This empire was one of the most powerful in African History and left an indelible mark on modern-day South Africa. Factors that support claims of genocide include the confiscation not just of grain crops, that were needed to feed a growing industrial army, but also the confiscation of all foodstuffs, including livestock and domestic animals. Their descendants have largely mixed with other peoples and adopted other languages. This paper outlines four stages of the Bantu expansion: first, the initial push through the equatorial forest from the northern to the southern woodlands; second, the occupation of the southern woodland belt from coast to coast; third, the colonization of the Tanzania, Kenya and southern Somali coastline and of the northern sector of the lake region; fourth, the colonization south-wards, north-westwards and north-eastwards from this extended nucleus. Required fields are marked *. This resulted in an attempt to systematically eliminate the large Christian Armenian minority. Numerous individual countries, however, twenty-nine in total, including forty-eight states within the United States, classify what took place as genocide. There was, of course, a great deal of mercantile resistance, but the British government held firm. The name of the country was changed in 1976 to Democratic Kampuchea, and Pol Pot, or Brother Number One, declared the day of victory Year Zero as he set about building his Utopian republic. A lot less easy to explain is the national derangement that gripped one half of Cambodia, causing it to react with such violence towards the other. Here, conditions of physical abuse, disease, exhaustion, and starvation began to claim the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. Another stream of migration, having moved east by 3,000 years ago (1000BC), was creating a major new population center near the Great Lakes of East Africa, where a rich environment supported a dense population. Vaguely the idea was to purify the races under German control, and create thus a race-worthy of European domination. Genetic and Demographic Implications of the Bantu Expansion: Insights It must be remembered that the rise of Nazi Germany can be attributed to the terms of the peace imposed on imperial Germany in the aftermath of WWI. Archaeological, linguistic, genetic, and environmental evidence all support the conclusion that the Bantu expansion was a significant human migration. [34], Movements by small groups to the southeast from the Great Lakes region were more rapid, with initial settlements widely dispersed near the coast and near rivers, due to comparatively difficult farming conditions in areas farther from water. 21128. Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. If he was, it might make it easier to explain. Such groups as Slavs, blacks, Roma, various Soviets, prisoners of war of different shades, homosexuals, Jehovahs Witnesses and political opponents were all treated much the same. The last major act of defiance of a native race in southern Africa against European domination was the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. They generally lack case inflection, but grammatical gender is characteristic, with some languages having two dozen genders (noun classes). Rape and slavery was common practice among the Bantu colonists. There Shaka revealed something much more than a simple talent for war, something, in fact, akin to genius. If you would like to reproduce it please get in touch via this form. When on the society site, please use the credentials provided by that society. Initially, archaeologists believed that they could find archaeological similarities in the region's ancient cultures that the Bantu-speakers were held to have traversed. Linguistic, archeological and genetic evidence indicates that during the course of the Bantu expansion, "independent waves of migration of western African and East African Bantu-speakers into southern Africa occurred. The Allies, as a tactic of war, exploited traditional tensions within Ottoman territories to weaken the Empire. The mechanics of the Holocaust are now so universally understood that nothing can be added here. The death toll attributed to the Holodomor runs to between 7 million and 10 million, which dwarves anything we have looked at so far. Get your weekly fill of History Articles and Quizzes. Therefore, the Bantu Expansion is not a textbook example of a farming/language dispersal. It was caused by the failure of the potato crop, thanks to a mold-related blight, which affected a rural population heavily dependent on potatoes as a staple food source. The Twa spend part of the year in the otherwise uninhabited region hunting game, trading for agricultural products with the farmers while they do so. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian. Now the others are minorities this was not at all a targeted effort so there is no reason to call it a genocide. When they reached the Zulu shield-wall, they were so tightly bunched they could scarcely fight. From Australia, we move to Africa, and a slightly different take on genocide. Fearing similar Allied manipulation of traditional Armenian hostility, the Turkish Armenian population found itself the subject of an extermination policy. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways: Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. The young woman, whose name was Nandi, was, with ageless injustice, cast out to give birth to her illegitimate child in exile. The Bantu Expansion, the foremost linguistic, cultural, and demographic event in Late Holocene Africa, has sparked a fervent interdisciplinary debate, especially regarding its driving forces. READ: The Spread of Farming in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Bantu Migration They believed that the expansion was caused by the development of agriculture, the making of ceramics, and the use of iron, which permitted new ecological zones to be exploited. The rough chronology established on genealogical evidence has recently been confirmed by radiocarbon dates from Bigo, the earliest site identifiable in the dynastic tradition of the region. No genocide to date had been based so completely on myths, on hallucinations, on abstract, nonpragmatic ideology which was then executed by very rational, pragmatic means.. For a year, the Ndwandwe licked their wounds. The regime was toppled in January 1979, and Pol Pot died in April 1998, on the eve of his being handed over to international justice. Another stream settled in the central areas of modern Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, and Zambia, initiating a complete population replacement of the native African Pygmies who previously inhabited the area. Genocide obviously never sits well on the national conscience of any country, and so the finer points of definition are usually argued exhaustively. Millions were killed and displaced, and it hasn't gotten much easier for them since. However, the Holocaust, although predominately targeting Jews, was also an expression of Nazi aversion to any group or individual not conforming to a narrow definition of Aryan purity. If you see Sign in through society site in the sign in pane within a journal: If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society. Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. . Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. That's a bold claim. Between 1904 and 1907, up to 100,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama were killed, many in concentration camps, dying of disease and starvation. Michael C. Campbell and Sarah A. Tishkoff, "The Evolution of Human Genetic and Phenotypic Variation in Africa,", "Genetic and Demographic Implications of the Bantu Expansion: Insights from Human Paternal Lineages", "The Genetic Structure and History of Africans and African Americans", "On the edge of Bantu expansions: MtDNA, Y chromosome and lactase persistence genetic variation in southwestern Angola", "Y-chromosomal variation in sub-Saharan Africa: Insights into the history of NigerCongo groups", "Phylogeographic analysis of the Bantu language expansion supports a rainforest route", "Early migrations into East Africa | Enzi", "Inferring the Demographic History of African Farmers and Pygmy HunterGatherers Using a Multilocus Resequencing Data Set", "Cultural phylogeography of the Bantu Languages of sub-Saharan Africa", "Bringing together linguistic and genetic evidence to test the Bantu expansion", "Bantu expansion shows that habitat alters the route and pace of human dispersals", "Bantu Language Trees Reflect the Spread of Farming across Sub-Saharan Africa: A Maximum-Parsimony Analysis", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bantu_expansion&oldid=1142078895, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from November 2022, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from September 2015, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 11:21. The Bantu expansion is a hypothesis about the history of the major series of migrations of the original Proto-Bantu -speaking group, [3] [4] which spread from an original nucleus around Central Africa across much of sub-Saharan Africa. The indigenous population of the territory comprised dispersed agricultural and pastoral communities belonging to the two major indigenous population groups in southern Africa. This ideological aversion soon extended to ethnic Vietnamese, Chinese, Thais, Christians, Muslims and Buddhists, and indeed anyone at all perceived in any way to be an enemy of the revolution. Archaeologists have found physical evidence of the migration in pottery, iron-smelting technology, and subsistence farming techniques that originated in the Bantu West African region, creating a timeline of movement across the continent. the Herero and Namaqua Genocide). In this way, a chain reaction of violence and predation began that lasted from about 1815 to 1840. India and Pakistan would be separated, with what is today Bangladesh part of mainland Pakistan. Does this action fall into the classification of genocide? Yeah, Bantu expanded around 1500 years or so and did a little genociding of the Khoisans and pygmies in the area. The Germans found both of these races difficult to integrate into their colonial economy, simply because they were inimical to labor and were often nomadic in lifestyle. In Eastern and Southern Africa, Bantu speakers may have adopted livestock husbandry from other unrelated Cushitic-and Nilotic-speaking peoples they encountered. I'd imagine it's the same way. About 3500 years ago, an event began that changed the demographic, linguistic, and cultural makeup of the African continent forever. 2002). In total, about 11.2 million people successfully crossed the India-West Pakistan border in different directions, mostly through the Punjab region. Between 300 AD-1000 AD, through participation in the long-existing Indian Ocean trade route, these communities established links with Arabian and Indian traders, leading to the development of the Swahili culture. 24 Theal, G. M., Records of South-East Africa (Capetown, 18981903), vols. Between 1904 and 1907, up to 100,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama were killed, many in concentration camps, dying of disease and starvation. But the Bantu farmers didn't swiftly drive hunter-gatherers to oblivion. Was the Great Irish Famine genocide? WWII, however, reconfigured the imperial landscape, and by then, India was demanding independence, and the British were more than willing to give it to them. Other academic opinion tends to point to a typically dogmatic refusal on the part of the British government to acknowledge a failed policy. Shaka, the 'Mfecane' and Africa's first recorded genocide cit. Beginning around 1500BCE, members of the proto-Bantu language group migrated eastward and southward from West Africa, crossing vast swathes of the continent over hundreds of years. The result was a mass slaughter as Muslims trapped in India sought to flee to Pakistan, and Hindus and Sikhs caught in Pakistan tried to make it across the border into India. The German Empire claimed the colony in 1884, as part of what was known as the Scramble for Africa. Ethnic Armenian Christians, mainly living in what would today be modern Turkey, became subject to genocide as the old ruling Caliphate of the Ottoman Empire came under the more modernizing influence of the Young Turks. The southward Bantu occupation of sub-Saharan Africa (south of the Sahara), started some 2,000 years ago, with the introduction of crop farming and iron age technology from Nubia which made expansion, weaponry, conquest and supremacy possible. [29] The western branch, not necessarily linguistically distinct, according to Christopher Ehret, followed the coast and the major rivers of the Congo system southward, reaching central Angola by around 500BC. Your email address will not be published. 7 Fagan, Brian, Southern Africa (1965), 46.Google Scholar, 8 Cf. The land rights, of course, were freely utilized, while the protection often simply meant bondage. Genocide in Somalia's Jubba Valley and Somali Bantu Refugees - Items The regime was toppled in January 1979, and Pol Pot died in April 1998, on the eve of his being handed over to international justice. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. The Allies, as a tactic of war, exploited traditional tensions within Ottoman territories to weaken the Empire. By about 1200 CE, "Bantu-ness" was a cultural and technological network across the vast trunk of Africa. View your signed in personal account and access account management features. The last major act of defiance of a native race in southern Africa against European domination was the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. Some 6.5 million of those were Muslims migrating from India to Pakistan, and 4.7 million Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan to India. For more than a century, historians have supported the idea of a 'Bantu Expansion' that, starting in West Africa several millennia ago, spread across the southern half of the continent. The scope of the Armenian genocide is usually defined as the physical extermination of Armenian Christians living within the geographic boundaries of the Ottoman Empire, between 1915 and 1916. They subsequently rebelled, attracting a violent response from the Germans. This particular event, however, became embroiled in other social, political and economic issues, which is where historians tend to point the finger of blame at the British and accuse them of genocide. Bantu expansion - Wikipedia Although early models posited that the early speakers were both iron-using and agricultural, definitive archaeological evidence that they used iron does not appear until as late as 400BC, though they were agricultural. Personal communication from Mr Fagg.Google Scholar, 14 Unless otherwise stated, all carbon dates are taken from the summaries published in the Journal of African History, II (1961), 1379, and IV (1963), 5278.Google Scholar, 15 Guthrie, Malcolm, loc. It was this policy in the end that is credited with saving Ireland from the worst possible consequences of crop failure. 22 January 2009. The latter, the Khoisan, are the original, and much more ancient race displaced by the Bantu, and relegated in many instances to the arid desert reaches of the west of the sub-continent. Others reached South Africa by 500CE and mixed with the native Khoisan-speaking people, contributing to the countrys vast diversity today. Accompanying charcoal carbon-dated to 266 s.c. 120. The Extinct "Ghost Modern" Race of Africa and the Bantu Expansion Genocide For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. On the western extremities of the southern African subcontinent lies the nation of Namibia, known until independence as South West Africa, and prior to that as German South West Africa. 32 Photographs of Porajmos, the World War II Romani Gypsy Genocide, Heartbreaking Images of the Rwandan Genocide, Most Blood-Soaked African Battles and Conflicts. In total, about 11.2 million people successfully crossed the India-West Pakistan border in different directions, mostly through the Punjab region. On Tuesday, August 14, 1947, Pakistan was proclaimed independent from Britain, and a day later, India followed suit. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Archaeological evidence from the separate works of Jean Hurault (1979, 1986 & 1988) and Rigobert Tuech (2000) in the region reveals that this region has been inhabited by the same culture for 5 millennia, from 3000 B.C to date. However, the US Ambassador to Constantinople, Henry Morgenthau Sr, was able to rouse the attention of the Woodrow Wilson administration, and an enormous amount of money and resource was eventually raised to help Armenian refugees affected by the crisis. See below. They suffered a genocide, at the hands of europeans and bantu peoples. But he also displayed a dangerous pathology, perhaps born of his reduced birth, and the suffering that his mother endured on his behalf, but also, perhaps, because of hidden homosexuality. The Ottoman Empire allied with the Central Powers during WWI, and, of course, the German defeat in that war brought the Ottoman Empire down with it. The German government has in recent years heard demands for compensation and recognition of the victims, and the legacy of this event remains a strain on relations between the two nations. [30], It is clear that there were human populations in the region at the time of the expansion, and pygmies are their closest living relatives. The root of the verb tends to remain unchanged, with either particles or auxiliary verbs expressing tenses and moods. This response quickly escalated to orchestrated genocide, and was extended beyond the Herero to the neighboring Namaqua people, who were of Khoisan origin, and the San, or Bushmen as well. The Nazi extermination of the Jews, on the other hand, was strictly ideological and remained so until its conclusion. Yet, was it all bloodshed and oppression? Content may require purchase if you do not have access. Many centuries later, around AD 1000, some Eastern Cushitic speakers also settled in northern and coastal Kenya. 18091. The methods employed are by now familiar to students of genocide, and included the staples of forced labor, mass deportations, death marches, direct attack and massacre, concentration and starvation. India and Pakistan would be separated, with what is today Bangladesh part of mainland Pakistan. The Zulu are a military people, forged in a crucible of violence and predatory warfare, and in the early decades of the 19th century, they emerged as a martial society on an almost Spartan scale. It remains a livid international issue, however, and one upon which Turkeys entry into the European Union has traditionally been hinged. The phenomenon was known as the Mfecane, or Difaqane, or the Scattering. After a hundred years, the genocide slowly continued, forced to servitude. They are the shortest group of Pygmies in Africa, averaging under 4 feet 6 inches (137 cm) in height, and are perhaps the most famous. It was this policy in the end that is credited with saving Ireland from the worst possible consequences of crop failure. The infamous Rwandan genocide was triggered by the tensions between the Hutus and Tutsis. Vitally important but lesser known were the Abyssinians (Ethiopians) fighting to eject the Italians from their country. The result was a mass slaughter as Muslims trapped in India sought to flee to Pakistan, and Hindus and Sikhs caught in Pakistan tried to make it across the border into India. The departure of the British would naturally bring about democratic rule, and in a society where Hindus vastly outnumbered Muslims, universal suffrage meant Muslim marginalization. Postulated millennia-long series of migrations. The story begins with a popular African tale. They are from Western Africa and East African countries like Tanzania. 18091. Has data issue: true The economic suffering of the German people that followed, and the rise of nationalism that this set in motion, created ideal circumstances for a merchant and banking class to attract the attention of a disposed population. The Bantu Expansion: How Bantu People Changed Sub-Saharan Africa It has sparked speculation, debate, and curiosity among scholars within the continent and beyond. Also Read: Most Blood-Soaked African Battles and Conflicts. Before the expansion of Bantu-speaking farmers, Central, Southern, and Southeast Africa was populated by Pygmy foragers, Khoisan-speaking hunter-gatherers, Nilo-Saharan-speaking herders, and Cushitic-speaking pastoralists. This is simply because it was about ideological killing on a major scale, and because it was accompanied by such cruelty and such wanton human suffering. A boundary commission, sponsored by the British government, attempted to divide India along Hindu and Muslim lines. Like hes a supposedly a historian but I see no mention of him going to a university. Historians believe the migration was splintered in small groups not large conquering hordes that separated and settled in new regions. The migrants settled in three primary areas. The question is rather whether Muslim nationalists were to blame for demanding a two-state solution, whether Hindu nationalists were to blame for allowing it, or whether the British were to blame for leaving India knowing that genocide was inevitable. Tensions and violence increased after the Rwandan Genocide as 1.5 million Hutu refugees fled Rwanda. Most of these treaties implied imperial protection in exchange for land rights. Africa's World War: The Congo War - History Guild It reminds me of the whole claim that "slavery was practiced by Africans before the transatlantic slave trade", etc. Millions? In its simplest terms, the Herero, a Bantu people, in one of many internecine conflicts, required German protection and did not get it. Agricultural Bantu peoples have settled a number of ecotones next to an area that has game but will not support agriculture, such as the edges of the rainforest, open swamp, and desert. hasContentIssue true, Copyright Cambridge University Press 1966. Starving Herero Tribesmen Source: Wikimedia. In many ways, it defined the British Empire. Nonetheless, in the unfathomable complexity of the Anglo-Irish relationship, there are no small number of historians who point the finger at the British government, not so much for acts of commission, but acts of omission. Bantu Genocide View source Bantu peoples is used as a general label for the 300-600 ethnic groups in Africa who speak Bantu languages. No one need ever be reminded that the greatest and least disputed incidence of genocide in modern history was the systematic exterminations of Europes Jews by the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler. Press J to jump to the feed. cit. Keywords: Bantu migration, Great Lakes Africa, Bantu . Starving Herero Tribesmen Source: Wikimedia. The Bantu Expansion was probably the biggest example of genocide 4in human history. As for (2), the chapter argues that the earliest Bantu speakers had their own archeologically visible culture, but they were not farmers. The tell-tale sign is the lack of non-bantu Y-DNA left in the area and the MtDNA still surviving, which means they killed the men and "took" the women. The Khmer Rouge, a communist group headed by revolutionary, Pol Pot, allied itself with Sihanouk against the coup plotters, thus creating the conditions for the bloody civil war that followed. There seems to be much more evidence for the Bantu Expansion than the Aryan 'Invasion' (quote marks because some suggest migration, some say invasion).