ORIGIN MIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT OF THE BANTU IN SOUTH AFRICA

 ➢ Little is known about their migration ➢ What is known is that they migrated in four major groups i.e. ➢ These groups were named according to the areas were they migrated to were they settled. ➢ These groups were Shone, Sotho –Tswana the Nguni and Aherero Ambo THE SHONA ➢ They moved in south Africa in the 19th century ➢ They are part of the Bantu people who started moving in 2000 years ago. ➢ They started moving from West Africa and Katanga areas. ➢ They moved southwards from the central Africa. ➢ They later reached the present day Zimbabwe and formed the Zimbabwe culture. THE SOTH -TSWANA ➢ This is the second wave of the bantu migration ➢ They were the central wave of the bantu migrating people ➢ They entered south Africa through lake Tanganyika and Nyasa (Malawi) ➢ They settled in the present day Lethoso and rivers Orange And Vaal ➢ By the 17th century they had given birth to group of Sotho, Tswana among others. Summarized notes of the History of South Africa, July 2019 Page | 10 ➢ The Tswana settled in the present day Botswana ➢ Kalahari desert hindered their westward expansion ➢ in the 18th century, the Sotho had expanded and settled in the present day Zulu land and Swaziland ➢ They were in the areas where they are now by the 13th century THE NGUNI - TSONGA ➢ These moved eastwards from great lakes region ➢ They moved through low veld until natal region and Eastern Cape. ➢ They settled along the natal coastal plain by the 16th century. ➢ By the 18th century, they had separated and formed groups of people like Xhosa, thembu, pondo Zulu, mthetwa, ngwane, and Swazi Ndebele etc. ➢ They separated and developed groups that spoke language of the same dilate. ➢ They settled in central Zulu land ➢ Because of development in pottery, Xhosa expanded up to river Umtata and umuzimbuvu ➢ The Xhosa expanded in the 17th century. ➢ In the next 200 years, they expanded up to Fish River. ➢ The Tsonga remained in the present Mozambique area. ➢ Due to such separation different languages developed between the major and lesser Bantu groups. THE AHERERO AMBO ➢ They were the Ovambo Herero people of southern Africa ➢ They left their homeland at around the 16th century ➢ From their homeland they took south eastern direction of Congo basin ➢ When the ambo reached ambo land they settled ➢ Their settlement was influenced by the san and khoi khoi whom they found their ➢ The average rainfall of about 500mm influenced their settlement because it could allow agricultural pastoralism ➢ The Herero moved west of ambo land. ➢ They passed through koakoveld up to the dry Namibian plateau ➢ They settled near Kalahari Desert in Herero land. Summarized notes of the History of South Africa, July 2019 Page | 11 ➢ Today the Bantu are the most wide spread group of people in southern Africa and numerous.