Massive Group Migration Of Bantu
Experts studies on language have shown that about 900 languages developed from a single parent tongue or Proto Bantu. Ans as earlier asserted, the language spread across Africa as a result of migration.
A cogent point to note is that the Bantu speakers were not one people, rather a group f people who shared certain cultural characteristics . They were well developed in the skills of iron working, some experts believe they were related to the Nok culture people. They were farmers and also nomads.
It is recorded that at the beginning of at least 2,000 years ago or earlier, small groups of Bantu speakers began moving to the south and east. It is said that their farming technique led these people to move every few years in search of fertile land. The technique which is called slash and burn enabled them to cut down a patch of forest and then burned. The slash is mixed into the soil to create a fertile garden area. As soon as the land lost fertility, they move to another land in a new location. As they moved, the Bantu group shared their skills with the people they met, adapted their method to suit each new environment. The Bantu speakers followed the Congo River through the rain-forest, there they farmed in the river bank.
They also moved eastward in to the Savanna. They adopted their technique for herding goat and sheep to raising cattle. Passing through what is known as Kenyan and present day Tanzania, they also learned to cultivate new crops; one such crop was the banana which came from Southeast Asia.
Another historical sources however, contents that the migration of the Bantu people were in groups. Four different groups were highlighted at four different period.
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