The Bantu languages are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu peoples in the southern half of Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages.
Niger-Congo is a hypothetical language family spoken over nearly the entirety of sub-Saharan Africa. It unites the Mande languages, the Atlantic-Congo languages, and possibly several smaller groups of languages that are difficult to classify. If valid, Niger-Congo would be the world's largest in terms of member languages, the third-largest in terms of speakers, and Africa's largest in terms of geographical area. It is generally considered to be the world's largest language family in terms of the number of distinct languages, just ahead of Austronesian, although this is complicated by the ambiguity about what constitutes a distinct language; the number of named Niger-Congo languages listed by Ethnologue is 1,540.
Zambia, which is officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa. Its neighbors are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique to the southeast, Zimbabwe and Botswana to the south, Namibia to the southwest, and Angola to the west. The capital city of Zambia is Lusaka, located in the south-central part of Zambia. The population is concentrated mainly around Lusaka in the south and the Copperbelt Province to the north, the core economic hubs of the country.
This article deals with the history of the country now called Zambia from prehistoric times to the present.
The languages of Africa are divided into several major language families:
Sotho or Sesotho is a Southern Bantu language of the Sotho-Tswana (S.30) group, spoken primarily by the Basotho in Lesotho, where it is the national and official language; South Africa, where it is one of the 11 official languages; and in Zimbabwe where it is one of 16 official languages.
The Bemba language, ChiBemba, is a Bantu language spoken primarily in north-eastern Zambia by the Bemba people and as a lingua franca by about 18 related ethnic groups, including the Bisa people of Mpika and Lake Bangweulu, and to a lesser extent in Katanga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. Including all its dialects, Bemba is the most spoken indigenous Bantu language and a lingua franca in Zambia where the Bemba form the largest ethnic group. The Lamba language is closely related and some people consider it a dialect of Bemba.
Mwami is an honorific title common in parts of Central and East Africa. The title means chief or tribal chief in several Bantu languages. It was historically used by kings in several African nations, and is still used for traditional kings or rulers of regions within several African nation-states.
Mumbwa is a town in the Central Province of Zambia, lying on the Great West Road. Its district covers the western part of the Central Province bordering Kaoma and Western Province to the west, Namwala and Southern Province to the south, Lusaka and Lusaka Province to the east, Kasempa and North-Western Province to the north and Kabwe to the north-east. It is known for its cotton and has a ginnery. The Zambia Air Force has a base in the district. Kafue National Park borders the district to the west. The predominant tribes are the Ila, who speak a dialect known as Sala, mostly to the south and south east and the Kaonde to the north. The Lenje are to the north-east on the border area with Kabwe. There are also relatively large settlement of people from the west and north west such as the Lozi, Nkoya and Luvale, Shona people from the then Southern Rhodesia who settled there as refugees from the civil war in that country and who are now almost integrated and Tonga from the south. A lot of prospecting for minerals such as copper and gold was done in the district and small scale mines operated there. Most are now closed, though the gold mine at Luiri has been revived.
Tonga (Chitonga), also known as Zambezi, is a Bantu language primarily spoken by the Tonga people who live mainly in the Southern and Western provinces of Zambia, and in northern Zimbabwe, with a few in Mozambique. The language is also spoken by the Iwe, Toka and Leya people, and perhaps by the Kafwe Twa, as well as many bilingual Zambians and Zimbabweans. In Zambia Chitonga is taught in schools as first language in the whole of Southern Province, and parts of Lusaka and Central Provinces.
Zambia has several major indigenous languages, all of them members of the Bantu family. English is the official language and the major language of business and education.
Kituba is a widely used lingua franca in Central Africa. It is a creole language based on Kikongo, a Bantu language. It is a national language in Republic of the Congo and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Tonga people of Zambia and Zimbabwe are a Bantu ethnic group of southern Zambia and neighbouring northern Zimbabwe, and to a lesser extent, in Mozambique. They are related to the Batoka who are part of the Tokaleya people in the same area, but not to the Tonga people of Malawi. In southern Zambia they are patrons of the Kafue Twa. They differ culturally and linguistically from the Tsonga people of South Africa and southern Mozambique.
Aka, also known as Yaka or Beka, is a Bantu language spoken in the Central African Republic and Republic of Congo, along the Ubangi River dividing the two countries.
Fipa is a Bantu language of Tanzania. It is spoken by the Fipa people, who live on the Ufipa plateau in the Rukwa Region of South West Tanzania between Lake Tanganyika and Lake Rukwa. The ethnic group of the Fipa people is larger than the group of Fipa language speakers. On the Tanzanian side, people who speak Mambwe-Lungu may identify as Fipa and consider their language to be a dialect of Fipa. Lungu and Mambwe are also spoken in Zambia where they are considered languages and their speakers are considered to be ethnic groups in their own right, although linguists consider Lungu and Mambwe to be dialects of a single language. There are three dialects: Milanzi, Kwa (Ichikwa) and Nkansi.
The Congo Pygmies are those "forest people" who have, or recently had, a hunter-gatherer economy and a simple, non-hierarchical societal structure based on bands, are of short stature, have a deep cultural and religious affinity with the Congo forest and live in a generally subservient relationship with agricultural "patrons", with which they trade forest products such as meat and honey for agricultural and iron products.
The Twa of the Kafue Flats wetlands of Zambia are one of several fishing and hunter-gatherer castes living in a patron-client relationship with farming Bantu peoples across central and southern Africa.
Ila (Chiila) is a language of Zambia. Maho (2009) lists Lundwe (Shukulumbwe) and Sala as distinct languages most closely related to Ila. Ila is one of the languages of the Earth included on the Voyager Golden Record.
Bantu peoples are the speakers of Bantu languages, comprising several hundred indigenous ethnic groups in Africa, spread over a vast area from Central Africa across the African Great Lakes to Southern Africa.
Ntezi is located in the eastern outskirt of Ishielu LGA of Ebonyi State in Nigeria. Ntezi is pronounced E-teh-ji(Eteji) by the natives, and belongs to the Orring, Oring or Orri People. The dialect of Ntezi is K'eteji with the attached 'k' prefix given the name Keteji, a sub-language of korring spoken by Orring people in their diverse dialects across their settlements in Nigeria and Cameron.
