8 Facts about Bantu

If you want to know the history of Bantu people, you have to check Facts about Bantu. The word Bantu is used to attribute around 300 to 600 African people who speak Bantu language. You can find most of them living around Southern Africa, Central Africa and African Great Lakes region. The population who lives in Sub Saharan African speaks this language. Talking about the Bantu language, there are around 650 languages. Find out more facts about Bantu below:

Facts about Bantu 1: migrations

The migration of the proto-Bantu language group started around 3000 years ago. They moved eastward to the area between Central Africa and West Africa.

Facts about Bantu 2: the number of Bantu people

Today, you can find million of Bantu people living in Africa. In Democratic Republic of Congo, the Bantu people called Luba are around 13.5 million people.

Facts about Bantu

Facts about Bantu 3: other Bantu people

There are around 6 million people of Kikuyu Kenya and 10 million people of Zulu in South Africa who are included as Bantu people. However, only 5 million people speak the Bantu Swahili language as the first language.

Facts about Bantu 4: lingua franca

Bantu language has been used as lingua franca by more than 140 million people who live in Southeast Africa.

Bantu

Facts about Bantu 5: the word Bantu

Let’s find out the meaning of the word Bantu. It means humans or people. The word Bantu is mentioned in different word in all Bantu languages. In Kikongo, it is called muntu, while in Swahili, it is called watu. In Venda, it is called vhathu.

Facts about Bantu 6: the people living in south of equator

Now the people in south of equator are mostly Bantu people. Actually the Neolithic hunting and foraging people inhabit the area. Those include the proto Khoisan speaking people who now inhabit the region around the Kalahari Desert. Find out facts about African life ere.

Bantu People

Facts about Bantu 7: the displacement and absorption

The Bantu speaking communities displaced and absorbed the most hunting foraging people and the Sudanic, Nilotic, Ubangian language speakers who inhabited eastern African and North Central Africa. This expansion involved the diffusion of languages and physical migration.

Facts about Bantu 8: the traditional Bantu culture

If you check the traditional Bantu culture, it is not affected by Arab and Islamic culture. Get facts about Arabic Culture here.

Bantu Kids

Bantu Facts

The development of Bantu speaking states emerged in 14th and 15th centuries. The famous Great Zimbabwe complex was established by the Monomatapa kings. It contained 200 sites. Other states of Bantu include Kingdoms of Uganda and Tanzania, the Kingdom of Kongo, the Mutapa Empire and Naletale Kingdoms of Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Are you interested reading facts about Bantu?