African Civilizations. The Bantu Culture

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Theories about the Bantu origin
The Bantu Culture
Conclusion
References

Introduction

The Bantu linguistic group occupies an area that stretches from South Cameroon covering the greater part of South Africa. They also cover part of Eastern and Central Africa. It is composed of hundreds of languages with approximately two hundred and twenty million people speaking these languages. Congo Kinshasa is the country that has the largest group of Bantu speakers. Swahili is the Bantu language that has the leading number of speakers. The term Bantu which means people was established by Bleek in 1875. Most of the Bantu communities have a common characteristic when it comes to their languages. Considering the wide area covered by the Bantus, these communities are closely related. This has to lead to historians believing that the Bantus came to control sub-equatorial Africa tentatively lately but rapidly. Before the arrival of the Bantus, half of southern Africa was dominated by the Khoisan-speaking group. This group was later forced to move to dry areas around Kalahari with a few of them migrating to Tanzania (Uganda School Resources Par. 1-4).

Theories about the Bantu origin

Two theories have been developed in an attempt to give the origin of the Bantus. One of the theories was developed by Joseph Greenberg in 1963. Greenberg studied the various languages that were being spoken in Africa and came up with the conclusion that most of the languages that were being spoken in Southeastern Nigeria almost coincided with the Bantu languages. He posited that the Bantu community originated from this region and spread to other parts southwards. However, Malcolm Guthrie refuted this theory after conducting an analysis of individual Bantu languages and found that the most conventional were those spoken in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He concluded that the Bantus originated from these areas. Out of the two theories, people came up with an agreement that seemed not to be inclined to either of the theories. It is currently believed that they migrated from the Benue-cross Rivers region of southeastern Nigeria and moved to Zambia. When the Saharan region started drying up in the middle of the second millennium, the Bantus migrated to the rainforests of Central Africa (ThinkQuest Par. 2-4). After a span of about 1000 years, they embarked on migration and occupied most of southern and eastern Africa. After the introduction of new farming techniques in Zambia by Asians, some Bantus moved to occupy these regions. By 1000 AD, they had reached Zimbabwe and South Africa where they took over the management of trade routes. They traded in ivory, precious stones, gold, and copper with Arabs from the Swahili shore (Malcolm 47-60).

The Bantu Culture

Although the Bantu speakers introduced an Iron Age and an agricultural culture into Neolithic hunting and gathering society, their way of life came to differ greatly from place to place. Part of this is through the pressure from the people with whom they came in contact, and partly because of the persistent pressure of the environment. The Bantu of the Congo basin, therefore, developed different thoughts of economy and statecraft from those of the cattle-rearing Bantu of the East African high plains; those of the Swahili coastal communities did not display great similarity either sociologically or ethnically with the communities of the Great Lakes country. There were many common qualities as well, born of a common lineage and the consistency of man’s inborn response to the emergencies of everyday living. The basic economic occupation of the Bantu continued to be the agriculture they had brought with them, although with changing techniques due to geographic location (Mayer 214-217).

In the Congo savanna, the typical slash-and-burn cultivation continued, with fields being cultivated on a rotating basis for a few short years, then abandoned until a slow regeneration restored their fertility. Such wasteful methods saw shifting settlements and a low density of population. However, in some areas there were significant variations; for instance, the Lozi in the Zambezi flood plain learned to build composite irrigation systems. In addition, they introduced a new variety of crops, such as millet, bananas, yams, and taros in place of Malaysian imports. One major variation was the stock raring economy practiced in the grazing country east of the Great Lakes, which stretched from the upper Nile Valley to the plains of South Africa. In this immense area, the environment dictated an economy based largely on livestock, and in the struggle for survival, cattle ceased to be just a food supply and became fundamental to the whole way of life of these people. Cattle represented wealth and social status, they were used to strengthen ties and redistribute wealth among relatives, and they played a ritual role in all major moments of human existence such as puberty, death, birth, and marriage (Roux 20777-20783).

Trade supplemented the agricultural proceeds of most societies subjugated or influenced by the Bantu. The Rhodesian gold mines of the Karanga resulted in an important Indian Ocean trade conducted by Swahili and Arab merchants. Trade was well established among the Congo people where technique specialization gave rise both to a variety of products and the need to exchange them. Ironwork, basketry, woodcarving, weaving, and pottery were prevalent, and many other specialists including sculptors, boat builders, or hunters attached an economic value on physical skills and created a market for labor. In almost every part of the Bantu region, the fundamental social and political unit was the village. A village chief usually held influence in varying levels of authority with the help from a council of elders, whose function was to interpret and execute the clearly defined laws governing conduct, on occasions making use of the trial by tribulation when testimony was uncertain.

Scattered farms did not always mean unwillingness toward centralized authority. However, the people of the Great Lakes kingdom also favored distribution. Their states were highly developed forming large monarchies. As always, the environment played an important role in shaping the political structure. The Nguni speakers of South Africa had poorly stipulated rules in their well-watered ranges in contrast to the closer social and political ties among the Sotho groups, concentrated around the occasional water holes on their arid plateau. It seems clear that the process of state-making in the Bantu areas was much the same as it was elsewhere in the world, with circumstance or the determination of a small number of individuals frequently playing critical roles (South Africa Tours and Travel Par. 2-5).

Conclusion

Even today, most of the traditional Bantu cultural designs are still manufactured in most of the East African countries. Uganda is one of the countries where these products are produced. The main reason for these is to remind people of their tradition and to make good use of the available resources that ceased being used with the advent of civilization. By so doing, these people are able to come up with products that fascinate everyone who comes across them and at the same time get money to support their families.

References

Malcolm, Guthrie. The classification of the Bantu languages. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute. 1948.

Mayer Philip. “The Cultural Prospects Of The Bantu In South Africa.” Web.

Roux, AG. “Psychopathology In Bantu Culture.” South African Medical Journal 47(1973): 20777-20783.

South Africa Tours and Travel. “Brief history of the Bantu migration into South Africa.” 2009. Web.

ThinkQuest. “Bantu.” 1998. Web.

Uganda School Resources. “Bantu migration.” 2009. Web.

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African Civilizations. The Bantu Culture

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