Development of Early Societies in

Central and Southern Africa

The Bantu people
 The earliest inhabitants
• The earliest inhabitants of Southern and
Central Africa were the Khoisan people
• Khoisan is collective term for Khoikhoi and San
• They were Stone Age people
• Were hunter gatherer and lived in simple
dwellings like caves
• Did not cultivate crops but survived by hunting
and gathering wild fruits and roots
• Lived in small groups of less than 20
• Woman gathered while men hunted using
poisoned arrows and bows
• No states and chiefs
• Disputes settled by elders
• Wondered from place to place looking for game
and fruits
• Led simple lifestyles
• Left behind rock paintings
• Evidence of their existence is widespread in
Zimbabwe ---- rock paintings
• Were gradually pushed from their dwellings by
the arrival of numerous and more
sophisticated people called the Bantu
• Today reinmats of the Khoisan groups are
found Western Zimbabwe and in the Kalahari
desert of Botswana
The Khoikhoi
 Who are the Bantu?
• 300 to 600 ethnic groups of black people in
Africa speak related languages which form the
Bantu language group.
• These groups are distributed from
Nigeria/Cameroon to Central and East Africa
and expand south to Southern Africa.
• They originated near the south western
boundary of Nigeria and Cameroon where
they were settled from around 2000BC.
• Most historians think Africa’s history started
with the Bantu peoples.
These are a group of people that originally lived
in the notch of Western Africa.
• The depended on hunting and gathering for
for survival just like what other people in
Africa did
 The Bantu
• In around 1500BC the Bantu speakers stumbled
upon the domestication of yams and bananas.
• This stable supply of food made dramatic
changes for the Bantu.
• They began domestication of goats around the
same time.
• All this is known through the more than 500
Bantu languages which have common words for
several domestic animals, farm tools etc.
• With more food now available the Bantu
population increased tremendously.
• At around this time the Bantu began to
migrate from their homeland to the south and
east of the Sahara with this secrets of
agriculture
 Bantu means ‘the peoples’
Bantu Group spelling for person by countries.
• Kiswahili -Bantu Mtu Tanza,DRC,Mozamb,Ken,
Som,Rwan
• Bemba -Bantu Muntu Zambia ,DRC
• Lingala- Bantu Moto DRC ,CAR The Congo
• Oshindonka –Bantu Omuntu Nam ,Ang
• Zulu-Bantu Umuntu SA,Zimba,Swazi , Leso,Mal,Moza.
• Thimbukushu- Bantu Munu Nam,Ango,Botsw,Zam.
• Kuria-Bantu Omonto DRC
 Bantu Group spellings
• Luvale-Bantu Mutu Zamb,Ango
• Rukwangali-Bantu Muntu Nami,Ango
• Setswana-Bantu Moto Botswa,SA, Zimb
• Tsonga-Bantu Munhu Mozambi,SA,Nami,Zimb
• Southern Sotho –Bantu Motho,SA ,Leso
• Chichewa-Bantu Munthu Zam,Mal,Moz,Zim.
• Ruknyankore/Rukiga- Bantu Omuntu Uganda.
• Lega –Bantu Momto DRC
• Shona-Bantu Munhu Moz, Zim,SA,Zam Bots
Bantu Migrations
Original homeland
ROUTES OF MIGRATION
Routes of the migration
 Causes of migration
• Exact reasons not known.
• Some factors played more important roles
than others.
• Not a fast moving of hordes of people but a
more gentle flow of newcomers.
• Bantu were not colonisers too and they did
not have that in mind but possessed a more
physical statue together with superior
weapons than pigmies of the forests and the
Khoisan of C/S Africa.
• Intermarriages and displacements to less
favourable areas took place when these
groups met.
We talk of push and pull factors
 Pull/ push factors
 Possessed tools to clear forest for agriculture
efficiently
 Increase agricultural production and this led to
population increase
 Invented new fighting weapons from iron tools
 Desire to export their iron working culture
 Friends and relatives could have influenced
others to migrate.
• Climate changes esp.the drying up of the
Sahara desert made rains unreliable.
• led groups migrating in search of better lands
for grazing and to cultivate
• Rulers wanted to expand their kingdoms and
gain more political power .
• Also defeated groups ran away to form their
own separate states.
 Additional push and pull factors
• Bantu domestication of crops such as
sorghum, millet cowpeas and peanuts ( as
farmers) led to:
 population density/overpopulation
 scarcity on land for cultivation
 Soil exhaustion
 Pressure on grazing land.
 Land scarcity led to wars and conflicts
• The desire to increase trade networks and
obtain more resources influenced some
groups to migrate to newer regions in search
of trade items
• Pressure from Arabs increased.
• The lure of empty lands in the S /C and E
Routes of the Bantu migration
 Timeline and Routes
• Again there is no consensus among scholars on the
exact period of the migrations.
• Scholars suggest years between 1500B.C -1100A.D.
• Others say as early as 3000B.C.
• Some simply say that the migrations began about
3500years ago and say by about 1500B.C they had
reached the forest and by 500BC some small groups
had emerged from the forest
• What is clear is that the migrations happened
slowly and took over hundreds ,if not,
thousands of years.
• Two routes southwards were used
 Timeline and routes
• The first wave of the migration took them into
the forest and emerged from it by 500BC into
the savannahs of DRC,Zambia
• The second wave began from the great lakes
southwards into central Africa and from the
forest into Gabon Angola, Namibia etc and by
1100AD they had reached Southern Africa
 Results
• In these dry –wet lands of C/S Africa the Bantu
speakers introduced and raised herds of livestock
such as sheep, goats and cattle.
NB. Remember the Khoi herders at the Cape
• They also introduced cultivable new cereals crops
which were not known in the region, viz yams,
bananas, sorghum, millet , cowpeas .
• Food cultivation became widespread in the region.
• Introduction of iron led the shift from Stone Age to
iron Age.
• Iron smelting was a huge technological gap
which led to an increase in iron tools like
hoes ,spears etc.
• This increased food production and improved
defense and protection
• Centralised system of administration led to
the rise of rules/ chiefs and the rise of
states( state formation)
 Results
• State formation was brought about by dense population,
more specialised division of labour and increased military
power.
• Increase in trade, both internal and external trade due to
contacts with the Arabs, Swahili and Europeans along the
African coasts.
• Sedentary life styles due led to the construction of
permanent dwellings.
• Spread of Bantu languages and cultural diffusion as
hunter –gatherers were either assimilated or driven
away to drier regions.
THE BANTU PEOPLE
 Impact/Results
• Intermarriages with non –Bantu peoples resulted in loss of culture and depopulation as
vulnerable Khoisan people faced frequent attacks as they were forced into inhospitable
environments Kalahari and Namib deserts

SUMMARY OF IMPACT

Metallurgy ---- mining: iron , gold , copper, and their uses

Food production ----- agriculture: sorghum , millet , cow peas, cattle

ownership
State formation ----- Mapungubwe , Great Zimbabwe ,chieftaincy, army,

sedentary
Trade ------Indian Ocean trade items and local trade, evidence of
this trade.
 Questions
• Trace the political, economic and social
changes brought about by the introduction of
iron technology in Southern and Central
Africa.
• Discuss the historical importance of
Mapungubwe in the history of the Bantu
people of Southern Africa.
• Account for the decline of Mapungubwe and
suggest the possible successor state/s.