The People of East Africa
Primary 6 · Social and Religious Studies
The People of East Africa
Lesson 2 of 4
25 min
Let's begin
Uwase's grandmother tells a story. When she was young, her family moved to a new hill because their old land was too small for everyone.
"Families have always moved," Grandmother says. "Long, long ago, whole peoples moved across Africa."
Today you will learn where the three language groups of East Africa came from, and why they moved.
The first Bantu speakers lived in the highlands between present-day Cameroon and Nigeria, in West-Central Africa.
Over thousands of years, their descendants moved slowly south and east. This long movement is called the Bantu migration (or Bantu expansion). It did not happen in one trip. Families moved a little at a time, over many generations.
One stream moved east and reached the land west of Lake Victoria, in our Great Lakes region, by about 500 BC, about 2,500 years ago. From there, Bantu speakers spread across East and Southern Africa. They reached South Africa by about AD 300.
Along the way they met people who already lived in these lands, such as hunter-gatherers and herders. They mixed with them, learned from them and shared their own skills.
Wherever they went, they spread farming, iron-working, pottery and their languages.
Nilotic-speaking peoples came from the Nile valley in what is now South Sudan. Over many centuries, groups of them moved south into Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
Most were cattle keepers. They moved mainly to find pasture and water for their cattle, and sometimes to escape drought or conflict.
Cushitic-speaking peoples came from the Ethiopian Highlands and the Horn of Africa. The first groups settled around Lake Turkana and in parts of Tanzania about 5,000 years ago, before the Bantu arrived. Much later, around AD 1000, other Cushitic speakers settled in northern and coastal Kenya.
They were herders, looking for grazing land and water in dry country.
| Group | Came from | Direction into East Africa |
|---|---|---|
| Bantu | Highlands between Cameroon and Nigeria | From the west |
| Nilotic | The Nile valley (South Sudan) | From the north |
| Cushitic | The Ethiopian Highlands and the Horn of Africa | From the north-east |
Tip
West, North, North-East
Bantu came from the west. Nilotes came from the north, down the Nile. Cushites came from the north-east, from the Horn.
Picture Rwanda in the middle, with three arrows pointing towards it.
Answer each one, then tap Show answer to check.
Where did the Bantu migration begin?
Answer: in the highlands between Cameroon and Nigeria, in West-Central Africa.
By about when had Bantu speakers reached the land west of Lake Victoria?
Answer: by about 500 BC.
Why did Nilotic peoples move south?
Answer: mainly to find pasture and water for their cattle.
How did iron help the Bantu migration?
Answer: iron hoes and axes made it easier to clear land and grow crops in new places.
What you learned today
Sources and credits
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Quick check
Match each language group to the place it came from.
Tap one on the left, then its partner on the right.
