Bantu

Bantu ('people'), a native word applied by Friedrich Müller as an ethnographical name to a large group of African languages, and to the peoples speaking the same. The Bantu races occupy most of Africa from 20° S. lat. to 6° N. lat. northwards, and are broadly distinguished from the Negrits and Hottentots to the south, and the Soudanese negroes to the north. They fall geographically into three divisions. The eastern includes Kaffirs and Zulus, and extends to the Galla and Somali country, the Swahili being the most northerly section. The central division comprises Bechuans (Basutos, Barolong, &c.). To the western division belong the inhabitants of the west coast from the Hottentot country to the Gulf of Guinea, the peoples of Benguela, Angola, Congo, Loango. The linguistic inter-relationship of the Bantu languages, as intimate as that of the Indo-Germanic family, was first recognised by Gabelentz and Pott, and afterwards elaborated by Bleek. It rests both on roots and on grammar. Within their range are included by Lepsius all the negro languages of Central Africa. See AFRICA, KAFFIRS, ZULUS, &c.