【简译】班图人迁徙

The Bantu Migration from their origins in southern West Africa saw a gradual population movement sweep through the central, eastern, and southern parts of the continent starting in the mid-2nd millennium BCE and finally ending before 1500 CE. With them, the Bantu brought new technologies and skills such as cultivating high-yield crops and iron-working which produced more efficient tools and weapons.

          班图人从西非南部的起源地迁徙，从公元前 2000 年中期开始，人口逐渐迁移到非洲大陆的中部、东部和南部，最终在公元 1500 年前结束。班图人带来了新技术和技能，如种植高产作物和铁器加工，从而制造出更有效的工具和武器。

Eventually, the Bantu dominated, with the exception of South Africa and the Namibian desert, all of the African continent south of a line crossing from southern Nigeria to Kenya. In all, some 500 languages spoken today in that vast area are derived from the Proto-Bantu language. Although most historians would agree on the general occurrence of the Bantu migrations across Africa, the precise timings, motivations, routes, and consequences are all still being debated.

          随着时间的推移，班图人开始在除南非和纳米比亚沙漠之外的尼日利亚南部至肯尼亚一线以南的整个非洲大陆上占据主导地位。今天在这片广阔的地区所使用的语言总共约有 500 种源自原始班图语。尽管大多数历史学家都同意班图人在整个非洲迁徙的普遍现象，但其确切时间、原因、路线和后果至今仍存在争议。

班图人简介

The Bantu were agriculturalists who spoke various dialects of the Bantu language. Their heartland was the savannah and rain forest regions around the Niger River of southern West Africa (modern Nigeria, Cameroon, and Gabon). Using both stone and iron tools, they successfully grew crops such as millet, sorghum, dry rice, beans, oil palms, and melons, although they did so at a subsistence level, that is they grew only sufficient crops to meet their own needs. They had the technology to create iron from iron ore, but where this came from is not known except that the three most likely possibles are: the knowledge was introduced by the Phoenicians in the north, the Egyptians or Kushites in the east, or it was acquired locally and independently.

          班图人以农业为生，讲各种方言的班图语。他们的家园是西非南部尼日尔河（今尼日利亚、喀麦隆和加蓬）周围的大草原和热带森林地区。他们使用石器和铁器，种植小米、高粱、旱稻、豆类、油棕和瓜类等作物，但他们的种植水平仅能维持生计，也就是说，他们种植的作物仅能满足自己的需要。他们拥有从铁矿石中炼铁的技术，但这项技术从何而来却不得而知，最有可能的三种情况是：他们从北方的腓尼基人、东方的埃及人或库施人那里获得了知识，或者是自己独立创造的。

The Bantu people's iron tools improved agricultural yields and their iron weapons made them formidable military opponents. They were also hunters, animal herders (goats, sheep, and cattle), potters, weavers and traders, exchanging such goods as salt, copper, and iron ore for those things they needed.

          班图人的铁制农具提高了农业产量，铁制武器使他们成为强大的军事群体。他们还是猎人、畜牧者（山羊、绵羊和牛）、陶工、纺织工和商人，用盐、铜和铁矿石等物品交换他们需要的东西。

东部和南部移民

During the 2nd millennium BCE, small population groups of Bantu began to migrate into Central Africa and then across to the Great Lakes region of East Africa. This movement can be traced by the study of linguistics - a technique known as lexicostatistics - and observation of the relative closeness of local languages to each other and the language originally spoken by the Bantu people of the Niger River delta: Proto-Bantu. At the same time, one should be cautious with such studies as the passage of a language may not necessarily reflect the migration of its speakers. The same might be said of cultural practices and technologies.

          公元前两千年，班图人的小群体开始迁徙到中非，然后跨越东非大湖地区。通过语言学研究（使用一种称为词汇统计的技术）并注意到当地语言与尼日尔河三角洲班图人最初使用的语言：原始班图语之间的相对亲和力，可以进一步推动这一运动。同时，对此类研究应持谨慎态度，因为一种语言的传播并不一定反映其使用者的迁移。文化习俗和技术也是如此。

班图人迁徙的原因

Historians suggest the reason for the Bantu migration may be any one or more of the following:

exhaustion of local resources - agricultural land, grazing lands, and forests

overpopulation

famine

epidemics

increased competition for local resources

warfare between rival tribes or as a consequence of succession disputes

climate change affecting crops

a spirit of adventure

          历史学家认为，班图人迁徙的原因可能是以下一种或多种：

1. 当地资源（农田、牧场和森林）枯竭

2. 人口过剩

3. 饥荒

4. 流行病

5. 对当地资源的竞争加剧

6. 敌对部落之间的战争或继承争端的后果

7. 气候变化影响农作物

8. 冒险精神

It was the Bantu people who founded the coastal settlements of East Africa, what would become, with the addition of Muslim traders from Arabia and Persia from the 7th century CE, the Swahili Coast. From southern West Africa (the West Bantu) and the Great Rift Valley of East Africa (the East Bantu) two streams of Bantu peoples then moved further south in a second wave of migration which occurred during the 1st millennium BCE. A third wave of migration, in the first half of the 1st millennium CE, then took place as the East Bantu peoples moved even further south into what is today Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, and eastern South Africa.

          班图人建立了东非沿海定居点，从公元 7 世纪起，随着来自阿拉伯和波斯的穆斯林商人的加入，这里逐渐形成了斯瓦希里海岸。从西非南部（西班图）和东非大裂谷（东班图）出发，班图人的两个分支在公元前一千年的第二次移民潮中进一步南迁。公元前一千年上半叶，东班图人进一步南迁，进入了今天的津巴布韦、博茨瓦纳、莫桑比克和南非东部地区，这是第三次移民潮。

The process of the Bantu migration has traditionally been seen by scholars as a gradual one of filtering down from village to village (and sometimes back again) through a rather sparsely populated Africa. However, the UNESCO General History of Africa puts a rather different slant on the process, at least in regards to the first wave:

The main expansion of the Bantu was vast and fast, not a series of gradual stages as some have argued. But it was a matter neither of purposeless nomadic wandering, nor of organized military conquest. It was a remarkable process of colonization - in the true sense of the word - the opening up of essentially empty lands. (Mokhtar, 320)

          传统上，学者们认为班图人的迁徙过程是在人烟稀少的非洲从一个村庄到另一个村庄（有时又回到另一个村庄）的渐进过程。然而，联合国教科文组织的《非洲通史》对这一过程却有不同的看法，至少对第一波移民来说是如此：

          班图人的主要扩张是大规模的、快速的，而不是像有些人所说的那样是一系列渐进的阶段。但这既不是无目的的游牧流浪，也不是有组织的军事征服。这是一个特殊的殖民化过程（真正意义上的殖民化），开辟了基本的空旷的土地。(莫赫塔尔，320 页）

The Bantu shared their knowledge of iron-smelting, pottery-making, and their farming skills with indigenous forager and nomadic tribes they met, many of whom eventually then settled into stable village communities. Bantu dialects and aspects of Bantu culture were adopted, although the migrants, it is important to note, also learnt from the indigenous peoples, especially in areas like the cultivation of some grain crops or fishing techniques which had been perfected over centuries to get the best from the specific local environmental conditions. In addition, many cultural practices - the use of stone and obsidian tools, to give but one example - often continued to be used in parallel with the Bantu people's superior technologies.

          班图人与他们遇到的土著狩猎者和游牧部落分享他们的冶铁知识、制陶技术和耕作技能，其中许多人最终定居在稳定的村落社区。他们采用了班图方言及其文化的某些方面，但重要的是要记住，移民也向土著人民学习，特别是在几个世纪以来不断完善的耕种和捕鱼技术领域，以达到最佳效果。此外，许多文化习俗，例如使用石器和黑曜石工具，往往与班图人的高超技术并行不悖。

班图人迁徙的影响

The principal consequences of the Bantu migration, then, may be summarised as:

the spread of the Bantu and Bantu-related languages.

the spread of iron-smelting and smithing technology.

the spread of pottery techniques.

the spread of agricultural tools and techniques.

deforestation as charcoal was needed to smelt iron and metal tools made forest clearing easier.

the spread of certain foods into new areas such as plantain bananas and yams.

an increase in people living in villages which in turn created more distinct regional societies, kingships formed and there were further developments in technology.

the retreat of some indigenous peoples to more remote areas.

          因此，班图人迁徙的主要影响可概括为

1. 班图语及其相关语言的传播。

2. 铸铁和锻造技术的传播。

3. 制陶技艺的传播

4. 农业工具和技术的传播。

5. 由于需要木炭来冶炼铁而导致森林砍伐，而金属工具使砍伐森林变得更加容易。

6. 某些食物传播到新的地区，如香蕉或山药。

7. 居住在城镇的人口增加，这反过来又创造了更加分化的区域社会，形成王权，技术进一步发展。

8. 一些原住民迁徙到更偏远的地区。

As the peoples the Bantu came across were still in the Stone Age in terms of weapons and technology, the iron-weaponed migrants with their specialised warrior caste had little trouble imposing themselves wherever they went. Their superior technology also encouraged local peoples to accept Bantu leadership. Some groups did resist this wave of Bantu culture, such as the 'pygmies' who retreated to the depths of the central Africa rainforests or the groups of savannah hunter-gatherers, the San, who likewise retreated to the inhospitable and less accessible environment of the Kalahari Desert.

          由于班图人所接触的民族在武器和技术方面仍处于石器时代，因此拥有铁器技术的移民及其职业战士阶层无论走到哪里，都很容易将自己的意志强加于人。他们高超的技术也鼓励当地人接受班图人的领导。有些族群确实抵制了班图文化的浪潮，如“俾格米人”退缩到非洲中部雨林深处；草原狩猎采集者桑人族群，他们同样退缩到喀拉哈里沙漠荒凉且交通不便的环境中。

参考书目：

Curtin, P. African History. Pearson, 1995.

de Fillipo, C. et al. "Bringing Together Linguistic and Genetic Evidence to Test the Bantu Expansion." Proceedings: Biological Sciences, Vol. 279, No. 1741 (22 August 2012), pp. 3256-63.

Desmond Clark, J. (ed). The Cambridge History of Africa, Volume 1. Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Fage, J.D. (ed). The Cambridge History of Africa, Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Felix, A. "A Response to Christopher Ehret's "Bantu Expansions"." The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 34, No. 3 (2001, pp. 647-51.

Garlake, P. Early Art and Architecture of Africa. Oxford University Press, 2002.

Hrbek, I. (ed). UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. III, Abridged Edition. University of California Press, 1992.

Ki-Zerbo, J. (ed). UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. IV, Abridged Edition. University of California Press, 1998.

McEvedy, C. The Penguin Atlas of African History. Penguin Books, 1996.

Mokhtar, G. (ed). UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. II, Abridged Edition. University of California Press, 1990.

Oliver, R. (ed). The Cambridge History of Africa, Vol. 3. Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Oliver, R.A. Cambridge Encyclopedia of Africa. Cambridge University Press, 1981.

原文作者：Mark Cartwright

          驻意大利的历史作家。他的主要兴趣包括陶瓷、建筑、世界神话和发现所有文明的共同思想。他拥有政治哲学硕士学位，是《世界历史百科全书》的出版总监。

原文网址: https://www.worldhistory.org/Bantu_Migration/