page_title: Somali Bantus
section_title: Etymology
hierarchical_section_title: Somali Bantus / Etymology
caption_attribution_description: English: Bantu farmers near Kismaayo in November 1993. Cropped from the original.
context_page_description: The Somali Bantu are a Bantu-speaking origin ethnic marginalized group in Somalia who primarily reside in the southern part of the country, primarily near the Juba and Shabelle rivers. They are descendants of people from various Bantu ethnic groups, who were acquisitioned from Southeast Africa and in Somalia and other areas in Northeast Africa, and West Asia as part of the Arab slave trade. Somali Bantus are not genetically related to the indigenous ethnic Somalis and have a culture which since their arrival in the country, has been distinct from the indigenous Somalis who are Cushitic and they have remained marginalized ever since their arrival in Somalia.In 1991, 12,000 Bantu people were displaced into Kenya, and nearly 3,300 were estimated to have returned to Tanzania.
  There are six Somali Bantu Tribes: Magindo, Makua, Nyasa, Yao, Zalamo, Zigua. There are clans and sub-clans within these tribes.
  These Somali Bantu are not to be confused with the members of Swahili society in coastal towns, such as the Bajuni or the Bravanese, who speak dialects of the Swahili language but have a culture, tradition, and history separate of them.
context_section_description: The term "Somali Bantu" is an ethnonym that was invented by humanitarian aid-supplying agencies shortly after the outbreak of the civil war in Somalia in 1991. Its purpose was to help the staff of these aid agencies better distinguish between, on the one hand, Bantu minority groups hailing from Somalia and thus in need of immediate humanitarian attention and on the other hand, other Bantu groups from elsewhere in Africa that did not require immediate humanitarian assistance. The neologism further spread through the media, which repeated verbatim what the aid agencies' increasingly began indicating in their reports as the new name for Somalia's ethnically Bantu minorities. Prior to the civil war, the Bantu were simply referred to in the literature as Bantu, Gosha, Mushunguli or Jareer, (which is seen as an offensive/derogatory word against them) as they still, in fact, are within Somalia proper.
caption: Bantu farmers near Kismayo
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