What if the Bantu had expanded into West Africa instead of sub-Equatorial Africa? How might things have changed?
WI: The Bantu go west
- Thread starter Mort the Reaper
- Start date
The Bantu originated in West Africa, no? How much room directly west did they have to expand?
Iirc the Sahara was more similar to the Kalahari than the vast sandbox it is today. Bantu groups or tribes could, after familiarizing itself with the Berber or pre-Berber groups of the area oasis hop north before arriving in a North Africa far more fertile than it is today.
I thought that the Bantu migrations occurred well after the point by which the Sahara had turned into a desert.
Actually, the predominant theory is that they originated in what is now Cameroon, which straddles the border between West and Central Africa. So I'd say they'd have had quite a bit of room for expansion.
I think the main reason the Bantu spread so phenomenally well is that the area southwards was largely populated by more technologically primitive peoples at a lower population density. They wouldn’t have had these advantages if they had gone west into the area of societies similar to their own.
Most of West Africa speaks Niger-Congo languages, but not the Bantu branch.
Would be interesting to see the ATL Bantu migrations not go further south than the OTL Ovambo, Tongo and Sena peoples even if it would butterfly away the Zulu (short of another ATL Zulu analogue appearing elsewhere).