Bantu expansion · about 1000 BC-AD 500

The Bantu expansion: farmers on the move

Over many centuries, farming families speaking Bantu languages spread from West Africa across most of central, eastern and southern Africa. Students trace one of the great migrations of history, step by small step.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, 1000 BC to AD 800
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Over many centuries, farming families speaking Bantu languages spread from West Africa across most of central, eastern and southern Africa. Students trace one of the great migrations of history, step by small step.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Locate the probable starting region of the Bantu expansion and the two main directions it took.
  • Explain what Bantu-speaking farmers brought with them (crops, iron, cattle) and how language helps historians trace them.
  • Describe how the expansion affected Khoisan and Batwa peoples who already lived in the south and in the forests.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

1000 BC

The starting region

Open the map in 1000 BC and zoom to the corner where the West African coast turns south, at today's border of Nigeria and Cameroon. Most historians think Bantu languages began in the grasslands here.

Open this view on the map
b

AD 800

Watch the south change

Drag the time slider from 1000 BC to AD 800 and watch central and southern Africa. Which label moves to the far south, and which new label spreads over central Africa?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 800

Lakes and coasts

Zoom to Lake Victoria in AD 800. Bantu-speaking farmers smelted iron around this lake more than 2,000 years ago. Why were lake shores good places to settle?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. The word "Bantu" means "people" in many of these languages. Why did linguists use word lists to trace the migration?
  2. The expansion took well over a thousand years. Was it a march, or something much slower? Explain.
  3. What did farmers with iron hoes and axes have that foragers did not, and what did foragers know that farmers did not?
  4. Bantu-speaking farmers met Khoisan and Batwa peoples. List three things that can happen when two groups meet.
  5. Today hundreds of millions of people speak Bantu languages such as Swahili, Zulu and Shona. Why does such an old migration still matter?
4

Game round

9 min

No Rule History ruler led the Bantu expansion: it was made by thousands of farming families over centuries. Play one round as Cyrus the Great, who ruled in the same era, and discuss: how is a change made by many families different from one made by a king?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.