Classical Era Variations (7)

The movements of people generated a numerous amount of cross-cultures encounters. The Bantu newcomers interacted with already established gathering and hunting peoples that earlier occupied Africa south of the equator. During this encounter, the Bantu famers had many more advantages, one was they had more people. They generated more agriculture productivity, than those hunters and gathers. Another advantage was disease, the Bantu people had better immunity in compare to the foragers. The Bantu people also had the advantage of iron, and were able to make tools and weapons. During the classical era, most of the gathering and hunting people were largely eliminated in most parts of south Africa, but not everywhere. Many of the Bantu languages of southern Africa still have the distinctive “clicks” that they borrowed from the gathering and hunting people who lived in that region. In the rain forest region of central Africa is the foraging Batwa people who became forest specialist and produced honey, wild game, elephant products, animal skins, and medicinal barks and plants. All of theses entered regional trading networks that were traded in exchange for agricultural products from the Bantu people. The Batwa people also adopted the Bantu’s languages, while maintaining a nonagricultural lifestyle and separating their identity. The Bantu people regarded that the Batwa peole were first comers to the region and therefore closets to the ancestral and territorial sprits that determined the fertility of the land and people.