Introduction

The journey from Proto-Bantu (PB) to Sesotho involved the birth of several languages. The earliest of these ancestors of Sesotho is Eastern Bantu (EB), which was born after some speakers of PB dialects settled in East Africa. Next, there is Proto-South Eastern Bantu (PSEB), which diverged from EB following a southwards migration by some Bantu-speaking groups. Lastly, there is the common parent of all the Sotho-Tswana languages, which branched off the PSEB along with the ancestors of the other South Eastern Bantu (SEB) languages. Each of these ancestors of Sesotho has played a significant role in giving Sesotho its current structure, as will be shown by the discussion in this chapter. The chapter focuses on EB and PSEB and Chapter 3 will focus on the ancestor of the Sotho-Tswana languages.

The Formation of EB

The two ancestors of Sesotho, namely, EB and PSEB, were formed after the speakers of PB migrated into different parts of Africa. Initially, the movement from the Grasslands Region to the other parts of Africa was slow; the journey from this region to Yaoundé took around 2 000 years. It is estimated that the arrival of the Bantu-speaking groups in this region only occurred around 3500–3000 years ago (Bostoen 2018). After this, the pace of the migrations, which have been given the name Bantu Migration/Bantu Expansion, quickened. By 2 500 years ago, the groups speaking different PB dialects had reached the Congo Basin, West Central Africa and the Great Lakes Region of East Africa.