Chronological overview after Nurse and Philippson (2003):[1] 1 = 4,000–3,500BP: origin 2 = 3,500BP: initial expansion "early split": 2.a = Eastern, 2.b = Western[2] 3 = 2,000–1,500BP: Urewe nucleus of Eastern Bantu 4–7: southward advance 9 = 2,500BP: Congo nucleus 10 = 2,000–1,000BP: last phaseMap indicating the spread of the Early Iron Age across Africa; all numbers are AD dates except for the "250 BC" date.
The Bantu expansion was[3][4][5] a major series of migrations of the original Proto-Bantu-speaking group,[6][7] which spread from an original nucleus around West-Central Africa. In the process, the Proto-Bantu-speaking settlers displaced, eliminated or absorbed pre-existing hunter-gatherer and pastoralist groups that they encountered.
There is linguistic evidence for this expansion – a great many of the languages which are spoken across sub-Equatorial Africa are remarkably similar to each other, suggesting the common cultural origin of their original speakers. The linguistic core of the Bantu languages, which comprise a branch of the Atlantic-Congo language family, was located in the southern regions of Cameroon.[8] Genetic evidence also indicates that there was a large human migration from central Africa, with varying levels of admixture with local population.[4][9]
The expansion is believed to have taken place in at least two waves, between about 4,000 and 2,000 years ago (approximately 2,000 BC to AD 1). Linguistic analysis suggests that the expansion proceeded in two directions: the first went across or along the Northern border of the Congo forest region (towards East Africa),[10] and the second – and possibly others – went south along Africa's Atlantic coast into what is now the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Angola, or inland along the many south-to-north flowing rivers of the Congo River system. The expansion reached South Africa, probably as early as AD 300.[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] coastal farming was the primary method of agricultural farming used by the Bantu and as they migrated South through the Congo river farming became the primary method of agricultural farming until other methods learned through trade and experience through trial and error were developed.
^Plaza, S; Salas, A; Calafell, F; Corte-Real, F; Bertranpetit, J; Carracedo, A; Comas, D (2004). "Insights into the western Bantu dispersal: MtDNA lineage analysis in Angola". Human Genetics. 115 (5): 439–47. doi:10.1007/s00439-004-1164-0. PMID15340834. S2CID13213447.
^Alves, I; Coelho, M; Gignoux, C; et al. (2011). "Genetic homogeneity across Bantu-speaking groups from Mozambique and Angola challenges early split scenarios between East and West Bantu populations". Human Biology. 83 (1): 13–38. doi:10.3378/027.083.0102. PMID21453002. S2CID20841059.
^Castrì, L; Tofanelli, S; Garagnani, P; et al. (2009). "MtDNA variability in two Bantu-speaking populations (Shona and Hutu) from Eastern Africa: Implications for peopling and migration patterns in sub-Saharan Africa". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 140 (2): 302–11. doi:10.1002/ajpa.21070. PMID19425093.