Bantu people are the speakers of Bantu languages, comprising several hundred indigenous ethnic groups in Africa , spread over a vast area from Central Africa across the African Great Lakes to Southern Africa.
Is Bantu a tribe or language?
Bantu languages, a group of some 500 languages belonging to the Bantoid subgroup of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family. The Bantu languages are spoken in a very large area, including most of Africa from southern Cameroon eastward to Kenya and southward to the southernmost tip of the continent.
Which tribes belong to the Bantu?
- Nguni people: Northern Nguni. Zulu people. Swazi people. Southern Ndebele people. Southern Nguni. Xhosa people. Hlubi people. ...
- Shangana–Tsonga people.
- Sotho–Tswana people: Basotho. Northern Sotho. Balobedu. Bapedi people. Mapulana. Batswana people.
- Venda people: Vhavenda. Vhalemba (speaking Venda)
Is Bantu a clan?
The Bantu did not belong to, nor did any Somali clan or tribe protect them . In 1991 during the civil war in Somalia, 12,000 Bantu were displaced to Kenya. 3,300 Bantus, it is estimated, escaped to Tanzania, back to the lands of their ancestors. Somali Bantus who fled to Kenya settled first in Dadaab refugee camp.
Is Bantu a tribe in Nigeria?
The earliest Bantu people arose in modern-day Cameroon and Nigeria . A Neolithic people who farmed yams and oil palms (but not grains), they lived on the edges of forests where resources were richer and they could supplement their diet with bushmeat.
What does Bantu stand for?
[2] Abantu (or ‘Bantu' as it was used by colonists) is the Zulu word for people . It is the plural of the word ‘umuntu', meaning ‘person', and is based on the stem ‘–ntu' plus the plural prefix ‘aba'. This original meaning changed through the history of South Africa.
What religion is Bantu?
Traditional religion is common among the Bantu, with a strong belief in magic. Christianity and Islam are also practiced.
Is the word Bantu offensive?
Blacks in South Africa generally consider the word Bantu offensive . They similarly rejected the word “native,” which it replaced in official terminology some years ago, preferring to be called blacks. ... Also, “Bantu beer,” which is consumed by blacks, would be known as sorghum beer, after the grain from which it is made.
Why are the Bantu people not an ethnic group?
The word Bantu for the language families and its speakers is an artificial term based on the reconstructed Proto-Bantu term for “people” or “humans”. ... There is no native term for the people who speak Bantu languages , because they are not an ethnic group.
Is Igbo a Bantu?
Igbo is not a Bantu language . Although Igbo and Bantu come from the same language family, the Niger-Congo languages, they pertain to different...
What are the Bantu known for?
The Bantu shared their knowledge of iron-smelting, pottery-making , and their farming skills with indigenous forager and nomadic tribes they met, many of whom eventually then settled into stable village communities.
What do the Bantu believe in?
All Bantus traditionally believe in a supreme God . The nature of God is often only vaguely defined, although he may be associated with the Sun, or the oldest of all ancestors, or have other specifications.
Are Hausa people Bantu?
Are Hausa bantu? The simple answer is “NO” This pluralist attitude toward ethnic-identity and cultural affiliation has enabled the Hausa to inhabit one of the largest geographic regions of non-Bantu ethnic groups in Africa.
What race is Bantu?
They are Black African speakers of Bantu languages of several hundred indigenous ethnic groups. The Bantu live in sub-Saharan Africa, spread over a vast area from Central Africa across the African Great Lakes to Southern Africa.
Where was the original Bantu homeland?
During a wave of expansion that began 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, Bantu-speaking populations – today some 310 million people – gradually left their original homeland of West-Central Africa and traveled to the eastern and southern regions of the continent.
Where is the Bantu homeland?
A Bantustan (also known as Bantu homeland, black homeland, black state or simply homeland; Afrikaans: Bantoestan) was a territory that the National Party administration of South Africa set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia), as part of its policy of apartheid.
