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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Bantu in the Crystal Ball: I |
Author: | Vansina, Jan |
Year: | 1979 |
Periodical: | History in Africa |
Volume: | 6 |
Pages: | 287-333 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Subsaharan Africa Africa |
Subjects: | Bantu-speaking peoples history ethnic groups Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) History and Exploration |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/3171750 |
Abstract: | More than one-third of Africa is occupied by people who speak related languages belonging to a single family called Bantu. How could one language or a group of closely related dialects diffuse over such a vast area? The fact of Bantu expansion remains a major puzzle in the history of Africa. The present author's main goal is to recount the salient features of the century-long inquiry into this puzzle and in doing so to lead to an assessment of the present situation. Much of the proposed reconstruction of Bantu expansion has been conjectural, and the available data are disparate and drawn from different disciplines. Moreover, different considerations of the question have to a great extent been moulded by the major themes in European and American intellectual history of the last century and scholarly tradition, once established, has greatly directed and limited the solutions proposed. Notes. |