |doi=10.1038/s41586-023-06770-6|biorxiv=10.1101/2023.04.03.535432 |pmid=38030719 |pmc=10794141 |hdl=1854/LU-01GYSSJZXPWXA5Z7DVSNTP0DQA |s2cid=258009425 |bibcode=2024Natur.625..540F  }}</ref>

The predominant paternal haplogroup among the Bantu is [[Haplogroup E-M2|E1b1a1-M2]].<ref name="Your DNA Guide">{{Cite web|url= https://www.yourdnaguide.com/ydgblog/ydna-haplogroup-e/|title=Y-DNA Haplogroup E: E1b1b and E1b1a - Your DNA Guide - November 2021}}</ref> The ancestors of the Bantu originally came from [[Northeast Africa]] and moved around the [[African humid period|Green Sahara]].<ref name="Shriner">{{cite journal |last1=Shriner |first1=Daniel |last2=Rotimi |first2=Charles N. |title=Whole-Genome-Sequence-Based Haplotypes Reveal Single Origin of the Sickle Allele during the Holocene Wet Phase |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=102 |issue=4 |pages=547–556 |date=April 2018 |pmid=29526279 |pmc=5985360 |issn=0002-9297 |oclc=7353789016 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2018.02.003}}</ref> Based on dental evidence, Irish (2016) concluded that the common ancestors of West African and [[Proto-Bantu]] peoples may have originated in the western region of the [[Sahara]], amid the [[Kiffian]] period at [[Gobero]], and may have migrated southward, from the Sahara into various parts of [[West Africa]] (e.g., [[Benin]], [[Cameroon]], [[Ghana]], [[Nigeria]], [[Togo]]), as a result of [[desertification]] of the [[Green Sahara]] in 7000 BCE.<ref name="Irish">{{cite conference |last1=Irish |first1=Joel D |title=Tracing the 'Bantu Expansion' from its source: Dental nonmetric affinities among West African and neighboring populations |date=2016 |doi=10.13140/RG.2.2.14163.78880 |s2cid=131878510 |conference=American Association of Physical Anthropologists }}</ref> From Nigeria and Cameroon, [[agricultural]] Proto-Bantu peoples began to [[Bantu Migration|migrate]], and amid migration, diverged into East Bantu peoples (e.g., [[Democratic Republic of Congo]]) and West Bantu peoples (e.g., Congo, [[Gabon]]) between 2500 BCE and 1200 BCE.<ref name="Irish" /> He suggests that [[Igbo people]] and [[Yoruba people]] may have admixture from back-migrated Bantu peoples.<ref name="Irish" />{{dubious|date=December 2025}}

==Pre-expansion-era demography==
Before the expansion of Bantu-speaking farmers, Central, Southern, and Southeast Africa were likely populated by [[Congo Pygmies|Pygmy]] foragers, [[Khoisan languages|Khoisan]]-speaking [[hunter-gatherer]]s, [[Nilo-Saharan languages|Nilo-Saharan]]-speaking herders, and [[Cushitic languages|Cushitic]]-speaking [[pastoralists]].

===Central Africa===
It is thought that [[Congo Pygmies|Central African Pygmies]] and Bantu speakers branched out from a common ancestral population {{circa|70,000 years ago}}.<ref>{{cite web |first=Elias |last=Awad |title=Common Origins of Pygmies and Bantus |url=http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1164.htm |work=CNRS International Magazine |publisher=Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique |access-date=27 November 2014}}</ref> Many [[Batwa peoples|Batwa]] groups speak Bantu languages; however, a considerable portion of their vocabulary is not Bantu in origin. Much of this vocabulary is botanical, deals with honey collecting, or is otherwise specialised for the forest and is shared between western Batwa groups. It has been proposed that this is the remnant of an independent western Batwa ([[Mbenga language|Mbenga]] or "Baaka") language.<ref>{{cite book |first=Serge |last=Bahuchet |date=1993 |chapter=History of the Inhabitants of the Central African Rain Forest: Perspectives from Comparative Linguistics |pages=37–54 |editor-first=C.M. |editor-last=Hladik |title=Tropical Forests, People, and Food: Biocultural Interactions and Applications to Development |location=Paris |publisher=Unesco/Parthenon |isbn=978-9-2310-2879-3}}</ref>

===Southeast Africa===
Prior to the arrival of Bantu speakers in Southeast Africa, [[Cushitic languages|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 1000 CE, some Eastern Cushitic speakers also settled in northern and coastal [[Kenya]].<ref name="Map">{{Cite web |title=Early migrations into East Africa &#124; Enzi |url=http://www.enzimuseum.org/after-the-stone-age/early-migrations-into-east-africa}}</ref>

[[Khoisan languages|Khoisan]]-speaking hunter-gatherers also inhabited Southeast Africa before the Bantu expansion.<ref name="AmbroseSG">{{cite journal |last1=Ambrose |first1=Stanley H. |date=1986 |title=Hunter-gatherer adaptations to non-marginal environments: an ecological and archaeological assessment of the Dorobo model |journal=Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=11–42}}</ref>

[[Nilo-Saharan languages|Nilo-Saharan]]-speaking herder populations comprised a third group of the area's pre-Bantu expansion inhabitants.<ref name="EhretHRSC">{{cite book |last=Ehret |first=Christopher |title=The Historical Reconstruction of Southern Cushitic Phonology and Vocabulary |date=1980 |publisher=Reimer |volume=5 of Kölner Beiträge zur Afrikanistik |location=Berlin |page=407}}</ref><ref name="EhretCHS">{{cite book |last=Ehret |first=Christopher |title=Culture History in the Southern Sudan |date=1983 |publisher=British Institute in Eastern Africa |isbn=978-1-872566-04-7 |editor-last1=Mack |editor-first1=John |location=Nairobi, Kenya |pages=19–48 |editor-last2=Robertshaw |editor-first2=Peter}}</ref><ref name="AmbroseALR">{{cite book |last=Ambrose |first=Stanley H. |title=The Archaeological and Linguistic Reconstruction of African History |date=1982 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-5200-4593-4 |editor-last1=Ehert |editor-first1=Christopher |pages=104–157 |chapter=Archaeological and Linguistic Reconstructions of History in East Africa |editor-last2=Posnansky |editor-first2=Merrick |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kJMFMpoHuVgC&pg=PA104}}</ref>

===Southern Africa===
Before the Bantu expansion, [[Khoisan languages|Khoisan]]-speaking peoples inhabited Southern Africa. Their descendants have largely mixed with other peoples and adopted other languages. A few still live by foraging, often supplemented by working for neighbouring farmers in the arid regions around the [[Kalahari]] desert, while a larger number of [[Nama people|Nama]] continue their traditional subsistence by raising livestock in Namibia and adjacent South Africa.

==History and development==
The oldest pottery found in an area inhabited by Bantu speakers ([[Shum Laka]] in northern Cameroon) dates to 5000 BCE. The Proto-Bantu speakers lived in villages and grew [[palm oil]], [[Elaeis guineensis|nuts]], [[Canarium schweinfurthii|grains]], and possibly [[Yam (vegetable)|yams]]. They used stone tools, had goats and [[Guineafowl|guinea fowl]], and built boats used for fishing.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=24}}

Despite intensive research, the cause of the Bantu expansion, and that of the directions taken, is still unclear,{{Efn|An initial idea that the dispersal was caused by population pressure following the introduction of farming is generally now discounted.}} leading some scholars to think it began by accident. There is however consensus that there were multiple dispersal events.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Juwayeyi |first=Yusuf M. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/archaeology-and-oral-tradition-in-malawi/7588016649895DA4A10FC2CCC6B5E336 |title=Archaeology and Oral Tradition in Malawi: Origins and Early History of the Chewa |date=2020 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |isbn=978-1-84701-253-1 |chapter=The Bantu origins of the Chewa}}</ref>{{Rp|page=23}}

=== c. 5000{{nbsp}}BCE to c. 500 CE{{nbsp}} ===
It seems likely that the expansion of the [[Bantu peoples|Bantu-speaking people]] from their core region in West Africa began around 4000–3500{{nbsp}}BCE. It is unclear whether the first dispersal scenario resulted in migration or multiple smaller dispersals occurring at different times.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=23}} 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{{nbsp}}BCE, though they were agricultural.<ref>{{cite book |first=Jan |last=Vansina |title=Paths in the Rainforest: Toward a History of Political Tradition in Equatorial Africa |publisher=[[University of Wisconsin Press]] |location=Madison |date=1990 |isbn=978-0-2991-2573-8 }}{{page needed|date=November 2022}}</ref>  The Bantu-speaking people split into two broad groups which dispersed in different directions, termed the "Western Stream" and the "Eastern Stream".<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=|pages=23–24}}

==== Western Stream ====
Sites south of [[Shum Laka]] (in southern Cameroon and Gabon) indicate the Western Stream began between 5000 and 3000 BCE.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=24}} Initial progress was very slow, and central Cameroon was only reached around 1500 BCE. This slowness was due to the initial lack of iron tools which would have made clearing the forest considerably easier, and the Western Stream likely followed the coast and the major rivers of the Congo system southward. They may also have used the sea to reach the southern end of the rainforest.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=25}} It is thought that the degradation of the [[Congolian rainforests|West-Central African rainforest]] by [[Climate variability and change|climate change]] between 2000 BCE and 500 BCE aided the expansion.<ref name=":1" />  They reached central Angola by around 500{{nbsp}}BCE.<ref>{{cite journal |jstor=3097285 |pages=5–41 |last1=Ehret |first1=C. |title=Bantu Expansions: Re-Envisioning a Central Problem of Early African History |volume=34 |issue=1 |journal=The International Journal of African Historical Studies |year=2001 |doi=10.2307/3097285 }}</ref>

==== Eastern Stream ====
The Eastern Stream, thought to have started later than the Western Stream, dispersed east, possibly along the northern edge of the rainforest, or along the [[Ubangi River]]. [[Urewe]] pottery indicates they reached west of [[Lake Victoria]] by 500{{nbsp}}BCE.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|pages=25–26}} It was one of Africa's oldest iron-smelting centres.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Clist |first1=Bernard-Olivier |title=A critical reappraisal of the chronological framework of the Early Iron Age Urewe Industry |journal=MUNTU |date=1987 |volume=6 |pages=35–62 |hdl=1854/LU-3118804 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lane |first1=Paul |last2=Ashley |first2=Ceri |last3=Oteyo |first3=Gilbert |title=New Dates for Kansyore and Urewe Wares from Northern Nyanza, Kenya |journal=Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa |date=January 2006 |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=123–138 |doi=10.1080/00672700609480438 |s2cid=162233816 }}</ref> By the first century BCE, Bantu speaking communities in the [[African Great Lakes|Great Lakes]] region developed iron forging techniques that enabled them to produce [[carbon steel]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schmidt |first1=Peter |last2=Avery |first2=Donald H. |title=Complex Iron Smelting and Prehistoric Culture in Tanzania: Recent discoveries show complex technological achievement in African iron production. |journal=Science |date=22 September 1978 |volume=201 |issue=4361 |pages=1085–1089 |doi=10.1126/science.201.4361.1085 |pmid=17830304 |s2cid=37926350 }}</ref>

Dispersal from the Great Lakes region occurred in two more streams. One went west to meet the Western Stream in the DR Congo and Angola, while the other went south and spread across Eastern and Southern Africa.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=26}} Archaeological findings have shown that by 100 BCE to 300 CE, Bantu speaking communities were present at the coastal areas of Misasa in [[Tanzania]] and  [[Kwale County|Kwale]] in Kenya. These communities also integrated and intermarried with the communities already present at the coast. From 300 CE, through participation in the long-existing [[Indian Ocean trade|Indian Ocean trade route]], these communities established links with Arabian and Indian traders, leading to the development of the [[Swahili culture]].<ref name=Kusimba>{{cite journal |last1=Pouwels |first1=Randall L. |last2=Kusimba |first2=Chapurukha M. |title=The Rise and Fall of Swahili States |journal=The International Journal of African Historical Studies |date=2000 |volume=33 |issue=2 |page=437 |doi=10.2307/220701 |jstor=220701 }}</ref> Other pioneering groups had reached modern [[KwaZulu-Natal]] in South Africa by 300 CE along the coast, and the modern [[Limpopo Province]] by 500 CE.<ref>{{cite book |first=Christopher |last=Ehret |title=An African Classical Age: Eastern and Southern Africa in World History, 1000 BC to AD 400 |publisher=James Currey |location=London |date=1998 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1i-IBmCeNhUC|isbn=978-0-8139-2057-3 }}{{page needed|date=September 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=James L. |last=Newman |title=The Peopling of Africa: A Geographic Interpretation |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |location=New Haven, Connecticut |date=1995 |isbn=978-0-300-07280-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/peoplingofafrica00newmrich|url-access=registration }}{{page needed|date=September 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Kevin |last=Shillington |title=History of Africa |edition=3rd |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York |date=2005}}{{page needed|date=September 2015}}</ref>

==== Interactions between Bantu speakers and hunter-gatherers ====
[[File:Rock painting of men with sheilds.jpg|thumb|[[San rock art]] depicting a shield-carrying warrior. Previously interpreted as depicting historical events, recent studies of San art indicate that those termed as "contact paintings" are religious in nature and express abstract conflict of varying nature.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last1=Chirikure |first1=Shadreck |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3pa7CgAAQBAJ&dq=kingdom+of+mapungubwe&pg=PT6 |title=Mapungubwe Reconsidered: A Living Legacy: Exploring Beyond the Rise and Decline of the Mapungubwe State |last2=Delius |first2=Peter |last3=Esterhuysen |first3=Amanda |last4=Hall |first4=Simon |last5=Lekgoathi |first5=Sekibakiba |last6=Maulaudzi |first6=Maanda |last7=Neluvhalani |first7=Vele |last8=Ntsoane |first8=Otsile |last9=Pearce |first9=David |date=2015-10-01 |publisher=Real African Publishers Pty Ltd. |isbn=978-1-920655-06-8 |language=en}}</ref>{{Reference page|pages=65-6}} ]]Throughout the expansion, Bantu speakers interacted with various [[African Pygmies|Pygmy groups]] and [[Khoisan languages|Khoisan]] speakers ([[hunter-gatherer]] groups), and [[Nilo-Saharan languages|Nilo-Saharan]], [[Afroasiatic languages|Afro-Asiatic]], and other [[Niger-Congo]] speakers (agricultural groups).<ref name=":1" /> Research indicates there was copious cultural and physical contact between Bantu speakers and hunter-gatherers, with intermarriages common. Relations were complex as languages, technologies, rituals, and genes were shared.<ref name=":2">{{Citation |last=de Maret |first=Pierre |title=Archaeologies of the Bantu Expansion |date=2013-07-04 |work=The Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology |page=0 |editor-last=Mitchell |editor-first=Peter |url=https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/28041/chapter-abstract/211950453?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false |access-date=2025-03-16 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-956988-5 |editor2-last=Lane |editor2-first=Paul J.}}</ref> The larger Bantu-speaking populations, aided by animal herding, would have often absorbed the smaller hunter-gatherer populations, with hunter-gatherer women migrating to Bantu-speaking groups, and Bantu-speaking men migrating to hunter-gatherer groups (this is supported by contemporary cultural customs that women from agricultural groups shouldn't marry men from foraging groups, while the reverse is more accepted{{Efn|One reason for this could be that the [[bride price]] for a hunter-gatherer woman is lower than for a Bantu-speaking woman.}}).<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Pakendorf |first=Brigitte |last2=Filippo |first2=Cesare de |last3=Bostoen |first3=Koen |date=2011-01-01 |title=Molecular Perspectives on the Bantu Expansion: A Synthesis |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/ldc/1/1/article-p50_3.xml |journal=Language Dynamics and Change |language=en |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=50–88 |doi=10.1163/221058211X570349 |issn=2210-5832|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The use of [[Click consonant|click sounds]] (usually associated with Khoisan languages) in southern Bantu languages can be viewed as evidence of this.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Pakendorf |first=Brigitte |last2=Gunnink |first2=Hilde |last3=Sands |first3=Bonny |last4=Bostoen |first4=Koen |date=2017-01-01 |title=Prehistoric Bantu-Khoisan language contact: A cross-disciplinary approach |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/ldc/7/1/article-p1_1.xml |journal=Language Dynamics and Change |language=en |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=1–46 |doi=10.1163/22105832-00701002 |issn=2210-5832 |hdl-access=free |hdl=1854/LU-8519242}}</ref> [[Oral traditions]] suggest displacement was sometimes the result of conflict.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=32}} There is a lack of evidence for admixture in Angola, causing speculation of population replacement, however not enough to make a conclusion.<ref name=":3" />

==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."<ref name="Eggert">{{cite journal |last1=Eggert |first1=Manfred K. H. |title=Genetizing Bantu: Historical Insight or Historical Trilemma? |journal=Medieval Worlds |date=2016 |issue=4 |pages=79–90 |doi=10.1553/medievalworlds_no4_2016s79 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Seidensticker (2024) indicates that the prevalent paradigm for the Bantu expansion has a forced connection between Central African [[African pottery|ceramics]] and Central African [[African languages|languages]], where the geographic location of speakers of the [[Bantu languages]] are treated as synonymous with the geographic location of ceramic remnants; the popular approach of attempting to correlate [[linguistic reconstruction]]s with [[archaeological]] data has resulted in propagation of the [[False premise|faulty presumption]] and [[circular reasoning]] that the earliest ceramic manufacturing in a given area is evidence for the earliest presence of [[Bantu peoples|Bantu-speakers]].<ref name="Seidensticker">{{cite journal |last1=Seidensticker |first1=Dirk |title=Pikunda-Munda and Batalimo-Maluba Archaeological Investigations of the Iron Age Settlement History of the Western and Northern Congo Basin |journal=African Archaeological Review |date=28 March 2024 |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=5–6 |doi=10.1007/s10437-024-09576-7 |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-024-09576-7 |issn=0263-0338 |oclc=10194943180 |s2cid=268802330}}</ref> Within the fierce debate among linguists about the word "Bantu", Seidensticker (2024) indicates that there has been a "profound conceptual trend in which a "purely technical [term] without any non-linguistic connotations was transformed into a designation referring indiscriminately to language, culture, society, and race"."<ref name="Seidensticker" />

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

==See also==
* [[Bantu peoples]]
* [[Matrilineal belt]]
* [[Pre-modern human migration]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Bostoen |first1=Koen |last2=Clist |first2=Bernard |last3=Doumenge |first3=Charles |last4=Grollemund |first4=Rebecca |last5=Hombert |first5=Jean-Marie |last6=Muluwa |first6=Joseph Koni |last7=Maley |first7=Jean |title=Middle to Late Holocene Paleoclimatic Change and the Early Bantu Expansion in the Rain Forests of Western Central Africa |journal=Current Anthropology |date=June 2015 |volume=56 |issue=3 |pages=354–384 |doi=10.1086/681436 |s2cid=129501938 }}
*{{cite journal |title=The Chronological Evidence for the Introduction of Domestic Stock into Southern Africa |first=C. Britt |last=Bousman |s2cid=161428419 |journal=The African Archaeological Review |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=133–150 |date=June 1998 |jstor=25130649|doi=10.1023/A:1022110818616 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Currie |first1=Thomas E. |last2=Meade |first2=Andrew |last3=Guillon |first3=Myrtille |last4=Mace |first4=Ruth |title=Cultural phylogeography of the Bantu Languages of sub-Saharan Africa |journal=Proceedings: Biological Sciences |date=2013 |volume=280 |issue=1762 |pages=1–8 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2013.0695 |jstor=23478639 |pmid=23658203 |pmc=3673054 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=de Filippo |first1=Cesare |last2=Bostoen |first2=Koen |last3=Stoneking |first3=Mark |last4=Pakendorf |first4=Brigitte |author4-link=Brigitte Pakendorf|title=Bringing together linguistic and genetic evidence to test the Bantu expansion |journal=Proceedings: Biological Sciences |date=2012 |volume=279 |issue=1741 |pages=3256–3263 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2012.0318 |jstor=41622670 |pmid=22628476 |pmc=3385717 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Grollemund |first1=Rebecca |last2=Branford |first2=Simon |last3=Bostoen |first3=Koen |last4=Meade |first4=Andrew |last5=Venditti |first5=Chris |last6=Pagel |first6=Mark |title=Bantu expansion shows that habitat alters the route and pace of human dispersals |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |date=2015 |volume=112 |issue=43 |pages=13296–13301 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1503793112 |jstor=26465769 |pmid=26371302 |pmc=4629331 |bibcode=2015PNAS..11213296G |doi-access=free }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Holden |first1=Clare Janaki |title=Bantu Language Trees Reflect the Spread of Farming across Sub-Saharan Africa: A Maximum-Parsimony Analysis |journal=Proceedings: Biological Sciences |date=2002 |volume=269 |issue=1493 |pages=793–799 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2002.1955 |jstor=3067712 |pmid=11958710 |pmc=1690959 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Li |first1=Sen |last2=Schlebusch |first2=Carina |last3=Jakobsson |first3=Mattias |title=Genetic variation reveals large-scale population expansion and migration during the expansion of Bantu-speaking peoples |journal=Proceedings: Biological Sciences |date=2014 |volume=281 |issue=1793 |pages=1–9 |jstor=43600725 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Njoku |first1=Raphael Chijioke |chapter=Bantu Migrations and Cultural Transnationalism in the Ancient Global Age, c. 2500 BCE–1400 CE |pages=67–88 |jstor=j.ctv114c79k.8 |title=West African Masking Traditions and Diaspora Masquerade Carnivals |date=2020 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |isbn=978-1-58046-984-5 }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Vansina |first=Jan |title=Western Bantu Expansion |journal=The Journal of African History |volume=25 |issue=2 |date=1984 |pages=129–45 |doi=10.1017/S0021853700022829 |jstor=181385 |s2cid=163034445 }}
{{refend}}

==External links==
* {{cite journal |last1=Berniell-Lee |first1=G. |last2=Calafell |first2=F. |last3=Bosch |first3=E. |last4=Heyer |first4=E. |last5=Sica |first5=L. |last6=Mouguiama-Daouda |first6=P. |last7=van der Veen |first7=L. |last8=Hombert |first8=J.-M. |last9=Quintana-Murci |first9=L. |last10=Comas |first10=D. |title=Genetic and Demographic Implications of the Bantu Expansion: Insights from Human Paternal Lineages |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |date=1 July 2009 |volume=26 |issue=7 |pages=1581–1589 |doi=10.1093/molbev/msp069 |pmid=19369595 |doi-access=free }}
* [http://www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/fulltext/hombert/Hombert_2009_Bantu_Hunter_Gatherers.pdf Bantu Expansion and Hunter-gatherers]
* {{cite journal |last1=Patin |first1=Etienne |last2=Lopez |first2=Marie |last3=Grollemund |first3=Rebecca |last4=Verdu |first4=Paul |last5=Harmant |first5=Christine |last6=Quach |first6=Hélène |last7=Laval |first7=Guillaume |last8=Perry |first8=George H. |last9=Barreiro |first9=Luis B. |last10=Froment |first10=Alain |last11=Heyer |first11=Evelyne |last12=Massougbodji |first12=Achille |last13=Fortes-Lima |first13=Cesar |last14=Migot-Nabias |first14=Florence |last15=Bellis |first15=Gil |last16=Dugoujon |first16=Jean-Michel |last17=Pereira |first17=Joana B. |last18=Fernandes |first18=Verónica |last19=Pereira |first19=Luisa |last20=Van der Veen |first20=Lolke |last21=Mouguiama-Daouda |first21=Patrick |last22=Bustamante |first22=Carlos D. |last23=Hombert |first23=Jean-Marie |last24=Quintana-Murci |first24=Lluís |title=Dispersals and genetic adaptation of Bantu-speaking populations in Africa and North America |journal=Science |date=5 May 2017 |volume=356 |issue=6337 |pages=543–546 |doi=10.1126/science.aal1988 |pmid=28473590 |bibcode=2017Sci...356..543P |hdl=10216/109265 |s2cid=3094410 |url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02277558 |hdl-access=free }}

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[[Category:Demographic history of Africa]]
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[[Category:Prehistoric Africa]]
[[Category:Internal migrations in Africa]]
[[Category:1st millennium BC]]
[[Category:Archaeology of Central Africa]]
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[[Category:Archaeology of Eastern Africa]]