Migration in Sub-Saharan Africa - what's there to know?

December 3, 2006 9:49 AM

I need to know everything about migration in Sub-Saharan Africa from 600 BC - 1450 AD by Friday.

I need links! I need help finding information about migration patterns in the sub-saharan region of Africa. I don't want answers necessarily, I just want links to the information, and from there I get my answers.

posted by watch_alot to education (3 comments total)

Is this for an academic paper? If so, have you looked at your school's library website and searched there?
posted by k8t at 10:23 AM on December 3, 2006

Google "bantu migration" -- use google scholar. If you are at a university or college, use a databse like "web of knowledge" and you can access scholarly information.
posted by Rumple at 11:22 AM on December 3, 2006

Some themes for you to follow up on in google searches:
1. Climate Change, especially in the Sahara (it used to be a lot less dry and less of a barrier to migration.)
2. Bantu-speaking peoples (Bantu is a language group) move from Central Africa east and south towards South Africa, displacing native San people (bushmen)
3. Growth of urban city states in West Africa in Nigeria (Ife, Benin, Nupe) and along the Niger River
4. Colonisation of Madagascar by people from Indonesia.
5. Influence of Islam on East Africa (Zanzibar) and in West Africa (Mali, Senegal)

Slavery - and contact with Europeans - becomes a major issue only after 1450, but is present before that in East Africa under Arab colonisation.

An interesting search would be the history of Great Zimbabwe, a large urbanized archeological site in Zimbabwe. Also, there are controversies surrounding the origins of the Lemba people who may have been a Jewish tribe who emigrated from the Arabian peninsula around 900 AD.

The developement of the Ethiopian Empire is always fascinating.
posted by zaelic at 12:47 PM on December 3, 2006