Bantu
Sub-Saharan language family
Bantu refers to a large family of languages spoken across central and southern Africa, including Swahili, Zulu, and Xhosa—over 400 languages with roughly 350 million speakers.
The term also describes the peoples who speak these languages.
In South African history, Bantu was used by the apartheid government as an official racial classification, giving the word offensive connotations there that it lacks elsewhere: Bantu education, Bantu homelands.
In linguistic and anthropological contexts outside South Africa, Bantu remains neutral and standard.
Bantu language of East Africa
- ZuluBantu language of Natal
- XhosaBantu language with clicks
- ShonaSouthern African Bantu language
- phonologyScience of language sounds
morphology · tone · agglutination · prefix · click consonants · Niger-Congo · syntax · lexicon
Those from whom one descends
- initiationFormal admission ceremony
- kinshipState of being related
- clanRelated group sharing ancestry
- ritualsCeremonial repeated practices
ceremonies · oral tradition · folklore · mythology · divination · healers · totems · cosmology
Bantu language of Natal
Movement to new territory
- Iron AgePost-bronze historical period
- dispersalSpreading in many directions
- originStarting point or source
- archaeologyStudy of physical remnants
farming · smelting · displacement · Great Lakes · equatorial · savanna · woodland · settlement
Countries of origin
- passbookSavings account record
- segregationForced separation by group
- classificationSystematic grouping by traits
- reservesResources held back
Swahili
Bantu language of East Africa
phonology · morphology · tone · agglutination · prefix · click consonants · Niger-Congo · syntax · lexicon
ancestors
Those from whom one descends
- initiationFormal admission ceremony
- kinshipState of being related
- clanRelated group sharing ancestry
rituals · ceremonies · oral tradition · folklore · mythology · divination · healers · totems · cosmology · spirituality
Zulu
Bantu language of Natal
Hutu · Tutsi · Kongo · Tonga · sub-Saharan · migration · Iron Age
migration
Movement to new territory
- Iron AgePost-bronze historical period
- dispersalSpreading in many directions
- originStarting point or source
archaeology · farming · smelting · displacement · Great Lakes · equatorial · savanna · woodland · settlement · population
homelands
Countries of origin
- passbookSavings account record
- segregationForced separation by group
- classificationSystematic grouping by traits
- AfricaEgypt, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania
- ancient civilizationsAncient Egypt, Sumer, Ancient Greece, Aztecs, Egypt
- South AfricaCape Town, Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela, Pretoria, Durban
- TribesApache, Cherokee, Navajo, Sioux, Comanche
- African PeoplesEgyptians, Nigerians, South Africans, Zulu, Moroccans
- African tribesAshanti, Berber, Fulani, Igbo, Maasai
BantuBerber
North African ethnic group
Arab · Tuareg · Egyptian · North African
- Bantu knotCoiled hair styled into knobs