The Bantu Expansion: How Bantu People Changed Sub-Saharan Africa Reading time: 4 minutes About 3500 years ago, an event began that changed the demographic, linguistic, and cultural makeup of the African continent forever. The problem lay in a historical predominance of Muslims within the Indian political process. Initially, archaeologists believed that they could find archaeological similarities in the region's ancient cultures that the Bantu-speakers were held to have traversed. Proto-Bantu speakers, a linguistic branch of the Niger-Congo language family, were concentrated in the region between modern-day Cameroon and Nigeria in West Africa. Upon the death of his illegitimate father, the king of the minor Zulu clan, Shaka seized the ascension, killing all rivals, after which he began to build a society forged by war and bloodshed. The Khmer Rouge, or the Red Khmer, was a movement born out of the struggle against French colonization. The southward Bantu occupation of sub-Saharan Africa (south of the Sahara), started some 2,000 years ago, with the introduction of crop farming and iron age technology from Nubia which made expansion, weaponry, conquest and supremacy possible. [34], Movements by small groups to the southeast from the Great Lakes region were more rapid, with initial settlements widely dispersed near the coast and near rivers, due to comparatively difficult farming conditions in areas farther from water. Yet, was it all bloodshed and oppression? Until the 1980s, International academic interest in the issue was limited by Soviet censorship, so at the time that it was occurring, very few people were aware of it. The Cambodian Genocide was ideological, but it was also random and inexplicable, and in the end, its ideological basis dissolved in undiluted murder. The causes of the 1932-33 famine can be attributed to nothing more complicated than state interference in production. It was this policy in the end that is credited with saving Ireland from the worst possible consequences of crop failure. The Mfecane. Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. The phenomenon was known as the Mfecane, or Difaqane, or the Scattering. Some 6.5 million of those were Muslims migrating from India to Pakistan, and 4.7 million Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan to India. It reminds me of the whole claim that "slavery was practiced by Africans before the transatlantic slave trade", etc. This ideological aversion soon extended to ethnic Vietnamese, Chinese, Thais, Christians, Muslims and Buddhists, and indeed anyone at all perceived in any way to be an enemy of the revolution. Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions. [22], Nilo-Saharan-speaking herder populations comprised a third group of the area's pre-Bantu expansion inhabitants.[23][24][25]. The large-scale expansion of fairly recent language families is one of the reasons for this comparatively low diversity. It was of limited practical use to them, bearing in mind that it almost entirely comprised desert, but it was essential in the cut and thrust of competition, in particular with the British, in the race for European global expansion. On the western extremities of the southern African subcontinent lies the nation of Namibia, known until independence as South West Africa, and prior to that as German South West Africa. The land rights, of course, were freely utilized, while the protection often simply meant bondage. Same reason we don't call the Indo European migrations a genocide. The result was death and mayhem on truly epic proportions. At the time, the attention of the world tended to be focused on the events of WWI. During that bitter period of modern Irish history between 1845 and 1849 approximately 1 million people died, and a million more emigrated. A minor tribe or clan was attacked and utterly obliterated, with only those able to fight or breed spared, to then be assimilated into the Zulu race. No, it's not. Your email address will not be published. "useRatesEcommerce": false They are from Western Africa and East African countries like Tanzania. Mai Mai militia groups aided in the formation of military bases within the Hutu Refugee camps. The result was the decimation of the interior population of South Africa, and the ruination of the social and productive landscape. These were, and are the Bantu and the Koi-koi, or Khoisan. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account. cit. From what ik the bantu expansion is that it was a migration of people over a long period of time that did result in some cases as conflict but not wholesale coordinated genocide, in the most cases communties assimilated and mixed into each other and not some mass replacement and removal. These are huge areas. In 1884, it was agreed among European powers that all expansion into Africa would be by treaty with local, indigenous authority. Just for the sake of background, the former, the Bantu people, form the vast majority of the African population and are typically described as Negroid, or Congoid, their origins being in the region of the Congo and the Niger Delta. 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 continue their traditional subsistence by raising livestock in Namibia and adjacent South Africa. It has sparked speculation, debate, and curiosity among scholars within the continent and beyond. The German Empire claimed the colony in 1884, as part of what was known as the Scramble for Africa. The young woman, whose name was Nandi, was, with ageless injustice, cast out to give birth to her illegitimate child in exile. [5], The expansion is believed to have taken place in at least two waves, between about 3,000 and 2,000 years ago (approximately 1,000 BC to AD 1). If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian. Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. [30], It is clear that there were human populations in the region at the time of the expansion, and pygmies are their closest living relatives. I understand if you do not want to answer this question especially since this video is white supremacy propaganda. . Needless to say, there are passionate advocates on both sides of the argument; and certainly a fractious, and historically difficult relationship between Dublin and London is not improved in the slightest by the discussion. Some argue that the famine came about as an unintended consequence of the Soviet Unions rapid, perhaps too rapid industrialization, while others claim that it was a deliberate attack against Ukrainian nationalism, and as such, a textbook case of genocide. They inhabit a geographical area stretching east and southward from Central Africa across the African Great Lakes region down to Southern Africa. The Cambodian Genocide was ideological, but it was also random and inexplicable, and in the end, its ideological basis dissolved in undiluted murder. In 2004, Somali Bantus from this group began arriving for permanent resettlement in the U.S. Acts of genocide are normally committed by state agents, for example by soldiers in the employ of the national military or by militias who have the support of those who hold state power. It is a relatively well-known story, or at least one that African history . The Partition of India is such a case, and while Hindu/Muslim sectarianism lies at the heart of the debate, there is also the question of whether the British washed their hands of India, and walked away knowing that genocide was inevitable. Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways: Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. Some 6.5 million of those were Muslims migrating from India to Pakistan, and 4.7 million Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan to India. In total, about 11.2 million people successfully crossed the India-West Pakistan border in different directions, mostly through the Punjab region. Remaining in Africa, we now shift our attention to an episode of colonial genocide that deeply scarred the legacy of the German colonization of Africa. No one was safe, not even children, for as the philosophy went, to stop the weeds you must also pull up their roots. Between 1.5 and 3 million Cambodians died, or were killed by the regime. cit. Doctors, teachers, monks, journalists, the wealthy, artists, anyone with an education and ethnic or religious minorities were all singled out for arbitrary execution. Irish Famine Memorial, Dublin Source: diktuo.org. India and Pakistan would be separated, with what is today Bangladesh part of mainland Pakistan. The Germans found both of these races difficult to integrate into their colonial economy, simply because they were inimical to labor and were often nomadic in lifestyle. Replies claiming this is white supremacist to somehow study history are just ad hominem attacks mostly. In 1966, Roland Oliver published an article presenting these correlations as a reasonable hypothesis.[17]. The ideological underpinning of all of this was simply the Maoist principle of transforming Cambodia into rural and classless society, with a population consigned to labor on collectivized farms. A boundary commission, sponsored by the British government, attempted to divide India along Hindu and Muslim lines. Published online by Cambridge University Press: Was the Great Irish Famine genocide? Yet there's no evidence for both migrations. There seems to be much more evidence for the Bantu Expansion than the Aryan 'Invasion' (quote marks because some suggest migration, some say invasion). Between 300 AD-1000 AD, through participation in the long-existing Indian Ocean trade route, these communities established links with Arabian and Indian traders, leading to the development of the Swahili culture. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings. In Killing Fields set up all over the country, confessions were solicited by torture, and execution immediately. No such policy was implemented in 1845, and as such, the famine has been described as artificial, and attributable to a deliberate policy of punishing a stubborn and difficult constituent territory of the Kingdom. Does this action fall into the classification of genocide? Notable early kingdoms include the Kingdom of the Kongo in present day Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom in the Great Lakes region, the Kingdom of Mapungubwe (c.1075c.1220) in present day South Africa, and the Zambezi River, where the Monomatapa kings built the Great Zimbabwe complex. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account. View the institutional accounts that are providing access. Archaeologists have found physical evidence of the migration in pottery, iron-smelting technology, and subsistence farming techniques that originated in the Bantu West African region, creating a timeline of movement across the continent. The Tutsi's . Archaeological evidence from the separate works of Jean Hurault (1979, 1986 & 1988) and Rigobert Tuech (2000) in the region reveals that this region has been inhabited by the same culture for 5 millennia, from 3000 B.C to date. Therefore, the Bantu Expansion is not a textbook example of a farming/language dispersal. The debate has never been so much the classification of the event as genocide, although that is, of course, debatable. When on the institution site, please use the credentials provided by your institution. Fearing similar Allied manipulation of traditional Armenian hostility, the Turkish Armenian population found itself the subject of an extermination policy. False and dangerous equivalency. [32][33] By the first century BC, Bantu speaking communities in the great lakes region developed iron forging techniques that enabled them to produce carbon steel. In Killing Fields set up all over the country, confessions were solicited by torture, and execution immediately. Again, you do realise hunter-gatherers (like the San and Pygmies and not the Khoi as they were/are pastoralists) tend to have smaller populations than agriculturalists. } It seems likely that the expansion of the Bantu-speaking people from their core region in West Africa began around 40003500BC. 18091. It has been proposed that this is the remnant of an independent western Batwa (Mbenga or "Baaka") language.[20]. Why the Jews were targeted in particular conforms to an age-old strategy of isolating a conspicuously wealthy subculture, and placing upon it the blame for every ailment and every woe afflicting an ethnically dominant population. The Khmer Rouge regime was characterized by extreme and indiscriminate brutality. It's not white supremacist to study history. The outlines of the fourth stage can be established very largely from traditional evidence. Currently, only the governments of Australia, Argentina, Georgia, Estonia, Italy, Canada, Lithuania, Poland, the USA and Hungary accept that the events of the Holodomor conform to the legal definition of genocide. The Bantu Expansion is unique among ancient dispersals of peoples and languages due to its combination of high amplitude, rapid pace, and adaptation to multiple ecozones ().The spread of Bantu-speaking people from a homeland region on the border between Nigeria and Cameroon toward eastern and southern Africa starting ~4000 years ago had a momentous impact on the continent's linguistic . The early stages of migration were slow. In the 1840s, Ireland existed as part of Great Britain and Ireland, and as such, it was ruled directly from London by the British Government. Other unreliable ethnic groups, such as Greeks and Assyrians, were also sucked into the maelstrom, and are now subject to separate genocide classifications. This was an Iron Age Colonization; therefore it Cannot have been earlier in time than the spread of the Iron Age in Indonesia around the first century A.D. Discernible developments in the interior, c. 15001840. Other academic opinion tends to point to a typically dogmatic refusal on the part of the British government to acknowledge a failed policy. In all probability, however, this was genocide, because it could not have been done without the expectation that death on a mass scale would be the result.