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Back when Greeks and Romans were singing about the Trojan War, Africa had its own big events

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going on.

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The biggest of these was something that big wig historians liked to call the Bantu Migration.

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Ooh, that sounds important.

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Yeah.

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Because it was.

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Today, a gigantic chunk of Sub-Saharan Africa still speaks languages that are descended

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from Proto-Bantu.

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Swahili, Mbundu [mm-BUN-doo], Kirundi [kuh-RUHN-dee], Zulu, and Sukuma [suh-KOO-muh] all have more

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than a little Proto-Bantu in them.

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So the question is…how did Proto-Bantu catch on in such a big way?

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Easy.

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Way back in the day, people from the Bantu ethnic group traveled from their native lands

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in West Africa, spreading their culture and language.

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What was their secret?

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Well, there were two, actually.

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The first one might not surprise you.

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The first secret was…drum roll…iron.

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That’s right.

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The early Bantu knew how to smelt iron and hammer it into weapons and all kinds of other

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useful tools.

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This would’ve given them both battlefield superiority and valuable trade goods.

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All right, here’s their second secret.

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This one might be harder to swallow.

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Ready?

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Yams.

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We’re not even kidding.

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The Bantu figured out that yams grow well even in nutrient-poor soil.

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Yams are also way more nutritious than other crops like sorghum, possibly making Bantu

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stronger and healthier than some of their neighbors.

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In addition to their yam-slash-iron domination, the Bantu could also whip up sweet pottery,

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which was great for storing food and goods for trade.

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Put all this together, and you’ve got a stable, healthy population that’s ready

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for export.

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Historians and archaeologists theorize that, eventually, Bantu villages and lands began

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to get overcrowded.

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Which made migrating south for greener pastures seem like a swell idea.

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Historians are still debating how this went down.

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Were the Bantu violent conquerors, sending big bad armies to bend the rest of Africa

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to their will?

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Or were they peaceful farmers and merchants looking for new lands and new opportunities?

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Did they come all at once, or was it a steady trickle?

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Nobody knows for sure.

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One thing we do know for sure is that the Bantu Migration left a big stamp on Africa.

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Like…so big you could mail the continent to Mars…

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