LESSONS WITH TSHEGO

Ever wonder where the Bantu people actually come from before borders, tribes, and kingdoms existed?

Most people are told vague stories about “North Africa” or the Nile. But when linguistics, archaeology, and genetics are placed side by side, a clearer picture emerges.

The strongest evidence places the Proto-Bantu homeland in West–Central Africa, around present-day Nigeria and Cameroon not North Africa. From as early as 3000–2000 BCE, Bantu-speaking communities began a slow, multi-directional migration south and east. Not a single mass movement but centuries of settlement, farming, language spread, and cultural adaptation.

By the early Common Era, Bantu farmers had reached East Africa and the Great Lakes, and by roughly 600–1000 CE, they were firmly established across southern Africa, including what is now Limpopo and the Northern Transvaal. Along the way, they mixed with indigenous Khoisan forager communities, shaping new identities, languages, and lifeways.

Some oral traditions loosely connect Bantu origins to Nile regions and those accounts deserve to be respected but no archaeological or genetic data currently supports a North African origin. The dominant scholarly consensus remains West–Central African.

Centuries later, from within these southern Bantu worlds, specific histories begin to crystallize. The Bapedi trace their origins to Bakgatla ba Makau, a Batswana clan living near the Vaal River in the 16th century, ruled by King Tabane. His heir, Diale, would leave with his followers, settling at Fateng (near present-day Fort Weeber) and those who moved with him became the core of the Pedi nation. #learningisfun #education #publicspeaking #history #africanhistory

History isn’t a single voice. It’s layers archaeology, language, memory, and movement and understanding where we come from means listening to all of them, honestly.