Reconstructing the Historical Structure of the Bantu Language Family: Old Challenges, New Insights

Recent publications in historical linguistics tend to express a near certainty about the structure of the Bantu language family and explicitly draw on archaeological and genetic studies as support for the emerging historical scenario of the Bantu expansion. In this review, I explain that the actual empirical picture is far more complicated and uncertain. A detailed examination of linguistic, archaeological, and genetic data reveals common faulty assumptions and misinterpretations and shows that no coherent narrative of Bantu history can be supported by the data at the moment. At the same time, the open questions and contradictions challenge us to move away from simplistic answers and to look for fine detail when analyzing the history of Bantu-speaking Africa: Many facts are in fact certain; they just do not fall neatly into the existing models.