Bantu

BÀNTU. — This designation encompasses many tribes of the southern part of Africa that are neither culturally nor racially homogeneous. It is, in fact, an exclusively linguistic grouping (ba-ntu is the plural of mu-ntu, man).

The languages of the peoples in question have a common structure. They divide nouns into classes characterized by prefixes placed before the roots; these prefixes, in their full or contracted form, express the various grammatical relationships. Each class uses its own pronouns. Prepositions are absent or nearly so, while temporal and spatial relationships are characterized by placing nouns in the appropriate classes. Gender is likewise absent. Adjectives are scarce, and the corresponding concepts are emphasized through verbs. The causative, applicative, iterative, and other forms of the various actions are expressed by means of verbal suffixes. The entire lexical heritage of the b. languages, despite salient phonetic differentiations whose laws of transformation are now largely known, reveals considerable commonality of roots, very probably pointing to a common origin. The languages of the group are spoken, with the exception of the areas in the extreme south inhabited by the Boscimani and the Ottenotti, as well as the south-western part of Africa, up to the equatorial line, crossing it in the centre and even more extensively in the western portion. Important centres of Bantoid idioms are found in Nigeria and along the coasts of Guinea. As we have said, the linguistic unity of the B. does not correspond to a cultural unity. We shall briefly summarize the most interesting related ethnological features.

All these peoples practise hoe agriculture, either through alternating cultivation or by using the burning of spontaneous vegetation as fertilizer. Some southern and eastern tribes also raise livestock, which constitutes the best form of capital accumulation; indeed, it is precisely livestock that they use for the important payment of the bride-price to future parents-in-law, whereas the others preferably pay with hoes.

From the social point of view, the B. tolerate polygynous marriage, although most are in fact monogamous. The legalisation of marriage, and consequently of the offspring, generally depends on the full payment of the aforementioned bride-price; children born before this payment are therefore illegitimate. Among many tribes, moreover, the family represents a genuine economic unit, also in the sense that it produces what it consumes. The family likewise always provides for the initial education of the children until, among many peoples, the tribe itself intervenes through youth initiations. Finally, for almost all of them the family represents the centre of ceremonies connected with birth, marriage, and death, as well as of the sacrifices as a whole, which are customarily offered, in the fields or in the huts, to the beloved deceased on the occasion of sowing and harvesting.

Politically, there are tribes that have no central governing body but are divided into groups within which the elders make the necessary decisions from time to time. Others, by contrast, have succeeded in federating under particular chiefs and even in making neighbouring peoples tributary to them (Zulu and Basuto in the south, Hehe towards the east). In the Congo and in South Africa (Monomotapa), as well as in the same region of the Great Lakes, genuine kingdoms have even arisen. The office of federation chief or monarch is almost always hereditary within the same family, and that family has an important role in the economic organisation (the division of lands, the overall direction of agricultural and pastoral activity, etc.), as well as in the government of the tribes and the administration of justice. Among some tribes these authorities also had religious functions, especially in relation to general prosperity,

the fertility of the fields, the increase of livestock, etc., while among other peoples special ministers of worship, official or unofficial, appear in this regard; the magicians, sorcerers, diviners, and others depend on these ministers, and it is to them, especially in West Africa, that the development of secret societies is to be attributed.

In most tribes, the cult of the dead appears pre-eminent. Some regard the dead in the manner of the Latin manes, that is, limiting them to close blood relatives; others, by contrast, seem generally to include all ancestors, attributing to them a vigilant concern for the moral and material fate of their descendants. The B. also believe in the existence of a Supreme Being (Mulungu, Unkulunbulu, or Niambi, Leza, etc.), who for most is not animistically related to the departed. The Supreme Being is not the object of regular worship. Certain tribes strive to render him ceremonially benevolent during periods of severe collective misfortune. He is conceived as the creator of the world, or also as lord of the heavens who, having ceded to the departed the government of and direct contact with human beings, has reserved for himself only the supreme decision over life and death, happiness and suffering (for example, over the fertility or sterility of women). Nor does this same Supreme Being fail to safeguard moral principles, responding to certain transgressions with collective punishments (drought, epidemics, etc.), whereas against his clearly expressed will the manes and ancestors can do nothing.

Meinhof, op. cit. - Per l'eventuale provenienza del B., W. Wanger, op. cit. - In genere cf. anche le raccolte delle seguenti riviste: Africa (Londra), Anthropos (Mödling-Vienna), Bantu Studies (Città del Capo), Congo (Bruxelles), Journal of the African Society (Londra), The Journal of the R. Anthropological Institute (Londra), Zeitschrift für Eingebornen-Sprachen (Amburgo).