#072 The Great Bantu Migration - Part 3 (The Chagga of Kilimanjaro)

As Bantu communities became adapted to specific environments, so interactions with more distant communities grew less and their languages and material cultures diverged.

Photo: Stu Westfield

By the middle of the first millennium BC, Bantu & Iron culture had infiltrated into the Kilimanjaro and North Pare region in north east Tanzania and southern Kenya. Probably assimilating the pre-existing coastal fisher-pastoralist population. As the eastern Bantu became acquainted with coastal and open water navigation they continued south and then into the hinterland of Dar es Salaam. 

Later chief Meli as a boy standing next to Dr. Hans Meyer visiting
the Meli family before his Kilimanjaro ascent - wiki commons

The East African coastal areas were avoided by Cushtic and Nilotic cattle herders due to tsetse fly and the mangrove swamps. As with elsewhere, the Bantu in this region found geographic niches which were unattractive to others or there was little resistance to intrusion. As we learned in Part 2, the indigenous hunter gatherers were at a distinct disadvantage in competition for resources with the incoming food producers.

North Pare mountains
Credit: C rocca854 at English Wikipedia, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

By the 11th Century, the Bantu language had differentiated into distinctive dialects, including proto Taita-Chagga spoken by the creators of Maore ware in North Pare, Kilimanjaro and Taita. The inhabitants of North Pare subsequently developed into the proto-Chagga. The descendants of whom would become the focal point of social and economic reorganisation of the Kilimanjaro region in later centuries. 

Chagga Expansion 

The typical Bantu social organisation was a clan headed by a hereditary clan chief. The proto-Chagga evolved a new kind of position where the chief was not tied to a single clan but ruled over a territory inhabited by different clan affiliations. This development coincided with a the introduction of the Indonesian banana to highland agriculture, yielding a production advantage. Which set off the Chagga expansion into the heavily forested eastern slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro and beyond.

The surplus crops led to the creation of formal markets. Pastoralists brought hides and the few remaining hunter-gatherers contributed to the trade with honey and wild animal skins. The Wageno tribe of the north Pare became tied to this trade in their role as specialist smelters of iron and tool makers.

16th to 18th Century

From 1500 the emergence of chieftaincies and structured political organisations led to a trend towards a tributary mode of production. The distinct ethnic groups which we know today evolved, linguistically and culturally, in the interior of Kenya and Tanzania.  

Salt from Lake Eyasi and iron were important trade items in central Tanzania. In the late 1700's the Mamba chiefdom became the iron working centre for the Kilimanjaro region. From the road that wound its way around the slopes of Kilimanjaro, the Ngaseni traded huge beer pots.   

The Chagga were still relatively isolated from the coast. Meanwhile the Swahili City States had risen under the rule of Arabian, Egyptian and Perisan traders with a network that extended as far as India and China. There is no record of Arab or Swahili penetration of the interior before 1700 and there is no significant collection of imported objects yet found at any interior site. 

It was the Miji-Kenda and then the Akamba caravans which supplied many of the coastal settlements with products from the interior such as ivory, gum, honey, beeswax, grain, foodstuffs and wood for building dhows. In return for exchanging goods from the interior, the Miji-Kenda (who themselves were largely cultivators of millet, rice and fruits) obtained salt, beads, cloth and importantly, iron.

Tanzania, modern composition.

19th Century and Kilimanjaro

The German missionaries Johannes Rebmann of Mombasa and Johann Krapf were the first Europeans known to have attempted to reach the Kilimanjaro. Although initially, reports of a glaciated peak on the Equator were dismissed as preposterous.

This morning, at 10 o'clock, we obtained a clearer view of the mountains of Jagga, the summit of one of which was covered by what looked like a beautiful white cloud. When I inquired as to the dazzling whiteness, the guide merely called it 'cold' and at once I knew it could be neither more nor less than snow.... Immediately I understood how to interpret the marvelous tales Dr. Krapf and I had heard at the coast, of a vast mountain of gold and silver in the far interior, the approach to which was guarded by evil spirits. - Johannes Rebmann's diary entry of 11 May 1848

Photo: Stu Westfield

Interestingly, by this time, Rebmann found the people in the Kilimanjaro region to be so actively involved in far-reaching trading connections that a chief whose court he visited had a coastal Swahili resident in his entourage. Chagga chiefdoms traded with each other and with the Kamba, Maasai and Pare in the immediate surrounding area as well as with coastal caravans. Many chiefdoms had several produce markets largely run by women, just as they are today.

The Wachagga Today

Today's Chagga are the third largest ethnic group in Tanzania. Their relative economic wealth still derives from the fertile volcanic soils of Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru along with successful traditional methods of agricultural terracing and irrigation. Banana, yams, beans and maize are grown for domestic consumption and local trade. But also, the area is internationally famed for its high quality Kilimanjaro single origin Arabica bean coffee. 

The famous Kilimanjaro Native Co-Operative Union Cafe in Moshi
https://kncutanzania.com/the-union-cafe/

Despite oppression during colonial rule, Chagga men and women have rebounded within an independent Tanzania as prominent contenders in modern politics and local government. Many young Chagga work as clerks, teachers, administrators, and run businesses. Women in rural areas are also generating income through activities such as crafts and tailoring. The Chagga are renowned for their sense of enterprise and strong work ethic. Which is no doubt why many also find employment as professional guides and porters on Kilimanjaro.

Assistant Guide, Richard, sporting
a bold line in Kili mountain fashion

Climbing Kilimanjaro

Mount Kilimanjaro was first summited on 6th October1889 by Hans Meyer, and Austrian climber Ludwig Purtscheller with a local guide, Yohani Kinyala Lauwo. Although, we cannot be certain that an African was not there first, as local folklore warned people from ascending too high. On the mountain lived malevolent spirits that would kill those who came too close, twisting and blackening their limbs. Stories which sound like they were describing frostbite.

Head Guide, Sabas

For my second time on Kilimanjaro, our local Chagga guide was Sabas. Named after the Swahili word saba, as he was the seventh child in his family. Our route was one which allowed for the best acclimatisation, ascending through the Lemosho Glades, then onto the Shira Plateau. Working our way around the west flanks, over the Barranco Wall then establishing at Barafu Camp before the summit bid up the screes to Stella Point and then a short hike around the crater rim to Uhuru Peak

It was on this trip that I met Simon Mtuy, in a vignette that plays back in my mind like the opening sequence of David Lean's 1962 film Lawrence Of Arabia.

I awoke as the thin rays of dawn illuminated the canvas of my tent. It was early and the air was still cold, but there was no hurry, breakfast was not for another half hour. My breath condensed to vapour as I pulled on my boots, unfolding myself as I emerged, in search of coffee. In the clear skies above, the sun was just starting to warm the air, slowly encroaching on the remaining frost laying in the shadows on the ground. Looking across the Shira Plateau, emerging through the shimmering heat haze, a figure, running towards camp. A local guy, had to be, top off, tracksuit bottoms and trainers. I stood in awe at his athleticism, at 3500 metres above sea level. He closes the distance, smiles, we greet. A brief "habari za asubuhi," and "nzuri sana." He stopped at the collection of tents behind ours, where his group had camped. It was later in the day, while taking a rest near Cathedral Point that we met again. Sabas seemed to know him quite well and understandably, he was a bit more talkative. Sabas introduced us to Simon Mtuy, who at the time, held the record for the fastest ascent of Kilimanjaro....

Tanzania, the people, mountains, wildlife and experiences has given me so many cherished and happy memories. There seems no better way than to conclude this story than with the following words:

Stu Westfield
Ranger Expeditions

Sources:

UNSECO General History Of Africa Vol III
Ch 22: The East African Interior. C. Ehret, University of California, Los Angeles

UNSECO General History Of Africa Vol IV
Ch 19: Between the Coast and The Great Lakes. C. Ehret, University of California, Los Angeles

UNESCO General History Of Africa Vol V
Ch 27: The interior of East Africa: The peoples of Kenya and Tanzania 1500-1800 W.R. Ochieng, senior lecturer, Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya.

https://www.science.org/content/article/early-africans-went-bananas

https://archive.archaeology.org/0609/abstracts/bananas.html

https://www.worldhistory.org/Swahili_Coast/

Kilimanjaro To The Roof Of Africa. Audrey Salkeld pub National Geographic 2002

#071 The Great Bantu Migration - Part 2 (The Hadzabe Hunter Gatherers)

The Bantu migration

In part 1 we saw how the discovery of iron facilitated more efficient agriculture production in Bantu tribes, driving population growth and cultural expansion across the whole of sub-Saharan Africa between circa 2500BC to 1000AD. Next we'll look at the how the story developed in East Africa, when the Bantu arrived around 500BC. 

Credit: Woodlouse, CC BY-SA 2.0
<https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Before the Bautu, northern Uganda, Kenya and north central Tanzania had long been occupied by a range of distinct populations with Kushtic and Nilotic origins in their language. These were typically nomadic pastoralists from the north and Horn of Africa. They continued to establish themselves in areas unsuited to agriculture during the African iron age.

Bantu and Nilotic migrations into Uganda

Hadza hunter gatherers

But before the pastoralists, groups of hunter gatherers had lived in the region since ancient times. Among these were the Hadza, who still live on the shores of Lake Eyasi in northern Tanzania. As descendants of Tanzania's aboriginal, pre-Bantu expansion hunter-gatherer population, the Hadza have probably occupied their current territory for many thousands of years, with relatively little modification to their basic way of life until the past hundred years.

The Hazda people are the last full-time hunter-gatherers in Africa, they number around 1000 tribe members. Their language is one of only three East African languages with clicks. On first impression, the language sounds like the southern African Khosian click languages, spoken by the San for example. But links are tenuous at best and any commonalities in solitary consonant-vowel syllables are probably coincidental. The Hadza have has acquired some regional vocabularies in their language, particularly Bantu loan words. 

Credit: The Dorobo Fund

There are physical similarities to the San and Khoi Khoi inhabiting the Kalahari. But genetic studies show that the Hadza are not closely related to any other people. Archaeological evidence suggests the Lake Eyasi region has been continuously occupied by hunter gatherers much like the Hadza since at least the beginning of the Later Stone Age, 50,000 years ago. This is supported by their oral history in which there is no suggestion they moved to Hadzaland from elsewhere. 

Perhaps the environmental factors that select for successful plains-savanna hunter-gatherers gave rise to a common physical appearance that can now only be seen in remote groups like the Hazda and San. Now separated by the successful expansion of other peoples.

The Hadza's own oral history gives us a clue as to early interactions with the incoming Bantu tribes.

The third epoch was inhabited by the people of hamakwanebee "recent days", who were smaller than their predecessors. They invented bows and arrows, and containers for cooking, and mastered the use of fire. They also built huts like those of Hadza today. The people of hamakwanebee were the first of the Hadza ancestors to have contact with non-foraging people, with whom they traded for iron to make knives and arrowheads.

The expansions of farming and herding peoples displaced earlier populations of hunter-gatherers, who would have generally been at a demographic and technological disadvantage, and vulnerable to the loss of environment resources (i.e., foraging areas and habitats for game) as a result of the spread of farmland and pastures.

Credit: BrixL, CC BY-SA 4.0
<https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

The Hadza under pressure

So how did the Hadza survive, while many other indigenous tribes did not? Essentially their territory was among the least desirable to either the agriculturalists or the pastoralists, especially due to the presence of tsetse fly. However, Africa's population had grown enormously in the past fifty years, putting renewed pressure on the remaining wild and unexploited lands.

The following map of Northern Tanzania illustrates the marginal nature of the remaining Hadza lands.

Remaining Hadza territory (detail, shown in yellow, area number 3)
Credit: Communal CCRO's in Northern Tanzania - Ujamaa Community Resource Team

'Within the last fifty years the Hadza have lost as much as 90 percent of their ancestral lands due to encroachment by neighboring peoples who themselves are caught in a cycle of population growth, poverty, and land pressure.' - culturalsurvival.org June 2018

The western Hadza lands are now a private hunting reserve and the Hadza are officially restricted to a reservation within the reserve and prohibited from hunting there. The Yaeda Valley, long uninhabited due to the tsetse fly, is now occupied by Datooga herders, who are clearing the Hadza lands on either side of the now fully settled valley for pasture for their goats and cattle. The Datooga hunt out the game. Their land clearing destroys the berries, tubers and honey that the Hadza rely on. Along with watering holes for their cattle causing the shallow watering holes the Hadza use to dry up. Most Hadzabe are no longer able to sustain themselves in the bush without supplementary food such as ugali.

In common with other with indigenous peoples, the Hadza have not fared well in political representation of their rights and territory. Misconceptions and prejudice that the Hadza were backwards and without a real language, started by agro-pastoralists, was passed onto the colonialists and perpetuate to this day.

The British colonial government tried to make the Hadza settle down and adopt farming in 1927, the first of many government attempts to do so. The British tried again in 1939, as did the independent Tanzanian government in 1965 and 1990, and various foreign missionary groups since the 1960s. Despite numerous attempts, some forceful, all have largely failed.

Where attempts have been made to incentivise the Hadza with money, this has contributed to alcoholism and deaths from alcohol poisoning have recently become a severe problem, further contributing to the loss of cultural knowledge.

Members of the Hadza Tribe. Credit: Jeff Leach. Pub: BBC

Why are the Hadza still important in a increasingly globalised world? 

For thousands of years savannah hunter gatherers have maintained economic stability and cultural sophistication. Their way of life is in fact perfectly adapted and sustainable for their environment. Not a claim that can be made by the vast majority of the world's population. No amount of recycling, bamboo toothbrushes or green-wash tinkering will come close to us achieving the minimal environmental impact of the Hadza.

Am I saying that we should all go back to living a hunter-gatherers? No, of course not. Even if there was the desire to, there simply is not enough land to sustain the global population in that way. While the idea of living more connectedly with nature is a good thing and should be encouraged, I doubt many of us would go as far as eschewing the benefits of modern medicine, centrally heated homes, or other daily conveniences. Nor would many people have the will to gather plants, or the stomach to go out and kill and gut their dinner.

Baobob fruit. Photo: Stu Westfield

What is remarkable, is that the Hadza do not suffer any of the chronic diseases associated with developed countries. They don't get fat, develop heart disease or diabetes. Cancer is rare. 

In 2019, Professor of Epidemiology, Tim Spector and Research Fellow, Jeff Leach spent three days living with the Hadza to measure how their environment and more directly their diet, influenced diversity within the human digestive biome. The theory was that a healthy biome has far reaching benefits to physical and mental well being. The results are astonishing!

Tim Spector & Jeff Leach: Three days with the Hadza

"High gut biome diversity is associated with a low risk of obesity and many diseases. The Hadza have a diversity that is one of the richest on the planet." - Tim Spector (Professor of Genetic Epidemiology, King's College London)

If after reading this, you're interested in the potential to avoid obesity and other chronic diseases, the  following Royal Institution lecture could well be a most useful 35 minutes.

A future for the Hadza?

In the times we now live, we could easily see the last of the few remaining hunter gatherer populations fade away within the next two or three generations. The factors driving the current sixth great extinction event (the Anthropocene) in the animal and plant kingdoms are also affecting the most vulnerable human tribes and cultures. To lose these people would be a unmitigated tragedy. Not only for the hunter gatherers themselves, but it reflects upon the wider global community in a deeply troubling way. 

But there is hope with organisations such as the Dorobo Fund representing the Hadza and campaigning for protection of their remaining land in today's Tanzania.

We are not trying to keep the Hadza as they are, but rather give them options and dignity as they interact with and confront a changing world. And the foundation for that is and always has been land – if they have land, those who wish have the option to continue traditional foraging and all of them have land as a fallback option for survival no matter what pursuit they have followed. - dorobofund.org 2019

If commodification is all that wealthy and powerful people are capable of understanding in order to do the right thing. Then Tim Spector & Jeff Leach's study fully justifies the Hadzas' place, in the potential to save pretty much the rest of the world's people from chronic disease caused by modern foodstuffs. 

What most decent people will also realise is that in 50,000 years the Hadza have done no lasting harm to their homeland. So why should anyone else have the right to dictate how they should live?

Stu Westfield
Ranger Expeditions
August 2022

Sources:

UNSECO General History Of Africa Vol 2
Ch 21: M. Posansky, historian and archaeologist
Ch 22: A.M.H. Sheriff, Lecturer, University Dar-es-Salaam

UNSECO General History Of Africa Vol 3
Ch 22: C.Ehret, linguist, University of California, Los Angeles

The Dorobo Fund: https://www.dorobofund.org/

Cultural Survival: Securing Hadza Land Titles, Securing Futures in Tanzania. Katrin Redfern. June 2018

The Conversation: I spent three days as a hunter-gatherer to see if it would improve my gut health. Jeff Leach. June 2017 

The Hadza Hunter-Gatherers of Tanzania. F W Marlowe. 2010

#070 The Great Bantu Migration - Part 1

African history, from a popular British perspective, is a selective story. No sooner have anthropologists discussed the origins of humans, then it's how quickly those humans could get out of Africa. Except for dwelling upon the enigmatic Egyptian pharaohs, millennia of culture is set aside and there's a giant leap forward to the European scramble for Africa, slavery and colonial rule. Omitted, are rich periods of history, the ebb and flow of great African civilisations, technologies and people. 

Photo credit: thebantutribe.weebly.com

In 1964 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) started a project which sought to redress this imbalance. Essentially, telling the story of the continent, by Africans with an African perspective. The outcome was a series of volumes, culminating in the General History Of Africa, Vol 8, Africa Since 1935, published in 1993. Currently, there are plans to extend the series by three more volumes.

Photo: Stu Westfield

Journalist and president of SOAS (London School of African Studies), Zeinab Badawe used the GHA to inform her series 'History Of Africa', televised in 20 parts, originally on BBC World News, but now available on You Tube.
History Of Africa - Zeinab Badawi - Links to full series

In this blog we explore one of world history's greatest but overlooked movements of people, accompanied by technological and cultural change. One so rapid, it has been called by some historians 'an explosion!'  

This was the Great Bantu Migration.

Origins of the Bantu
If we draw a line from south Nigeria to the East African coast, modern Bantu speaking peoples now comprise 90% of the population south of this line. There are over 2000 Bantu languages spread across East, South and Central Africa, with common terms and grammar. Linguists have traced the timeline of this divergence back to around two to three thousand years ago, to a source area we now call the Nigerian-Cameroon border.

Chronology of the Bantu is also supported by looking at the shape and decoration of artefacts. A method known as typography. From common forms, a strong regional diversity and stylisation developed among Bantu groups who had settled following their migratory radiation. 

The end of the Stone Age in Africa
Archaeological studies of later pre-history have shown that peoples were living at different stages of technological development contemporaneously in different parts of Africa. There was no single end to the stone age. Many hunter gatherer communities were still using stone age technology right up to the first millennium of the Christian era. While developments such as agriculture and iron usage had become established elsewhere for several hundred years.

We can compare this to Mesolithic Britain populated by bands of hunter, fisher, gatherers. Meanwhile, Neolithic agricultural practices and animal domestication were spreading across the European continent from the Near East.

Iron and the 'Explosive' Bantu Expansion
There are several theories as to the origins of iron working in West Africa, from introduction via trade routes to indigenous development associated with the Nok people. What is more certain is that iron was already in use by the migrating Bantu people and that the beginnings of arable agriculture occurred with the first appearance of iron technology. Linguistics supports this, as words associated with iron working were in use before the migration and diversification of the Bantu language.

It is clear that iron made possible new methods of higher yielding agricultural practices, producing an excess, facilitating population growth and trade. Iron also enabled faster clearing of forest and efficient tilling of the land. The early Bantu migrants sought out areas similar to from which they came and were familiar with: Wooded or forested lands, near to rivers, which had sufficient rainfall for yam based agriculture. 

Over the next three thousand years the Bantu vectored along rivers in their canoes and forest trails. The expansion was not linear but spread in pulses and different directions. The early migrations (3000 to 1000BC) went into the forest lands south to the Congo river and east into the Great Lakes region.

Around 500BC the migration entered East Africa and by 500AD the Bantu had reached southern Africa. Most of the migrations were complete, circa 1000AD. So, while the migration timeline of thousands of years hardly sounds explosive in a modern global context, for the period it was an incredible rate of population movement for a single origin culture in pre-history.

So what happened to the Bronze Age?
Unlike the British pre-history sequence (Mesolithic - Neolithic - chalcolithic - bronze - iron), there was no specific bronze age in sub-Saharan Africa as technology progressed from stone to iron.

The earliest copper usage comes from Mauretania between the 9th and 5th centuries BC. Culminating in some of the finest examples of bronze work made in 16th century Benin. Although evidence of iron smelting to 2000BC pre-dates the earliest bronze and copper metalwork in West Africa. 

Benin Bronze. Photo: Stu Westfield

And the cows?
Bantus were agriculturalists not pastoralists. However, cattle keeping does pre-date iron in East Africa, spread by the Central Sudanic (Cushitc) speakers living in North Uganda and Tanzania (near Lake Victoria). Generally the Bantu moved into spaces which were unexploited or unsuited to the cattle herders. It is possible that the incoming Bantu learnt about domesticated sheep and cattle from these herders. 

And the indigenous populations?
The Bantu expansion into the Congo basin encountered forest dwelling pygmy tribes, also known as African rainforest hunter gatherers. Who's distinctive diminutive stature and physiology were well adapted to the dense forest environment. Genetic studies have shown that the Mbenga and Mbuti pygmies are direct descendants from Middle Stone Age peoples of Central Africa. 

Nyamwamba river valley, Uganda

Scholars have characterised the Bantu expansion as fast and purposeful. And as colonsiation rather than conquest.  At first, the impact would have been small, even inconsequential, in the vast forest and so the pre-exiting population was not over run. However, forest clearance for agriculture was completely incompatible with indigenous hunter gatherers way of life.

Over time, a burgeoning Bantu population would have limited the local hunter gatherers natural food resources. This led to assimilation of many pygmy groups. Others managed to retain their independence by living in areas which supported game, but not agriculture, trading skins with the neighboring Bantu.

The Batwa of Uganda are traditional forest dwellers, who lived by hunting and gathering. Remarkably, for thousands of years their homeland, the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest was left sufficiently intact by the bordering Bantu communities.

Photo credit: C Dawson

This all changed in 1992 when the forest was made a national park. In order to protect the mountain gorillas the Batwa were evicted. As is common with many indigenous tribes in modern times, their rights were poorly represented.  Displacement and discrimination continue to have adverse impacts on their health, culture and welfare.

In 2021 the PBS Newshour reported that the Batwa population of Uganda has an average life expectancy of just 28years and 40% of children do not survive to the age of 5.

Photo credit: C Dawson

Some hope for the Batwa is capitalising on their relatively recent co-existence in the forest environment, creating employment as tour guides, cultural experience leaders and trekking porters. This is a far cry from actually living in their ancestral range and comes with the distinct possibility of reducing their skills to a tourist show. It's an imperfect choice now faced by many first-nations the world over.

The job offer of a lifetime
Back in 2012, I was leading a trek in the Rwenzori and had a final couple of nights at the Kampala Backpackers hostel before the flight back to Blighty. My group was on a school's expedition and we had journeyed through Rwanda into Uganda, with a moving, enlightening and amazing range of experiences to reflect upon.

The proprietor of the hostel and Rwenzori Trekking Services was the charismatic John Hunwick. John and I had shared a couple of brief phone discussions during the trip, mainly to confirm a few logistical details and arrangements. I liked his straight taking, he was businesslike but also very generous with his local knowledge.

Relaxing in the Kampala hostel, my group had time on our hands as the flight had been delayed a further 24 hours. John and I struck up several conversations, I got to know how he came be in Uganda and founding the Backpackers Hostel and RTS. He had some great stories. He also seemed to like how I'd conducted the expedition and with some on-the-hoof forward planning, circumvented a few local difficulties without any drama. Then he suddenly came out with a jaw dropping offer...

"Stu, I need a guy like you to help run the hostel and treks in the Rwenzori. Come and work with me."
"Blimey, John, I'd love to. But I have a wife and two dogs back home."
"Come back with them!" John was quite insistent.

Sadly, I could never had taken him up on the offer. Although well into her remission and at the time reasonably able, Dolores still had the lasting effects of cancer to deal with. An outpost in Uganda, really wasn't the place to be taking her to. However, the recognition that John's offer inferred was good to hear.

Here's a few words from John, his work, vision and thoughts on progress in Uganda...
John Hunwick Interview & Show Notes - Gorilla Highlands Podcast

Conclusions to Part 1
The European historical view, presents Africa as somewhere humans left and then more recently returned to colonise. This notion conveniently ignores the history of the continent in the intervening thousands of years. Indeed it fits a narrative of colonising 'empty lands' as a policy without consequence to people. Where people were present they needed to be converted to conform to European religious and political values. Here we tread a line between judging the past with today's values and acknowledging that some actors of the time most certainly set aside their probity in order to treat other human beings so appallingly. 

The Great Bantu Migration story, is but one illustration that people in Africa were thriving, innovative and sophisticated, long before European influence. The evidence paints a picture of loose collections of independent but interacting communities. As Bantu communities became adapted to specific environments, so direct interactions with more distant communities grew less and their languages and material cultures diverged. 

On a local scale, three way exchange was mutually beneficial between the Bantu, hunter-gatherers and pastoralists. Within the Congolese economy Bantu speaking peoples traded in fish, salt, cloth, mats and baskets.

The Bantu diaspora went on to built some of the Great African Kingdoms, such as Great Zimbabwe founded in the 9th Century and Mapungubwe, in the 11th Century. Long distance trade routes spread cross the continent and incredibly, the Great Zimbabwe network reached as far as China.

In the next parts of the story, we shall look in more detail at other tribes and cultural groups, particularly in East Africa. The Hadza hunter gatherers, the Wachagga whos identity stems from the Bantu migration and the Maasai who arrived later. 

I'll leave you with a short film from my first visit to the Rwenzoris in 2007 as a client, before I became an expedition leader. Indeed, it was this experience and the people I met that set me on the path to becoming a Mountain Leader. Looking at the film now its is perhaps a little cliched, but it was put together for fun and made with a heart full of appreciation for Uganda.

Sources
UNSECO General History Of Africa Vol 2
Ch 21: M. Posansky, historian and archaeologist
Ch 22: A.M.H. Sheriff, Lecturer, University Dar-es-Salaam

UNSECO General History Of Africa Vol 3
Ch 22: C.Ehret, linguist, University of California, Los Angeles

The Chronological Evidence for the Introduction of Domestic Stock in Southern Africa - C Britt Bousman, African Archaeological Review, Vol. 15, No. 2, 1998 

A brief history of Botswana - Neil Parsons, Botswana History Pages

Sub-Saharan Africa, Early Bantu Migrations - Barratt, Long Branch School, New Jersey

https://thebantutribe.weebly.com/

#069 A day at the museum (part 2) - The Elephants In The Room

In part 1 of A Day At The Museum we experienced the World Of Stonehenge exhibition at the British Museum, which concluded on Sunday 17th July 2022. On display were many wonderful artefacts which demonstrated the creative imagination and craftsmanship of ancient hands.

Gold Gorget (collar), Bronze age 800-700BC
Gleninsheen, Rep of Ireland

There were on-loan exhibits showing that modern archaeology can achieve amazing feats of conservation. Such as the sacrificial oxen, dated around 3300-3000 BC. Archaeologists in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, had lifted these skeletons of two full grown oxen and the impression of the Bronze Age cart to which they were harnessed, in one enormous unbroken piece of substrate.

Photo: Stu Westfield

However, some pieces within the British Museum have, for many years, courted controversy regarding their provenance and ownership. In this blog we shall discuss the elephant in the room...or should that be the elephant in the museum, regarding how items such as the Benin Bronzes came to be on view and in private collections in London, across Europe and America.

Benin bronze plaques, 16th Century
Photo: Stu Westfield

The Benin Bronzes

So what are the Benin Bronzes, why are they so special and what is the contention over them?

Not to be confused with the modern country of Benin. The Benin Bronzes originate from Edo State, in Nigeria. Created in the 16th Century onwards, the elaborate plaques, commemorative heads, animal and human figures were used in rituals and ceremonies which represent Nigerian social history. They show the exemplary skill and high art of a specialist guild of craftsmen working in the royal court of Benin City. These bronzes are some of the finest casting ever seen.

Brass heads were cast only for the altars
of dead kings and Queen Mothers.
 Photo: Stu Westfield

In the 19th Century, the Nigerian coast and trade were dominated by the British under an aggressive expansion of colonial power. Under military occupation, Benin palaces and shrines were looted and destroyed. Items with a perceived ceremonial or anthropological value were taken to the United Kingdom as spoils of war. Some of them were destined for museums, others found their way through dealers into private collections. 

The Benin Bronzes can also be found in many of the West’s other great museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. They’re in smaller museums, too. The Lehman, Rockefeller, Ford and de Rothschild families have owned some. As did Pablo Picasso. There are currently at least 3,000 items scattered worldwide, maybe thousands more. No one’s entirely sure (1).

Altar of a hand for an Oba
Brass, Benin, 18th Century
Photo: Stu Westfield

The beginnings of restitution

With so many artefacts absent, it's no surprise that Nigerian institutions such as the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) have long campaigned for a return of the bronzes on behalf of the country's people.

“The descendants of the people who cast those bronzes; they’ve never seen that work because most of them can’t afford to fly to London to come to the British Museum,”
- Osarobo Zeickner-Okoro (founding member) Ahiamwen Guild of artists and bronze casters. (2)

In 2021, Jesus College Cambridge became the first UK institution to restore a looted Benin Bronze to Nigeria (3). Other institutions have subsequently begun the process of repatriation of their bronzes.

On 9th March 2022, the New York Times reported: 'the Smithsonian Institution is planning to return most of the 39 bonzes in its possession to Nigeria, as part of its review into collection practices and ethics behind them'.

And on 1st July 2022,  the Guardian reported that: 'Germany has physically handed over two Benin bronzes and put more than 1,000 other items from its museums’ collections into Nigeria’s ownership'.

Meanwhile, the British Museum's position is: The Museum is committed to active engagement with Nigerian institutions concerning the Benin Bronzes, including pursuing and supporting new initiatives developed in collaboration with Nigerian partners and colleagues.

However, under the 1963 Museums Act and 1983 Heritage Act, the British Museum is currently bound by law, preventing the return of 900 Benin objects (4). Essentially due to the artefacts being deemed the property of the British people and not the British Museum itself.

A page at the royal court.
Cast brass, Benin, circa 16th-17th Century
Photo: Stu Westfield

A herd of elephants

Similarly, Greece has long contested the legitimacy of ownership of the Elgin Marbles and Egypt the many Pharaonic artefacts which are now residing in, generally northern hemisphere, museums around the world.

Nebamun hunting in the marshes.
Photo: Stu Westfield

Conservancy is an expensive business. Historical research and archaeology comes at a price. The British Museum collection comprises at least 8 million objects, of which around 80,000 are on public display, attracting 6 million visitors each year. Many of whom come to see iconic exhibits such as the Benin Bronzes and the Egyptology rooms. The Egypt And Sudan department itself holds tens of thousands of artefacts.

Image: Stu Westfield

The Louvre holds 50,000 pieces in their Egypt section, spanning ancient times to the Byzantine periods. The New York Metropolitan Museum Of Art's collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 26000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance.

Artefacts which are significant tourism, donation and research grant revenue generators. 

Legitimate ownership or plunder? 

No doubt a significant portion of artefacts in European and American institutions are there through ill gotten gain. 

Most of these items were acquired during the colonial era. The route of artefacts is, in many cases, far from direct. Being sold and handled by several intermediaries, some as gifts, others with permissions and varying degrees of legality. It is a process which continues today with artefacts being smuggled out of their indigenous countries to foreign collections.

Minister of Antiquities for Egypt, Dr Zahawi Hawass claims that 60% of objects taken out of the country has been done so illegally, but also acknowledges many items were legally exported too.

Is there a case for wholescale repatriation? 

Previous arguments against repatriation have questioned the ability of indigenous countries to appropriately conserve artefacts. The quality of modern Egyptian scholarship and museum facilities debunks the notion that European and North American institutions are intrinsically better. To keep rolling out this standard response has more than an uncomfortable whiff of paternal colonialism. 

Leopard in ivory, copper and coral. Made from five separate tusks.
The copper spots tapped into undercut depressions were probably
percussion caps used to fire 19th Century rifles.
Benin, Nigeria, 19th Century
Photo: Stu Westfield

As is the case with the National Museum in Benin City which has amply demonstrated its ability to hold and display the artefacts safely and appropriately. 

Restitution of ownership does not necessarily need to equate into return of all items. Most museums are open to lending objects and the British Museum lends around five thousand items each year. Some of which are on a long term basis.

Indeed there is both a practical and judicious case for, at any one time, decentralising a proportion of items of a typographically important collection. Having pieces on loan, is a form of insurance against complete catastrophic loss.

A living culture:
The Oba Of Benin & Princess (Oloi) Iyayota Ewuare II

To see and experience is to love

Items such as the Benin Bronzes are uncontrovertibly of huge cultural importance to the people of Nigeria. Osarobo Zeickner-Okoro of the modern casting guild is at pains to emphasise that the Bronzes are not just attractive items from the past:

"Part of the crime that's been committed is that Benin has been portrayed as this dead civilization. The reparation is not just returning the Bronzes. It's also acknowledging us, that we're a living civilization." (5)

It's not unreasonable that people who's heritage is less accessible to them, either through legitimate means or historical mis-appropriation, should have the right to experience their history first hand. Just looking at the numbers there is a gross imbalance between the quantity of artefacts held in industrialised northern hemisphere institutions compared with indigenous countries, roughly south of thirty degrees latitude. 

About 90% of Africa’s cultural heritage is believed to be in Europe. French art historians estimate. Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in Paris alone holds about 70,000 African objects and London’s British Museum tens of thousands more (6)

Not everyone has the capability to travel to distant countries or exotic locations to view pieces in-situ. So, is the question more about accessibility rather than ownership? The answer still, no doubt, depends on which end of the colonial legacy your country has ended up.

Cast plaque, Benin, 16th Century
Image: Stu Westfield

We learn to love what we see, experience and cherish. The first time I saw the Benin Bronzes, I was speechless with wonder. And each time I am fortunate to return to the British Museum, I make a course straight for the Sainsbury rooms. Happy to sit and awe at the creativity and symbolism. The quandary is that had the bronzes not been there, I could not have appreciated them, spent time learning about their history. And would not be writing this blog.

Whether you care or not for the blog is to miss the point. Although having got this far, I may assume that you're at least a little engaged or interested.

What is important is the sense of creativity that spanned the centuries and made a connection. It is these moments which bring a deeper understanding to humanity and help bridge nations and identities. And so, there is also a sadness that the people of modern Benin City, more than anyone else, should have the same opportunity for wonder and connection to their heritage.

Cast plaque, Benin, 16th Century
Photo: Stu Westfield

A World Heritage Solution?

We have seen that important and iconic historical items bring in tourist revenue. But concentrating these items in just a few public places and in private collections is blocking access to cultural heritage. So, while I would like to see the return of a good number of the Benin Bronzes return to their indigenous home, I would also advocate that some examples remain on public display around the world. 

Instead of ownership, should artefacts be considered as portable versions of World Heritage Sites, for  the curiosity, education and enjoyment of all humanity?

Stu Westfield
Ranger Expeditions

Sources

(1) This Art Was Looted 123 Years Ago - New York Times, Alex Marshall, 23 Jan 2020
(2) Return The Benin Bronzes And We'll Give You New Ones In Exchange - Taylor Dafoe, Artnet News, 23 Sept 2021
(3) The Benin Bronzes, Silence Is Not Golden - The Guardian Editorial, 29 Oct 2021 
(4) Berlin Hands Over Two Benin Bronzes To Nigeria - Philip Oltermann, The Guardian, 1 July 2022
(5) British Museum accepts Nigerian artist's gift but keeps looted bronzes - Reuters, 30 Sept 2021 
(6) Reuters in Benin City, The Guardian, 19 Feb 2022.

#068 A day at the museum (part 1) - The World Of Stonehenge

This spring and summer the British Museum hosted the World Of Stonehenge special exhibition.

Short of lifting in the renowned stone circle, you couldn't have wished for a more comprehensive and thorough storytelling of Stonehenge. From its Mesolithic beginnings through to the late Bronze age. Although, having mentioned megalithic stones, this major exhibition did not stop short of presenting several excellent and no doubt extremely weighty examples of rock art from across Europe. As the title indicated, the assembled artefacts truly represented the people of the stone age, their culture, origins, inspiration and connectivity. 

This stele from the alps was revisited for centuries, with new decoration and
meaning added by successive generations. It depicts the sun over gatherings of 
people, the migration of wild animals and the farming seasons. In the age of the
first farmers, the heavens governed the timing and tempo of domestic and ritual
life. (Text: British Museum). Capo di Ponte stone, Cemmo, Italy circa 2500BC.

Photo: Stu Westfield

Stepping into the exhibition space, it started where all journeys do, at the beginning; in this case 10,000 years ago in ancient Britain when bands of hunter-fisher-gatherers lived off the land. Which, at the time, was still connected to the European landmass.

Image: British Museum

It was wonderful to be reunited with an example of the enigmatic Star Carr red deer headdresses, which I had first seen at the Rotunda museum, in Scarborough, several years ago.

Photo: Stu Westfield

A number of excellent examples of stone and bronze axe heads, hafted onto wooden handles, gave a  tangible sense of our ancestors connection to their environment. In hands that cleared the wild woods during the Neolithic farming revolution and beyond. 

Without doubt, for me, the most stunning exhibit was the Nebra Sky Disc, named after the village in which it was found in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany and on loan from their state archaeology office. This was too convenient a chance not to miss seeing it.

The Nebra Sky Disc reveals the creativity and advanced astronomical
knowledge of cultures without writing. The distinctive rosette of seven
stars represents the Pleiades. These stars play a key role in an ancient
rule, known from a 2700 year old Babylonian text, that allowed the 
shorter lunar year to be kept in step with the solar year. A leap month
should be added every third year of a crescent moon a few days old 
appears next to the Pleiades in the springtime sky. (Text: British Museum)

The 12 inch diameter thin disc, made from bronze and gold, is the oldest depiction of the cosmos in the world. Dated to about 1600BC, it underwent four stages of development. But also of interest is the diverse origins of materials: The first phase gold and tin from Cornwall, copper from Austria and later additions of gold from the Carpathian mountains. 

As with all the displays, there was a wealth of supporting information and other exhibits to provide all the context one could wish for.

Photo: Stu Westfield

Astonishing, was how much gold was in use during the Bronze age for adornment, ritual and practical purposes. Melted in sufficient quantities to be fashioned into some substantial items, such as the cosmos calendar headwear (on loan from the Louvre) and cape (found in Flintshire). 

Photo: Stu Westfield

Although, humble by comparison, the Amesbury archer display brought a smile, as I had cited the impressive array of grave goods as an example in my 2020 Oxford Uni Fundamentals Of Archaeology short course assessment.

Amesbury archer grave goods. Photo: Stu Westfield

Near the exit, the final artefact was a diminutive sun pendant, crafted around 1000BC, found in Shropshire. But in its size, there was such exquisite work and beauty.

Sun pendant. Photo: Stu Westfield

Having feasted on the stone age for two hours, which passed so quickly, it was time for some feasting of a culinary nature. Trips to London are infrequent, so I treated myself to a pleasant mid-afternoon lunch in the Great Court restaurant. Then, degustation's completed with a refreshing black coffee, there was time to head down into the Sainsbury rooms to see some favourite African displays.

Benin bronze plaques. Photo: Stu Westfield

I'm always filled with wonder at the high craftmanship of the cast Benin Bronzes and in comparison, the simple, yet efficient, functionality of the San bushman's hunting kit.

Photo: Stu Westfield

The display of Kenyan and Tanzanian kanga fabrics adding a vibrant splash of African colour.

Photo: Stu Westfield

My day finished with a quick visit to the UCL Zoological museum on the way back to Euston train station. Specifically, as I had found out that it held a rare specimen of the extinct thylacine, otherwise known as the Tazmanian Tiger. I had written about the thylacine back my 2016 blog Expeditions, Projects And Extinctions. But only ever seen grainy depictions of the animal on the television. 

Photo: Stu Westfield

What surprised me was how small the skeleton appeared. Just the same as a medium size dog.

Any extinction impoverishes us, but the tale of the thylacine at the hands of humans is desperately sad and could have been so very different. If you care about species on earth, I urge you to watch the film The Hunter. It is fiction, but offers a salutary tale.

Full of thoughts and ideas, I boarded my train home and glad to be out of the oppressive humid heat that had been building up throughout the day. I took a sip of water and started writing.

In part 2 of A day at the museum blog, I'll return to talk about the 'elephant in the room'. As we should not pass-by artefacts like the Beinin Bronzes without discussing how they came to be where they are now and what future possibilities might be.