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According to some estimates, the first Austronesians reached Madagascar as early as 300 BC, well before the Bantu peoples had expanded into southern Africa. Suppose that Austronesians had proceeded directly across the Mozambique Channel and followed the Agulhas Current down the African coast. As they ventured inland, they encountered only a sparse population of Khoisan foragers, who were as easily displaced by Austronesian taro-farmers as by Bantu pastoralists in OTL. The Bantu, in turn, were halted in their southward expansion by the presence of a large settled population, and so never penetrated south of the Limpopo region. The result was a stark racial and linguistic boundary between central and southern Africa, with the latter being essentially an extension of Oceania.

How would this difference of human geography alter the course of African history? In particular, how would it change the pattern of colonization, the slave trade, etc? And how might Austronesian culture have adapted itself to the African mainland?
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