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Language Lineage

Great Lakes Bantu

The Bantu of the interlacustrine kingdoms (Buganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Nkore), a close group whose largest members, Kinyarwanda and Kirundi, are spoken by almost everyone in their countries.

c. 1st millennium CE – presentUganda, Rwanda, Burundi, northwestern Tanzania and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
On this page
  1. Kingdoms of the Lakes
  2. Writing and National Languages
  3. In its own words
  4. Where it's spoken
  5. Turning points

01

Kingdoms of the Lakes

Around the great lakes of East Africa, Bantu-speaking farmers built some of the region's most centralised kingdoms: Buganda on the shores of Lake Victoria, and Rwanda and Burundi in the highlands. Their languages, Luganda, Kinyarwanda and Kirundi, belong to a close group together with Haya, Runyankore and others. Nilotic-speaking pastoralists moved into the region over the last thousand years and influenced its societies and some of its languages.

02

Writing and National Languages

Protestant and Catholic missionaries reached Buganda in 1877–79 and wrote Luganda in the Latin alphabet. A Luganda Bible followed in 1896, and Luganda became the language of the colonial administration in much of Uganda. In Rwanda and Burundi, unusually for African states, a single Bantu language is spoken by nearly the whole population, and Kinyarwanda and Kirundi became national and official languages at independence in 1962.

A sample

In its own words

Luganda

Oli otya?
Oli
2SG-be
otya?
2SG-how
‘How are you?’
Sources (1)
  • Ashton, E. O., E. M. K. Mulira, E. G. M. Ndawula & A. N. Tucker. 1954. A Luganda Grammar. London: Longmans, Green.

On the map

Where it’s spoken

Spoken todayShading marks whole countries, not the regions within them.
  1. Rwandac. 13 million
  2. Burundic. 12 million
  3. Democratic Republic of the Congo
  4. Tanzania
  5. Uganda

Figures are rough first-language estimates, rounded, from censuses and Ethnologue. Counts for small or scattered communities are especially uncertain.

Rings along the limb

Turning points

Oldest first.

  1. Splitc. 1st millennium CEContested

    The lakes group forms

    Farming communities around the lakes develop into the Great Lakes Bantu group. Later, from the mid-2nd millennium, the Buganda, Rwanda and Burundi kingdoms grow up in the region.

    Sources (1)
    • Van de Velde, Mark, Koen Bostoen, Derek Nurse & Gérard Philippson, eds. 2019. The Bantu Languages, 2nd ed. London: Routledge.
  2. Contactc. 1000 – 1700 CE

    Nilotic neighbours

    Nilotic-speaking pastoralists, among them Luo groups, move into the region. Some assimilate to Bantu languages and others stay distinct, and Nilotic vocabulary, especially for cattle, enters the Bantu languages.

    Sources (1)
    • Ehret, Christopher. 1998. An African Classical Age: Eastern and Southern Africa in World History, 1000 B.C. to A.D. 400. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.
  3. Writing1877 – 1896

    Luganda in writing

    Missionaries in Buganda write Luganda in Latin letters, and the complete Luganda Bible is published in 1896. Luganda becomes a written language of administration and education.

    Sources (1)
    • Van de Velde, Mark, Koen Bostoen, Derek Nurse & Gérard Philippson, eds. 2019. The Bantu Languages, 2nd ed. London: Routledge.
  4. Revitalization1962

    National languages of Rwanda and Burundi

    At independence, Kinyarwanda and Kirundi become national and official languages, spoken by nearly the whole population of each country. That is rare in Africa, where most states have many languages.

    Sources (1)
    • Van de Velde, Mark, Koen Bostoen, Derek Nurse & Gérard Philippson, eds. 2019. The Bantu Languages, 2nd ed. London: Routledge.