WI/AHC: Bantu Migrate North?

What if the Bantu Migration is northward toward the Mediterranean, with splinter groups pushing into Europe and the Middle East? Would that be possible or would the powers that be prevent that type of expansion?
 
Easier said than done, and it'd get you more of a trickle than the sort of mass migration which could spill over into the Middle East and Europe.

I guess the other option would be to have the Proto-Bantu peoples migrate northward as the Sahara Desert was expanding

Or for the Bantu Migration to follow the West African coastline northward.
 
Your best bet would rerouting the Bantu migrations north via the Great Lakes into the White Nile. The best candidate for this would be the Urewe Culture (Proto-Eastern Bantu). As they migrate, they pressure the native Nilotic peoples north into Meroe. A historical parallel to this is the fall of Rome, with the Huns pressuring the Germanic tribes south into Rome, leading to its collapse (I'm oversimplifying, but you get my point). For the sake of the scenario, a similar thing happens with Meroe, but on a smaller scale, so that by the time the Bantu arrive (assuming the migration north starts by 500BC, let's say it reaches Meroe by 200BC), they find the kingdom a shadow of its former self, with several rival successor states of mixed Kushitic and Nilotic descent. They are able to assimilate the Nilo-Kushitic peoples, and they adopt the Bantu language and culture.

If the migration keeps going, they can either continue into the Nile proper and reach Egypt or follow the Blue Nile into the heart of Ethiopia. If they continue into Egypt, (my estimate is that they reach Upper Egypt by 1AD), they can serve a role similar to the Blemmyae, a buffer tribe for Rome protecting the southern border from invaders. Assuming minimal butterflies, they could carve out Egypt from the Romans during the Migration Period. From there, they can expand further into the Levant.

If they go into the Blue Nile, they can assimilate the Axumites into the Bantu culture. From there they can migrate into East Africa, and like @EparkusTonTrapezous suggested, cross the Straits of Mandeb into the Arabian Peninsula. An interesting possibility is a Bantu *Islam emerging from the Arabian Peninsula and spreading Bantu language and culture the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. However, this might be too much of a Bantu wank.
 
I guess the other option would be to have the Proto-Bantu peoples migrate northward as the Sahara Desert was expanding

Or for the Bantu Migration to follow the West African coastline northward.

The proto-Bantu would've ran into Chadic speakers, like the ancestors of the Hausa, if they have moved north from their supposed homelands in Eastern Nigeria/Western Cameroon. I don't think proto-Bantus had an agricultural or technological advantage over the proto-Chadic or the proto-Nilotes who became the Kanuris.
 
Why not have them go down the Senegal and then follow the Atlantic coast, or move roughly parallel to it? Mauritania is filled with medieval trading towns built around oases, I suppose a number of Bantu could probably island-hop north across the sand-sea until they reach Morocco and... do something I guess. They can reach Mauritania after passing through the Mande lands, probably assimilating a few along the way.

I think a White Nile route wouldn't work because of the Sudd-- a wetland that dense makes the Sahara look like a paved road.
 
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The proto-Bantu would've ran into Chadic speakers, like the ancestors of the Hausa, if they have moved north from their supposed homelands in Eastern Nigeria/Western Cameroon. I don't think proto-Bantus had an agricultural or technological advantage over the proto-Chadic or the proto-Nilotes who became the Kanuris.
Exactly
I believe the Bantu people's were able to expand south and east (and then south) because their iron working and their agricultural package gave them a significant advantage over the peoples they displaced.
They wouldn't have that advantage going north, I don't believe.

So if they try going north, they don't go far, and end up being one of the small language groups in western Africa, and almst no one outside the Bight of Benin has heard of them.
 
What if the Bantu Migration is northward toward the Mediterranean, with splinter groups pushing into Europe and the Middle East? Would that be possible or would the powers that be prevent that type of expansion?
Maybe they mix with Punic/ Berber people in North Africa.
 
I can't see the Bantus managing to traverse the Sahara to reach North Africa, but i could suggest a similar scenario, which would be them deciding to migrate to West Africa (Guinea, the Niger valley) instead of the swampy marshes of the Congo and south-central Africa.
One people this could have an obvious effect on would be the iron-producing Nok culture in the central Nigerian plateau. Would the Bantus destroy this culture but later assimilate whatever its political, religious and cultural customs were, forming something new in the process? Could their invasion of the plateau be stalled militarily by the Nok people, who rally around a semi-legendary leader and eventually form a more coherent state, or even an empire? Who knows.
 
Exactly
I believe the Bantu people's were able to expand south and east (and then south) because their iron working and their agricultural package gave them a significant advantage over the peoples they displaced.
They wouldn't have that advantage going north, I don't believe.

So if they try going north, they don't go far, and end up being one of the small language groups in western Africa, and almst no one outside the Bight of Benin has heard of them.

In addition, this study, http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2011/01/the-genetic-affinities-of-ethiopians/#.WljddHanGUk
argues that, outside of the Horn of Africa, in Pre-Bantu Expansion Subsaharan Africa, population densities were very low.
That certainly helped the Bantu Expansion. If the Bantus went north, they would have faced much bigger populations and would have had far more problems.
 
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In addition, this study, http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2011/01/the-genetic-affinities-of-ethiopians/#.WljddHanGUk
argues that, outside of the Horn of Africa, in Pre-Bantu Expansion Subsaharan Africa, population densities were very low.
That certainly helped the Bangu Expansion. If the Bantus went north, they would have faced much bigger populations and would have had far more problems.

Let’s say that the Bantu do migrate north, do the Cushitic peoples migrate further south into Khoi-San areas? Or Austronesians from Madagascar?
 
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