THE WAY OF LIFE OF THE BANTU The organization of the Bantu was manly divided into viz, ngoni-tsonga and Sotho –Tswana THE NGUNI – TSONGA QN: WHO WERE THEY? ➢ They were commonly known as nguni people ➢ The nguni were part of bantu speakers of south Africa ➢ They had a clique sound in their language. ➢ The Nguni belonged to the southern group of people. ➢ They moved from Congo basin between the 13th and 16th century ➢ Later in the 17th century they gave birth to tribes like Xhosa, Zulu, ngwane Ndebele, thembu ndwandwe e.t.c ➢ These developed after their separation from the mother group for a period of about 200 years. ➢ They settled in areas between Indian Ocean and drankensberg mountains. ➢ They were the war worriers of Bantu in south Africa. ➢ They specifically settled in natal region east of cape. THEIR WAY OF LIFE ➢ Like any other group of people, they were politically, socially and economically organized as below; ➢ Economically they practiced gathering for their welfare. ➢ They hunted wild animals. ➢ They carried out some fishing from rivers and Indian ocean ➢ They grew crops like millet, beans, yams, sorghum, pumpkins and calabashes ➢ They were pastoralists who reared cattle. Goat and sheep. ➢ They traded with whites based at natal for example the Portuguese. ➢ They practiced iron working and made knives and arrows among others. ➢ They raided their neighbors for wealth ➢ Land was owned communally Summarized notes of the History of South Africa, July 2019 Page | 12 ➢ Cattle as a sign of prestige and used as food, pay bride price. ➢ Family was the most important smallest unit amongst the Nguni. ➢ They had extended family which included the father, mother, children, aunt, grandparents e.t.c ➢ They mostly practiced polygamous families. ➢ Elders were very important in settling disputes. ➢ The elders gave cattle to those who reached maturity. ➢ Initiation ceremonies were very important e.g. circumcision. ➢ A tribal chief headed each tribe. ➢ All elders belonged to the clan councils, which settled disputes in the society. ➢ The clan elders assisted the tribal chiefs on matters concerning the society.
Missionaries came to East Africa for various reasons. These were economic, social, and humanitarian in nature. The missionaries had the ambition to spread Christianity to the people of East Africa. This would be through preaching and teaching the holy gospel so that many would get converted to Christianity They wanted to fight against slave trade in East Africa. Earlier travelers like John Speke and James Grant, H.M. Stanley, Dr. David Livingstone and others had reported about the evils of slave trade in East Africa. Christian missionaries therefore came with an intention of putting an end to end introducing or replacing it with legitimate trade. Missionaries wanted to resettle the freed slaves in East Africa by setting up resettlement centers both in the interior and at the coast for example at Bagamoyo and Free town near Mombasa. They wanted to check on the spread of Islam in East Africa from the coast with intentions of converting many to Christian...
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