Bantu
Bantu is the collective term for over 400 different ethnic groups in Central, Eastern and Southern Africa who speak the Bantu languages . The Bantu languages are a subset of the Niger-Congo languages . Today (2007) there are over 200 million Bantu. In the parlance of the “whites” of South Africa, Bantu is often used as a term for all sub-Saharan Africans .
The article Bantu languages contains information about the structure and grammar of the Bantu languages, their research history, the connection with the other Niger-Congo languages, the question of their origin ( original home ) and distribution. This article deals with the ethnic, cultural and historical issues of the Bantu peoples.
Definition and exploration
Historically, the Bantu have not referred to themselves as Bantu and have no feeling of togetherness. The term was introduced in 1862 by Wilhelm Bleek in his book A Comparative Grammar of South African Languages as a collective term for all Bantu peoples. Bantu in many Bantu languages means people . Bleek recognized that a large number of languages in Central, South, East and West Africa have something in common and can be assigned to a common language family . This thesis is essentially still valid today. Since basically all Bantu languages were without writing until the recent past, the history of Bantu was reconstructed from linguistic research, oral traditions and archaeological finds. For some countries (e.g. Angola ) the latter are still extremely incomplete. In the last few decades, efforts have been made to inquire about oral traditions before they are forgotten due to the ever faster cultural change. The puzzle of archaeological excavation sites has thickened and the techniques of physical dating have improved. As a result, the scientific picture of the history of the Bantu has changed significantly. An exception to the lack of writing is Swahili , a Bantu language enriched with numerous Arabic and some Persian and Indian loanwords, for which the Arabic script was used before the arrival of the Portuguese.
geography
When the first Europeans reached southern Africa, the Bantu inhabited a large, contiguous, but not complete area from Cameroon and Kenya to South Africa . Its northern border was roughly that of the northern tree savannah, its southern border that of the summer-damp area. Permanently dry and wet areas in the southwest of the continent were not conducive to the cultivated plants of the Bantu and thus became a retreat for the fair-skinned Khoisan .
history
The Bantu are believed to have originally come from the Cameroon highlands and southeastern Nigeria . Sometime in the 2nd millennium BC Chr. They began as a planter of root crops , their territory in the rainforests extend from Central Africa. About 1,000 years later, a second, faster phase of expansion probably began, further south and east. Wherever they went, they mingled with the groups previously living there and formed new societies. Around 1000 BC In BC iron extraction was developed - possibly independently - between Lake Chad and the great lakes of East Africa . When the Bantu adopted this technique, their settlement area was already considerable. Presumably around the same time, other important cultural techniques such as the cultivation of grain and bananas as well as cattle breeding spread among them. The expansion of vocabulary to include words such as grain, banana and cattle breeding, etc., provides evidence for this assumption.
The Urewe culture in the fertile hill region west and south-west of Lake Victoria to Lake Tanganyika (approx. 800 BC to 800 AD) is considered to be the first Early Iron Age culture of the Bantu . South of the equator, the beginning of the Iron Age is generally equated with the arrival of the Bantu.
Equipped with these skills, the Bantu have spread over large parts of eastern and southern Africa - more in small groups living from shifting agriculture than in the form of large migrations. A find from 1968 near Maputo in the south of Mozambique , very similar to the Kwale culture ( Kenya ), led to the assumption of a rapid spread along the coast. From around AD 400, Bantu probably already settled in all the areas of Africa where they lived when the Europeans arrived.
The transition from the early Iron Age (little cattle breeding, little social differentiation) to the late Iron Age (arable farming and significant cattle breeding, strong social differentiation, empire formation), which has long been interpreted as a renewed migration movement, has increasingly been seen in recent years as a cultural development without significant migration . The Khoisan, neighboring the Bantu to the south-west, practiced practically no agriculture or iron production, but learned to process iron that was traded in, e.g. B. to spearheads. A centuries-long, sometimes closely adjacent coexistence of Iron Age Bantu and Stone Age Khoisan is assumed for eastern Zambia and has been proven for Botswana .
The areas of today's Namibia and the Cape Province were spared from the Bantu settlement before the 17th century . When Jan van Riebeeck went ashore at the Cape of Good Hope around 1652 and founded Cape Town , he did not find any Bantu there, as their settlement area only began 700 km northeast of his new colony. The neighbors of the first European settlers were the San and Khoi Khoi . With the influx of further settlers , whose descendants are now called Afrikaans (also Boers ), the Cape Colony slowly expanded, and the Khoi Khoi increasingly became dependent on the Boers. It was not until around 1770 that the Boers came across the Bantu. The Cape Colony came under British rule for the first time in 1795 and finally in 1806.
At the beginning of the 19th century, both the Boers and the Bantu began to migrate, which led to armed conflicts between the two groups and forced the Khoisan into the Kalahari : Since 1816, the Zulu ruler Shaka built up a tight military organization and began neighboring To subjugate the Bantu peoples in a bloody way, which led to restructuring and refugee movements and is therefore considered to be the trigger for the Mfecane , a time of turmoil in southern Africa between 1815 and 1840. With the Abolition Act of 1833, slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire , including the Cape Colony. Since 1835, many Boers left the Cape Colony, moved to the northeast as Voortrekkers and founded new republics there.
Social organization
The Bantu were divided into different ethnic groups or chieftains . These were independent groups of a few hundred to a few thousand people. In many ethnic groups, the members referred to a common ancestor , usually an important former chief . From the less distant past it is known, however, that people joined another society out of political opportunity (see below). In contrast, the spiritual affiliation of each person to a certain totem was unchangeable . Many Bantu with an otherwise modern way of life feel bound by this. The ethnic groups were led by a chief who, depending on the group, had different levels of authority. The affiliation to a chief was not established. A popular or powerful leader could thus enlarge his group by accepting refugees from other societies and thus gain power and prestige. Unpopular and weak chiefs lost their influence accordingly.
Wherever chiefs or chief dynasties succeeded in gaining power over several ethnic groups, people speak of rich. The rulers then also had sonorous titles. Some of these empires existed for several centuries, e.g. B. the Congo Empire (comprised the northwest of today's Angola and adjacent parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo), the kingdom of Luba to the east or the Munhumutapa Empire in today's Zimbabwe and Mozambique, others less than a century such as B. the matabel area in Zimbabwe. While the oral history of the empire was carefully maintained in the Congo until the arrival of the Europeans, the history of the states before the Matabele in the area of today's Zimbabwe ( Monomotapa Empire and others) has to be painstakingly reconstructed from the stories of subgroups and above all from archaeological finds.
While in the Congo area the matrilineal rule of descent (and often also the principle of matrilocality ) is widespread among many tribes, the southern Bantu peoples, especially the cattle-breeding Bantu peoples such as the Zulu, have patrilineal descent.
The smallest unit of Bantu organizational structure made up of the household ( Household ), also Kraal called, consisting of men, women and women, children and other relatives living in the same household. The man was the head of the household and was able to live in a polygamous relationship. He had complete authority over the family. So there was a clear hierarchy. This hierarchy continued down to the children. For example, the firstborn son succeeded his father as head of the family. The household and the very close family ties in general played an important role in the life of the Bantu. Those households that lived in the same valley or on the same hill were grouped into sub-districts (wards). The sub-districts or wards formed their own administrative and judicial unit, headed by a so-called headman .
The sub-districts, in turn, were merged into districts, headed by the chief. The chief's central residence was often a large place, often with several thousand residents.
The chief was generally not elected, but received his office through inheritance. For most tribes, the eldest son inherited his father's office. In some tribes the office was passed on to the eldest brother of the deceased chief, and after his death in turn to his eldest brother. If the last brother died, the line of succession passed to the oldest son of the original chief (as the oldest brother). The chief was surrounded by a number of trusted advisors. These were mostly relatives such as uncles and brothers, influential headmen or personal friends. The political weight of the tribal council depended on the strength of the chief. The more powerful and influential a chief, the less influence the people had. Although the leader was in great power, he was not above the law. He could be criticized by both the council and his people. In the event of an offense, reparation could be demanded from him. As a result of his offenses, he was often abandoned by members of his people. In extreme cases, it sparked a civil war .
Bantu philosophy
A Catholic missionary, Placide Tempels , gave an impetus to re-evaluate African philosophy with his book on "Bantu Philosophy ". He gave the native beliefs a philosophical robe. The most important theses of Tempel could be summarized as follows:
- There is a traditional philosophy of Bantu.
- It is an ontology .
- The term ntu (“force, power”) corresponds to what is called “being” in Europe.
- The Bantu language has no expressions of its own to describe its philosophy; this must therefore be explained with the help of occidental terms. For this purpose, Tempels chooses the terminology of Thomistic Aristotelianism .
- This philosophy not only has the one observed people, but all Bantu and "primitive peoples" have.
The already mentioned word ntu is the key word of their ontology. “Power” and “being” are inextricably linked in this term. Every 'being' or every world entity has a power appropriate to it, with which it can act on other power beings. Such power beings can be spirits, people, ancestors, but also things and circumstances such as obsession or passion. There are separate opinions among the Bantu about the meaning of God. For some, God is not an ntu , but a Creator that precedes him and belongs to a different category. For others, however, God is the first and original power being. According to another opinion, this interpretation of Tempel is based on a wrong translation of the term ntu or onto . Ntu therefore means “being, that which is” and also “I am always”.
Pre-colonial kingdoms
At the mouth of the Congo (around 15th-18th centuries):
- Congo (large area near the coast on both sides of the Congo estuary, center in today's Angola)
- Loango
- Kakongo
- Ngola
On Lake Victoria (around 18th - 20th centuries):
- Buganda (only a small part of today's Uganda)
- Busoga
- Karagwe
- Kingdom of Rwanda (area roughly equivalent to today's state)
- Kingdom of Burundi (area roughly equivalent to today's state)
South of the Zambezi (around 13th-19th centuries):
- Mapungubwe (13th century)
-
Shona states :
- Empire of Greater Zimbabwe (13th - 15th centuries, Shona?), Then successor states:
- Mutapa (15th – 19th centuries, Karanga (Shona))
- Torwa (15th - 17th centuries, Shona?)
- Changamire (17th – 19th centuries, Rozwi (Shona))
- Matabel area (19th century)
Other kingdoms:
Culture
The Bantu were not territorial like modern Europeans, but rather group-related. In their view, land could not be owned, only used. As long as there was enough land for everyone, they actually had only very vague ideas about borders. Rather, boundaries naturally took the form of rivers or mountains, which, however, were by no means fixed.
Food acquisition
The main source of food for the Bantu was cattle breeding , agriculture and hunting . The women were mostly responsible for the arable farming (except for clearing work) and the men for the cattle and hunting. In the following, the peculiarities of the food acquisition of some ethnic groups from the region of today's South Africa are summarized. Fishing was of no importance to the Tsonga and some of the Mpondo . The main foods were millet , meat , vegetables , cow's and goat's milk, water and corn beer, which contained very little alcohol compared to European beer . When eating meat, the Bantu (not unlike the Europeans) observed a number of taboos ; for example, dogs, monkeys, crocodiles and snakes were not allowed to be eaten. The meat of some birds, such as owls, crows and vultures, was also taboo. Depending on the totem affiliation, other taboos were and are observed.
What all Bantu ethnic groups had in common was a clear separation between the tasks of women and those of men. However, the type of separation was different.
Dwellings
The Bantu in what is now South Africa used different types of housing. The Nguni knew the " Beehive Hut " (beehive hut), a circular framework made of long saplings that was covered with grass. The huts of the Sotho , Venda and Shangana-Tsonga are known as " Cone-and-Cylinder-Hut " (cone and cylinder hut); Here a cylindrical wall was built from vertical posts, which was sealed with mud and cow dung and provided with a roof made of tied saplings. The soil in both types consisted of compacted earth.
Faith
With the Bantu, the belief in supernatural beings, which one tried to influence positively and to whom one ascribed positive and negative influence on human fate, had a central meaning. They were often seen as a manifestation of the souls of deceased ancestors. With a multitude of ceremonies , rites and taboos, the Bantu tried to gain the benevolence of the spirits. Many Bantu believed the dead turned into snakes; therefore these were also venerated.
There was also a belief in a supreme being, the Creator. However, the Bantu did not believe that the Creator cared much about people, which is why he received little cultural veneration and was at best worshiped. In dry areas he was regarded as a rainmaker, in more humid areas as a sun god.
In addition, the Bantu believed in the duality of body and mind and assumed that the soul separates from the body at death.
The magical imaginations could lead to behavioral disorders such as Ufufuyane , a culture-bound syndrome that occurs among the Bantu, Zulu, and other related peoples.
literature
- Kevin Shillington: History of Africa. Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 2005, ISBN 0-333-59957-8 .
- Manfred KH Eggert: The Bantu Problem and African Archeology. In: Ann B. Stahl (Ed.), African Archeology: A Critical Introduction (Blackwell Studies in Global Archeology), 2004, ISBN 1-4051-0156-3 , pp. 301–326.
- Manfred KH Eggert: Historical Linguistics and Prehistoric Archeology: Trend and Pattern in Early Iron Age Research of Sub-Saharan Africa. In: Contributions to general and comparative archeology 3, 1981, pp. 277-324.
- Isaac Schapera (Ed.): The Bantu-Speaking Tribes of South Africa. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1959.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stephan C. Schuster, Webb Miller, Aakrosh Ratan, Lynn P. Tomsho, Belinda Giardine: Complete Khoisan and Bantu genomes from southern Africa . In: Nature . tape 463 , no. 7283 , February 2010, ISSN 1476-4687 , p. 943–947 , doi : 10.1038 / nature08795 ( nature.com [accessed April 22, 2020]).
- ↑ WebCite query result. Retrieved April 22, 2020 .
- ↑ H. Prokasky: (2001): Africa - Further neighbor. Paderborn, p. 10.
- ^ MC Van Grunderbeek, E. Roche, H. Doutrelepont: L'Age du Fer Ancien au Rwanda et au Burundi. in: Archeologie et environnement. Journal of the Africanist. 52 vol. (1982), pp. 5-58.
- ^ Iron Age cattle breeding in southern Africa and its spread
- ↑ Teresa Cruz e Silva: A Preliminary Report on an Early Iron Age Site: Matola IV 1/68. Instituto de Investigação Científica de Moçambique, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo 1976.
- ↑ Botswana History Pages, by Neil Parsons - 1: A Brief History of Botswana , 1999
- ^ Sara Lowes: Matrilineal Kinship and Spousal Cooperation: Evidence from the Matrilineal Belt , Bocconi University, Milan CIFAR, 2018.
- ^ John Edward Cooper: Pocket Guide to the ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioral Disorders . American Psychiatric Pub Inc, 1994, ISBN 978-0-88048-983-6 .