AFRICA

The Bantu were not one people, but a group of people with similar cultures and language.They smelted iron, and made advanced tools and weapons. Mant believe they were related to the Nok. About 2000 years ago, a group of these Bantu speakers started to move south because the methods they used to grow crops, using slash-and-burn farming, forced them to move. The Sahara advancing on them from the North, the Bantu moved south.

 

As they migrated, they adapted their cultural beliefs and customs to their environment, as well as spreading their culture with the peoples they came across. They followed the Congo river south through the dense rainforests of Africa, farming on the river's banks, as this was the only place where there was enough light to grow crops. 

 

They also moved east towards the savanna, and learned to raise and heard sheep, goats, and cattle. 

 

There are a few reasons these Bantu-speakers migrated. As mentioned before, the fact that they had used slash-and-burn farming had forced them to move every year. However, they adapted out of using these methods. They learned to farm subsistently, which meant that their population grew greatly. They then needed land for people and also for farmland. They also required hardwood forests to get charcoal and smelt their iron tools and weapons. 

 

As the Bantu speakers reached the Kalahari desert, they split into eastern and western streams. Eventually they bypassed they Kalahari and Namib deserts and reached the southern tip of Africa after a period of 1,500 years. They now populated much of the southern half of Africa.