scholarly journals Linguistic Evidence for the Introduction of Ironworking into Bantu-Speaking Africa

2006 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 321-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Vansina
Keyword(s):  
Great Lakes ◽  
Central African Republic ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Language Family ◽  
Lake Chad ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
West Central ◽  
Linguistic Evidence

Did Africans once independently invent the smelting of metals or did they obtain this technology from Europe or the Middle East? This continues to be an unresolved and hotly disputed issue, mainly because the dates for the earliest appearance of smelting in Africa south of the Sahara remain inconclusive. All the earliest sites in Western and West-Central Africa from Walalde in Senegal to the Tigidit cliffs and Termit in Niger, the firki plains south of lake Chad, Taruga, and perhaps Nsukka in Nigeria, Ghwa Kiva (Nigeria), and Doulo (Cameroon) in the Mandara mountains, Gbabiri (Ndio district) in the Central African Republic, and a few sites in Rwanda, Burundi, and Buhaya cannot be dated more closely than between 840 and 420 BCE. Greater precision is impossible because the C14 curve runs flat during these four centuries, hence all these sites yield the same date. (Alpern, Killick, Me Eachern, Holl, Jézégou/Clist, Kanimba Misago). If the earliest “real” dates fell before 800 BCE, they would support independent invention, while later dates strengthen the case for borrowing. Still, this information does tell us that ironworking was adopted in the northern parts of West and West -Central Africa and in the region of the Great Lakes within the span of a mere four centuries.The emergence of ironworking must have left linguistic traces in the relevant terminology irrespective of whether it spread by borrowing or by independent invention—hence historical linguistics can contribute to this debate. That approach is best tested by an examination of the relevant vocabulary in Bantu languages because the historical study of those languages is further advanced than that of any other language family in Africa (Nurse/Phillipson). Moreover Bantu-speakers occupy a large portion of the continent.

Scales and Units

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn M. de Luna
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Historical Linguistics ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
The North ◽  
First Case ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
River Region ◽  
History Of ◽  
Alternative Approaches

This chapter uses two case studies to explore how historians study language movement and change through comparative historical linguistics. The first case study stands as a short chapter in the larger history of the expansion of Bantu languages across eastern, central, and southern Africa. It focuses on the expansion of proto-Kafue, ca. 950–1250, from a linguistic homeland in the middle Kafue River region to lands beyond the Lukanga swamps to the north and the Zambezi River to the south. This expansion was made possible by a dramatic reconfiguration of ties of kinship. The second case study explores linguistic evidence for ridicule along the Lozi-Botatwe frontier in the mid- to late 19th century. Significantly, the units and scales of language movement and change in precolonial periods rendered visible through comparative historical linguistics bring to our attention alternative approaches to language change and movement in contemporary Africa.

scholarly journals Spatial analysis from remotely sensed observations of Congo basin of East African high Land to drain water using gravity for sustainable management of low laying Chad basin of Central Africa

2014 ◽  
Vol XL-1 ◽  
pp. 279-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Modu ◽  
B. Herbert
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Central African Republic ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Remotely Sensed ◽  
Congo Basin ◽  
Large Area ◽  
East African ◽  
Republic Of Congo ◽  
Lake Chad ◽  
Chad Basin

The Chad basin which covers an area of about 2.4 million kilometer square is one of the largest drainage basins in Africa in the centre of Lake Chad .This basin was formed as a result of rifting and drifting episode, as such it has no outlet to the oceans or seas. It contains large area of desert from the north to the west. The basin covers in part seven countries such as Chad, Nigeria, Central African Republic, Cameroun, Niger, Sudan and Algeria. It is named Chad basin because 43.9% falls in Chad republic. Since its formation, the basin continues to experienced water shortage due to the activities of Dams combination, increase in irrigations and general reduction in rainfall. Chad basin needs an external water source for it to be function at sustainable level, hence needs for exploitation of higher east African river basin called Congo basin; which covers an area of 3.7 million square km lies in an astride the equator in west-central Africa-world second largest river basin after Amazon. The Congo River almost pans around republic of Congo, the democratic republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, western Zambia, northern Angola, part of Cameroun, and Tanzania. The remotely sensed imagery analysis and observation revealed that Congo basin is on the elevation of 275 to 460 meters and the Chad basin is on elevation of 240 meters. This implies that water can be drained from Congo basin via headrace down to the Chad basin for the water sustainability.

scholarly journals Registers of African-derived lexicon in Uruguay: etymologies, demography and semantic change

2019 ◽  
Vol 135 (1) ◽  
pp. 223-255
Author(s):  
Laura Álvarez López ◽  
Magdalena Coll
Keyword(s):  
Demographic Data ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Social Behaviors ◽  
The Other ◽  
African Origin ◽  
Semantic Change ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
La Plata ◽  
West Central ◽  
Lexical Items

Abstract The present paper deals with 82 words of possible African origin registered in Uruguay by Ildefonso Pereda Valdés and Rolando Laguarda Trías between 1937 and 1965. Many of the lexical items were probably introduced by enslaved Africans brought to the region during the 18th and 19th centuries. Evidence shows that most of the words are apparently shared with varieties of Spanish outside the Rio de la Plata region, and most of them also appear in neighboring Argentina and Brazil. Furthermore, the African-derived lexicon is often used to denominate the ‘other’ with respect to people and social behaviors, and most of these loanwords are nouns with possible origins in Bantu languages spoken in West-Central Africa, which corresponds to the available demographic data.

scholarly journals Bantu expansion shows that habitat alters the route and pace of human dispersals

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (43) ◽  
pp. 13296-13301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Grollemund ◽  
Simon Branford ◽  
Koen Bostoen ◽  
Andrew Meade ◽  
Chris Venditti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Random Walk ◽  
Geographical Area ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Biological Species ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Cultural Events ◽  
West Central ◽  
Dated Phylogeny ◽  
Migratory Movements

Unlike most other biological species, humans can use cultural innovations to occupy a range of environments, raising the intriguing question of whether human migrations move relatively independently of habitat or show preferences for familiar ones. The Bantu expansion that swept out of West Central Africa beginning ∼5,000 y ago is one of the most influential cultural events of its kind, eventually spreading over a vast geographical area a new way of life in which farming played an increasingly important role. We use a new dated phylogeny of ∼400 Bantu languages to show that migrating Bantu-speaking populations did not expand from their ancestral homeland in a “random walk” but, rather, followed emerging savannah corridors, with rainforest habitats repeatedly imposing temporal barriers to movement. When populations did move from savannah into rainforest, rates of migration were slowed, delaying the occupation of the rainforest by on average 300 y, compared with similar migratory movements exclusively within savannah or within rainforest by established rainforest populations. Despite unmatched abilities to produce innovations culturally, unfamiliar habitats significantly alter the route and pace of human dispersals.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Sharpe
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Great Lakes ◽  
East Africa ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Horn Of Africa ◽  
Refugee Protection

This introductory chapter begins by presenting the book’s structure in section A. Section B then delineates the book’s contours, outlining four aspects of refugee protection in Africa that are not addressed. Section C provides context, with a contemporary overview of the state of refugee protection in Africa. It also looks at the major aspects of the refugee situations in each of Africa’s principal geographic sub-regions: East Africa (including the Horn of Africa), Central Africa and the Great Lakes, West Africa, Southern Africa, and North Africa. Section D then concludes with an outline of the theoretical approach to regime relationships employed throughout the book.

scholarly journals Population collapse in Congo rainforest from 400 CE urges reassessment of the Bantu Expansion

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. eabd8352
Author(s):  
Dirk Seidensticker ◽  
Wannes Hubau ◽  
Dirk Verschuren ◽  
Cesar Fortes-Lima ◽  
Pierre de Maret ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Expansion Phase ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Population Collapse ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
Spread Model ◽  
Migration Event

The present-day distribution of Bantu languages is commonly thought to reflect the early stages of the Bantu Expansion, the greatest migration event in African prehistory. Using 1149 radiocarbon dates linked to 115 pottery styles recovered from 726 sites throughout the Congo rainforest and adjacent areas, we show that this is not the case. Two periods of more intense human activity, each consisting of an expansion phase with widespread pottery styles and a regionalization phase with many more local pottery styles, are separated by a widespread population collapse between 400 and 600 CE followed by major resettlement centuries later. Coinciding with wetter climatic conditions, the collapse was possibly promoted by a prolonged epidemic. Comparison of our data with genetic and linguistic evidence further supports a spread-over-spread model for the dispersal of Bantu speakers and their languages.

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