The Bantu (translated as “the people”) spread from the borderlands of today’s Nigeria and Cameroon about 2,000 years ago. In the process they replaced early farmer and hunter gatherer cultures (like the Batwa) in both grassland savannah environments and rainforests. They brought their language, new crops and
iron technology to the Gorilla Highlands region and cleared the forests for farmland.
The Bantu Expansion Timeline
5000BC: Agriculture develops in Africa.
1000BC: The Bantu and their cattle arrive to our region.
By 500BC: Early mixed farming is established by northern migrants who settle in Uganda and further south.
400–200BC: Start of Early Iron Age, new crop varieties and iron smelting are introduced.
683–754AD: A further surge of settlement and deforestation takes place.
1,000AD: Late Iron Age begins.
1236–76AD and 1322–98AD: Forest clearance and population expansion peaks.
1600AD: The Bwindi, Echuya and Virunga forests are split and continue to be cleared.
The Present of Our Region’s Bantu
The Bantus of Rwanda, Uganda and DR Congo are nowadays divided by language and identity — even when they share clans and therefore their origin.
In historic times each clan was ruled by elders who were often rainmakers. Today’s Kisoro District in Uganda was conquered by the Rwandan Kingdom between the late 1880s and 1910, and ruled by the king’s chiefs. Elsewhere in southwestern Uganda there was never any central authority, just clans fighting clans. Several kingdoms formed in eastern Congo.
The Bakiga, the most populous groups of southwestern Uganda, had no real sense of common belonging before the English colonial administrators grouped them together and defined them as an ethnic group. The Bafumbira in Kisoro speak a dialect of Kinyarwanda. Banyarwanda (Rwandans) are one people with two traditional economic classes, the cattle-keeping Batutsi and the Bahutu land cultivators (after the 1994 Genocide Against the Batutsi, these divisions are officially downplayed). In eastern Congo the following Bantu groups populate the North and South Kivu provinces: Babembe, Bahunde, Bafuliru, Bahavu, Bakumu, Balega, Banande, Banyamulenge/Barundi (of Rwandan/Burundian heritage), Banyanga, Banyindu, Bashi, Bavira, and Batembo.
Traditionally all these Bantu they were mixed crop and livestock farmers who lived on land that was very fertile, however, porous volcanic soils can make water supply problematic. High population density and land fragmentation often leads to migrations.
Their settlements were a compound with separate houses for all wives and their children. Each wife had her own livestock and fields. Cattle were kept inside the compound at night as protection from wild animals and thieves.
Nyabingi was the most powerful goddess in the system of traditional beliefs guiding people from birth to death.
Our Stories About the Bantu:
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What Tom Meant to Us (And Why You Should Care)
Quarterly newsletter for Gorilla Highlands lovers It is notoriously difficult to find a decent nightwatchman in the Gorilla Highlands region. The local mentality is that “you can kill two birds with one stone, do two jobs at once — one during the night, one during the day,” Edirisa staff Moses Oshaba explains. That puts the…
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Lake Bunyonyi’s Island of Death
Smack in the middle of Lake Bunyonyi floats a scruffy little island with a few dead trees and a whole lot of baggage. You wouldn’t give it a second look, unless locals tell you that the forlorn patch of land is called Akampene, or Punishment Island … Back in the day, if a girl was…
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The Virungas’ Most Intriguing Ethnic Group
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Of all the cultures found around the Virungas, the Bafumbira are perhaps the most intriguing. Though they speak a dialect of Kinyarwanda, they live in Uganda’s southwestern corner, in Kisoro District. Their influence in Uganda far outweighs their numbers. They are a small minority, as there are only around 700,000 Bafumbira in their district while…
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Digital Superman under Rwanda’s Famous Breast
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“Cows are everything to me. They are my siblings, my comfort zone, my love. They raised me, fed me, and shaped who I am,” says Alexis Ngabo Karegeya. His passion for cattle is contagious, and it’s turned him into a fascinating guide for visitors to the lush pastures of Bigogwe. Found on the southern side…
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SABA Episode #3 — Africa’s Secret History
This episode of SEE AFRICA BREATHE AFRICA might surprise those who thought we would be a podcast preoccupied with conventional travel questions. We are literally open to any question about Rwanda, Uganda and DR Congo, and when a distinguished member wants to know how history is taught at schools, we go full blast! But the…
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Ancient MasterCard
70 mm, f5.0, 1/160s, ISO800When I first started travelling, traveller’s cheques were still a thing (though I don’t think I ever made much use of them). So was bringing cash — usually USD back in those days — to be turned into local currency at dodgy foreign exchange counters, or expensive hotels. I remember having…
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Sacred and Cursed Tree
The tree called ekiko among the Bakiga is usually known as flame tree but also red-hot poker tree or lucky bean tree in English. Its Latin name is Erythrina abyssinica. This tree is indigenous to the Gorilla Highlands region and found in various other parts of the world, up to 2,000 m/ 6,500 ft above sea level. It grows to 12 m/ 40 ft, with…
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Rough and Tough People of the Hills
The Gorilla Highlands Initiative was born 10 years ago in the land of the Bakiga (pronunciation: “Bachiga”; singular: Mukiga; language: Rukiga), the tribe from southwestern Uganda. This is a little peek into their history …The term Bakiga was first used by the British authorities in the 20th century to refer to independent clans who had never…
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“No Persons of Sufficient Intelligence”
“One has to admire the English: they managed to run almost half a billion people and control a quarter of the world’s land — all that from a relatively insignificant island somewhere between Europe and America. Extreme self-confidence — if only Africa had more of that!” I once read in one of the Gorilla Highlands…