Bantu speaking peoples of South Africa

Africans from South Africa were at times officially called "Bantu" by the apartheid regime. The term Bantu is derived from the word for "people" common to many of the Bantu languages. Oxford Dictionary of South African English describes its use in a racial context as "obsolescent and offensive" because of its strong association with white minority rule and the apartheid system. However, "Bantu" is used without pejorative connotations in other parts of Africa.

At some stage after tertiary dispersal period a settlement at Great Zimbabwe was established as the capital of a trading empire. Around this time there is evidence of coastal trading with Arabs, with the South East Asian region, and even with China. As the southern groups of Bantu speakers migrated southwards two main groups emerged, the Nguni (Xhosa, Zulu, Ndebele, and Swazi), who occupied the eastern coastal plains, and the Sotho–Tswana, who lived on the interior plateau. The two language groups have diverged and differ on certain key aspects (especially in the sound systems).

When the early Portuguese sailors (cf. Vasco Da Gama and Bartholomew Dias) rounded the Cape of Good Hope in the 15th century very few Bantu speakers were found there. The predominant indigenous population around the Cape was made up of Khoisan peoples. Following the establishment of the Dutch Cape Colony, European settlers began arriving in Southern Africa in substantial numbers. Around 1770 Trekboers from the Cape encountered Bantu speakers around the Great Fish River and frictions arose between the two groups.

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