South Africa Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Bantu expansion === {{Main|Bantu expansion}} [[File:MapungubweHill.jpg|thumb|[[Mapungubwe Hill]], the site of the former capital of the [[Kingdom of Mapungubwe]]]] Settlements of [[Bantu peoples of South Africa|Bantu-speaking peoples]], who were iron-using agriculturists and [[herder|herdsmen]], were present south of the [[Limpopo River]] (now the northern border with [[Botswana]] and [[Zimbabwe]]) by the 4th or 5th century CE. They displaced, conquered, and absorbed the original [[Khoisan]], [[Khoekhoe|Khoikhoi]] and [[San people|San]] peoples. The Bantu slowly moved south. The earliest [[ironworks]] in modern-day [[KwaZulu-Natal|KwaZulu-Natal Province]] are believed to date from around 1050. The southernmost group was the [[Xhosa people]], whose language incorporates certain linguistic traits from the earlier Khoisan people. The Xhosa reached the [[Great Fish River]], in today's Eastern Cape Province. As they migrated, these larger [[Iron Age]] populations displaced or assimilated earlier peoples. In [[Mpumalanga]] Province, several stone circles have been found along with a stone arrangement that has been named [[Blaauboschkraal stone ruins|Adam's Calendar]], and the ruins are thought to be created by the [[Bokoni|Bakone]], a [[Northern Sotho language|Northern Sotho]] people.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Alfred|first=Luke|title=The Bakoni: From prosperity to extinction in a generation|url=https://www.news24.com/citypress/news/the-bakoni-from-prosperity-to-extinction-in-a-generation-20180703|access-date=13 September 2020|website=Citypress|archive-date=20 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201020040304/https://www.news24.com/citypress/news/the-bakoni-from-prosperity-to-extinction-in-a-generation-20180703|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Adam's Calendar in Waterval Boven, Mpumalanga|url=https://www.sa-venues.com/things-to-do/mpumalanga/adams-calendar/|access-date=13 September 2020|website=www.sa-venues.com|archive-date=17 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201217065507/https://www.sa-venues.com/things-to-do/mpumalanga/adams-calendar/|url-status=live}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page