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CHAPTER 8 AFRICAN CIVILIZATIONS 77

Name _________________________________________ Date ____________________________________________________

CHAPTER 8 Section 2 (pages 220–224)TERMS AND NAMESmigration A permanent move fromone area to anotherpush-pull factors Reasons attractingor driving people to moveBantu-speaking peoples People whospeak one of a group of languagesrelated to Bantu

MigrationCase Study: Bantu-Speaking Peoples

BEFORE YOU READIn the last section, you read about African societies popu-lating the continent. In this section, you will read aboutthe causes and effects of migration in Africa among Bantu-speaking peoples.

AS YOU READUse the chart below to record reasons for the movementof Bantu-speaking peoples.

People on the Move (pages 220–221)

What are the main reasons formigrations?Throughout human history, many peoples have feltthe urge to move from their homes to a new land.This movement is called migration. There aremany reasons that people make such a move. Butthey can be grouped into three main causes. Theyare environmental change, economic pressure,political and religious persecution.

Reasons people move into or out of an area arecalled push-pull factors. People may be attractedor pulled into an area because they see economicadvantages. Or they may move because they wantfreedom. Sometimes people are pushed out of an

area because the environment changes and it isimpossible to live there. Other times people mayleave to find security or peace that can not be foundin their area. These are examples of push factors.

In studying times before written history,researchers look for clues to migrations. One cluethey use is language. People take their languagewith them when they move to a new place. Whenhistorians find two languages from two distant areasthat have words that are somewhat similar, they canconclude that those two languages may have bothcome from the same language. However, some timelater the original speakers of the language movedapart. Then the two languages changed independ-ently. This kind of clue has given historians a way ofunderstanding the early history of Africa.

Farming methods used up the soil

Movement of Bantu-Speaking People

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78 CHAPTER 8 SECTION 2

Skillbuilder1. Categorizing Which pull example is associated with economic factors?

2. Drawing Conclusions Why would climate changes be considered a push factor?

1. Name three key reasons for migration.

Massive Migrations (pages 220–224)

Who were the Bantu-speaking peoples?Many languages spoken in Africa today developedfrom the same parent language called Proto-Bantu.The speakers of all these different languages arecalled the Bantu-speaking peoples. The peoplewho spoke Bantu first lived in a part of modernNigeria. In the first few centuries a.d., they began tomove south and east. Over time, they spreadthroughout Africa south of the Sahara Desert, reach-ing the southern tip around 500 years ago. Theybrought their language and their culture with them.

One of the reasons people moved had to dowith their style of farming. They would clear an

area and use it until the soil no longer could pro-duce good crops. The people then needed to moveto a new area to clear new ground.

Another reason they moved was that their farm-ing was so successful. Farming helped them pro-duce more food than they could by hunting andgathering. With more to eat, groups became largerand the land more crowded. They could not movenorth, where the Sahara Desert made a barrier. Sothey had to move farther and farther south.

As they reached new areas, the Bantu peoplesmet other peoples. Sometimes these meetingswere violent. The Bantus, who knew how to makeiron, had better weapons than those they met, whoonly had stone tools. Some of the peoples that theymet are still found in Africa. But they live in smallareas with very harsh environments. The Bantustook the better land.

2. Why did the Bantu peoples keep moving to newareas?

PU

SHPULL

Climate changes, exhausted resources, earthquakes,volcanoes, drought/famine

Unemployment, slavery

Religious, ethnic, or politicalpersecution, war

Environmental

Political

Economic

Abundant land, newresources, good climate

Employment opportunities

Political and/or religiousfreedom

Push Examples Migration Factors Pull Examples

Migration: Push-Pull Factors

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