HST 197 Lecture Notes - Lecture 45: Bantu Expansion, Sub-Saharan Africa
Document Summary
For the next several centuries african people built small societies. Bantu and other migrants spread agriculture across africa as well as herding. Once they established agricultural societies, and became cultivators and herders, they displaced many of the hunter-gather people who lived in these regions of sub-saharan. These people soon became absorbed into the bantu societies. These allowed them to make iron axes, adzes, and hoes for clearing land for cultivation. Yam, millet and sorghum were staples in the diets of many people in south africa. Bananas emerged after a fresh migratory surge. They were first domesticated in southeast asia and traveled their way by sea lanes to enter africa banana cultivation there. It was an easy jump from madagascar to bring bananas to africa. They provided a nutritious supplement in the bantu diet and enabled their societies to move into the rainforests, where yams and millet didn"t grow well.
