Bantu Migration

Bantu Migration

Agricultural villages became common in West Africa below the Sahara desert about 4000 years ago. Sometime after, these villages developed iron technology which they used to produce tools of agriculture.

Bantu Migration

Extensive linguistic evidence suggests that West Africans from around the modern border between Nigeria and Cameroon began to use this technology to clear forest to make the southeast for farming. 

Bantu Migration

This led to a slow migration of these Bantu speaking people to the southeast and south form about 500 BCE to 600 CE. This migration brought agriculture, iron technology, and a new language to a region previously dominated by hunter gatherers.

Bantu Migration

Anthropologist believe that this migration laid the foundation for a common cultural heritage present in much of West, Central, East, and South Africa.