Starting some 3,000 to 4,000 years ago from the region of the border of Nigeria and Cameroon, speakers of the ancestral Bantu language, who were farmers growing yams and millet and keeping goats, began to move south and east through the Congo rainforest. Around 500 BC they acquired ironworking and by about 500 AD had spread to East and southern Africa, where they absorbed or displaced hunter-gatherers and herders. The migration was one of the largest in human history. The 500 or so Bantu languages, including Swahili, Zulu, Shona and Kikongo, are spoken today by some 350 million people across central, eastern and southern Africa.
Before and after
- from c. 1,050 BCE to 930 BCEUnited Kingdom of Israel
- c. 1,050 BCEEruption of Pinatubo
- from c. 1,046 BCE to 256 BCEZhou dynasty
- from 11th century BCE to 7th century BCEChaldea
- 11th century BCEThe Bantu expansion begins
- 1st millennium BCEOrigins of Kabul
- from c. 996 BCE to 586 BCEConstruction of Solomon's Temple
- from c. 945 BCE to 715 BCETwenty-second Dynasty of Egypt
- from c. 930 BCE to 720 BCEKingdom of Israel
More in Evolution & life
- from c. 3,000 BCE to 1,800 BCEIndus Valley Civilization
- from 30th century BCE to 18th century BCEMari
- from c. 1,600 BCE to 1,100 BCEMycenaean Greece
- 16th century BCEVedas
- c. 1,400 BCEOlmecas
- from 450 BCE to 15 CELa Tène culture
The era
This moment belongs to the Ancient civilizations (3,200 BCE to 500 CE), writing, cities and empires.