BAROTSELAND WESTERN ZAMBIA: THE BANTU DESTINATION: The archaeology and prehistory of South-Central Barotseland Western Zambia, 300 BCE/BC- 1400CE/AD

The archaeology and prehistory of south-central Barotseland Western Zambia provides thefirst detailed description of the prehistory of that vast part of Zambia and Sub-Saharan Africaover the last 1700 years not written before in any book. The archaeological data presented in thisbook comes from an area that has turned out to be the key to the Bantu migration puzzle andtheir early type of life and livelihood. The data shows that the Bantu migration was divided intothree branches that took specific chosen environments for their routes south and that themigrations essentially ended up in Barotseland Western Zambia where the three branches haveco-existed since their arrival there at varying times. Along these routes several segments of thebranches hived-off and etched their own niches amidst several autochthonous encounteredwhilst the lead groups soldiered on to the destination from which they have not moved sincearrival and in which they continue to co-exist peacefully to the present-an unprecedentedphenomenon across Bantu Africa littered with assimilations of one Bantu language by theother Bantu language.Nicholas Katanekwa, in this book, illuminates and provides profound insights of the Bantustory by combining archaeological, historical linguistics, ethnographical evidence andlanguages geographical locations evidence to pierce together the contours of the Bantu past.“You should be complimented on taking the initiative and finding the time to write up theexcavations from early in your career. Not an easy task! But as I was taught(as I expect you were)that since excavation is itself destruction of the evidence there is an expectation to put theresults on record. So your conscience is clear! Coming to the book, I lack the expertise incurrent debates and analysis to comment on your imaginative and important presentations, buteven if not everyone agrees with your conclusions, that does not matter; you will have made inthis and especially in your previous book major contributions to debates in the field”, Dr RobinDerricourt, author and leading Iron Age Archaeologist, Australia. Read more