BANTU • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Bantu

/bˈæntu/ Listen

Bantu

noun

A member of any of a large number of linguistically related peoples of Central and South Africa.

A family of languages widely spoken in the southern half of the African continent. Synonym: Bantoid language.

adjective

Of or relating to the African people who speak one of the Bantoid languages or to their culture.

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Etymology of 'Bantu'

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Bantu-speaking

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"Bantu" Quotes from Famous Books

... extent those superstitions which form such a salient characteristic of all the Bantu tribes. Now, all savages believe that persons whose wits are affected are wizards, whom it is good policy to propitiate, and whom he may be dangerous to offend. Therefore the king signified ...

— Kafir Stories - Seven Short Stories • William Charles Scully

... to put them on again. We have always held that where the imperial prestige of this country is concerned there is no room for hesitation. In the present instance our prestige is at stake: the matter involves our reputation in the eyes of the surrounding natives, the Bantu Hottentots, the Negritos, the Dwarf Men of East Abyssinia, and the Dog Men of Darfur. What will they think of us? If we fail in this crisis their notion of us will fall fifty per cent. In our opinion this country cannot stand a fifty per cent drop in the ...

— My Discovery of England • Stephen Leacock

... a man answered in fluent Kiswahili! He had traded for skins in some barbarous district near the shore of Victoria Nyanza, and knew half a dozen Bantu languages. In a minute after that we had the plan well understood and truly laid; and, what was better, they had ceased to believe me a victim of nerves—a fact that gave me back the nerve that had been perilously close ...

— The Eye of Zeitoon • Talbot Mundy

... Fulahs and similar stocks to the west along the grassland bordering on the desert; the Nilotic folk amongst the swamps of the Upper Nile; and throughout the eastern and southern parkland the vigorous Bantu peoples, who have swept the Bushmen and the kindred Hottentots before them down into the desert country in the extreme south-west. It may be added that Africa has a rich fauna and flora, much mineral wealth, and a physical configuration that, in respect to its interior, though ...

— Anthropology • Robert Marett

... named Nala and Wambe, Wambe's territory being to the north, and Nala's to the south. Nala ruled a tribe of bastard Zulus called the Butiana, and Wambe a much larger tribe, called the Matuku, which presents marked Bantu characteristics. For instance, they have doors and verandahs to their huts, work skins perfectly, and wear a waistcloth and not a moocha. At this time the Butiana were more or less subject to the Matuku, having been surprised ...

— Maiwa's Revenge - The War of the Little Hand • H. Rider Haggard