Is Bantu an offensive word?

Blacks in South Africa generally consider the word Bantu offensive. They similarly rejected the word “native,” which it replaced in official terminology some years ago, preferring to be called blacks.
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Can you use the word Bantu?

The term Bantu is no longer used except in its original context in reference to Bantu languages. After 1994, an emphasis on nation-building did away with divisive terms.
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Does Bantu mean black?

Usage notes. Black South Africans were at times officially called "Bantus" by the Apartheid regime. New legislation and documents from the South African government have replaced "Bantu" with "Black" due to the former word's derogatory connotations.
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What does the term Bantu to refer to?

Definition of Bantu

1 : a family of Niger-Congo languages spoken in central and southern Africa. 2 : a member of any of a group of African peoples who speak Bantu languages.
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Is Bantu a pejorative?

However, Bantu is used without pejorative connotations in other parts of Africa and is still used in South Africa as the group term for the language family.
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How the Bantus Permanently Changed the Face of Africa 2,000 Years Ago (History of the Bantu Peoples)



Why are Bantu called so?

Origin of the name Bantu

The word Bantu for the language families and its speakers is an artificial term based on the reconstructed Proto-Bantu term for "people" or "humans". It was first introduced (as Bâ-ntu) by Wilhelm Bleek in 1857 or 1858, and popularised in his Comparative Grammar of 1862.
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What race are Bantu?

They are Black African speakers of Bantu languages of several hundred indigenous ethnic groups. The Bantu live in sub-Saharan Africa, spread over a vast area from Central Africa across the African Great Lakes to Southern Africa.
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Is Muntu derogatory?

A human being; (offensive, derogatory) a black person.
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Is Zulus a Bantu?

Zulu, a nation of Nguni-speaking people in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. They are a branch of the southern Bantu and have close ethnic, linguistic, and cultural ties with the Swazi and Xhosa. The Zulu are the single largest ethnic group in South Africa and numbered about nine million in the late 20th century.
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Who is considered Bantu?

Bantu is a general term for over 400 different ethnic groups in Africa, from Cameroon, Southern Africa, Central Africa, to Eastern Africa, united by a common language family (the Bantu languages) and in many cases common customs.
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Who speaks Bantu?

The Bantu languages are spoken in a very large area, including most of Africa from southern Cameroon eastward to Kenya and southward to the southernmost tip of the continent. Twelve Bantu languages are spoken by more than five million people, including Rundi, Rwanda, Shona, Xhosa, and Zulu.
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Where did Bantu came from?

The Bantu first originated around the Benue- Cross rivers area in southeastern Nigeria and spread over Africa to the Zambia area.
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Is Xhosa A Bantu?

Xhosa language, Xhosa formerly spelled Xosa, a Bantu language spoken by seven million people in South Africa, especially in Eastern province. Xhosa is a member of the Southeastern, or Nguni, subgroup of the Bantu group of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family.
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What does Bantu mean in India?

Bantuadjective

of or relating to the African people who speak one of the Bantoid languages or to their culture.
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What are the Bantu known for?

The Bantu shared their knowledge of iron-smelting, pottery-making, and their farming skills with indigenous forager and nomadic tribes they met, many of whom eventually then settled into stable village communities.
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When did the Bantu come to South Africa?

Starting in 3000 BCE and over a period of several millennia, Africa experienced what experts have coined the 'Bantu Expansion', a massive migration movement that originated on the borders of modern-day Cameroon and Nigeria and eventually spread to eastern and southern Africa, extending its reach across half the ...
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What is the oldest tribe in Africa?

The San tribe has been living in Southern Africa for at least 30,000 years and they are believed to be not only the oldest African tribe, but quite possibly the world's most ancient race. The San have the most diverse and distinct DNA than any other indigenous African group.
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What religion do the Bantu follow?

While most Bantu are Muslim, a small percentage follow traditional African religion or Christianity.
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Who was in South Africa before the Dutch?

The indigenous peoples with whom the Dutch first came into contact, the Khoikhoi, had been settled in the region for at least a thousand years before the Dutch arrived, and were an unwilling labour force.
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What is a Lunt?

noun. a match; the flame used to light a fire. smoke or steam, especially smoke from a tobacco pipe. to emit smoke or steam. to smoke a pipe.
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What is a bint in English slang?

bint. / (bɪnt) / noun. offensive, slang a derogatory term for girl, woman.
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What is munting?

munting (comparative more munting, superlative most munting) (UK slang, rare) Ugly.
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Are there Bantu in Nigeria?

Population History

Oddly, the Africa Southeastern Bantu region has its roots in West Africa, an area that includes Nigeria and Cameroon. In that area, perhaps 3,000 years ago, a group of Niger-Congo languages called Bantu (meaning “people”) had their origins.
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What is the difference between Bantu and Nilotic?

Nilotes, dominated by pastoralism, lived closer to wilderness and wildlife, which they found necessary to integrate into their culture, whereas the highland Bantu, as agriculturalists, established significant barriers between themselves and wilderness.
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