Maps of Kalenjin

Bantu Colonization the Interior Mosiac of Africa (Newman)



Bantu Colonization of the Interior Mosiac of Africa

Map Creator:   James L. Newman
Source:   1995. The Peopling of Africa. New Haven: Yale University Press. 169.
Date Created:   1995

Map Description:
According to James L. Newman, the interior of East Africa is one of the most complex ethnolinguistic regions on the continent, due to the continuous movement of groups, including Khoisan, Cushitic, Nilotic and Bantu peoples. Bantu advancement, as shown on this map, disrupted the groups that had already settled in these areas and continued until the seventeenth century. The displacement of the previous inhabitants was not complete, however; two Khoisan groups (the Hadza and the Sandawe) along with some Southern Cushites remained in Tanzania (Newman).

Other resources related to this project:
Eastern and Southern Cushites Introduce Food-Producing Economies to the Interior Mosaic (Newman)
Southern Nilotic Speakers Seeking the Kenyan Highlands(Newman)
Influential Eastern Nilotic Migrations (Newman)
Ngoni, Kamba, Arab-Swahili, and Yao Movements, Migrations, and Trade Routes Within the Interior Mosiac (Newman)


Note: Scanned or downloaded images have been geo-registered for compatibility with our project interface. Slight imperfections are an inevitable result of the registration process. View original image(s) to see the unaltered map(s).

Directions of Southern Nilotic Expansion ca. 400-1000 AD (Ehret)



Directions of Southern Nilotic Expansion ca. 400-1000 AD

Map Creator:   Christopher Ehret
Source:   Southern Nilotic History. 1971. Northwestern University Press. p. 49.
Date Created:   1971

Map Description:
During the first half of the first millenium A.D., the Southern Nilotes gradually replaced the Southern Cushites as the dominant group in the outlined area of Africa. Over the centuries, one tribe of Nilotes became those now known as the Kalenjin. Christopher Ehret states that their presence is evident in the Southern Nilotic loanwords which remain in Bantu and Eastern Nilotic languages, as well as Tepeth and Yaaku. These Kalenjin ancestors came to control much of what is now Kenya and the plains of central Uganda, and their contact with Cushites and other groups has resulted in their language being rich with loanwords, especially in areas such as agriculture.

Other resources related to this project:
The Countries of Dadog History (Ehret)
The Proto-Kalenjin and their Neighbors (Ehret)
The Kalenjin ca. 1000-1500 AD (Ehret)



Note: Scanned or downloaded images have been geo-registered for compatibility with our project interface. Slight imperfections are an inevitable result of the registration process. View original image(s) to see the unaltered map(s).

Peoples, States and Cities in Africa ca. 100 CE



Peoples, states and cities in Africa, ca. 100 CE

Map Creator:   Christopher Ehret
Source:   The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800. 2002. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.
Date Created:   2002.

Map Description:
This map displays important groups, empires and cities in Africa circa 100 CE according to Christopher Ehret. As shown, the Roman Empire controlled a vast territory along the northern coast and the Nile river. Roman expansion and trade facilitated the transmission of new technologies throughout the continent, especially ironworking. Other major cultural changes were occurring as well; Christianity began spreading throughout Northern Africa and Aksum was one of the first major kingdoms to convert around 200 years later.


Note: Scanned or downloaded images have been geo-registered for compatibility with our project interface. Slight imperfections are an inevitable result of the registration process. View original image(s) to see the unaltered map(s).

Peoples, States and Cities in northern Africa ca. 1550 (Ehret)



Peoples, states and cities in the northern half of Africa, ca. 1550

Map Creator:   Christopher Ehret
Source:   The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800. 2002. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.
Date Created:   2002.

Map Description:
Shown here are important kingdoms, groups and cities in northern Africa around 1550. Important details of the period include the fate of the large Songay Empire, the expansion of the kingdom of Morocco and European colonization. The Songay Empire suffered from internal political turmoil and degenerated into civil war in the 1580s as it collapsed. Meanwhile, the kingdom of Morocco was growing in power, and steady trade with Europeans provided them with superior weapons, allowing them to expand further as they conquered former Songay lands. European colonial powers vied for forts and trade agreements along the Atlantic coast, although large settlements were rare (Ehret).


Note: Scanned or downloaded images have been geo-registered for compatibility with our project interface. Slight imperfections are an inevitable result of the registration process. View original image(s) to see the unaltered map(s).

Peoples, States and Cities in northern Africa ca. 1750-1770 (Ehret)



Peoples, states and cities in the northern half of Africa, ca. 1750-1775

Map Creator:   Christopher Ehret
Source:   2002. The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.
Date Created:   2002.

Map Description:
This map outlines several of the important African kingdoms and empires, as well as groups of people, in northern Africa circa 1750-1770 (Ehret). During this time, European influence on the continent was widespread; trade and conquest were flourishing under the colonial powers. In the east, Ottoman Empire power was beginning to fail in Egypt, and many of the Arab groups that had once been under their rule broke away. Along the Atlantic coast, many of those involved with European trade prospered, especially Morocco.


Note: Scanned or downloaded images have been geo-registered for compatibility with our project interface. Slight imperfections are an inevitable result of the registration process. View original image(s) to see the unaltered map(s).

Peoples, States and Cities in southern Africa ca. 1400 (Ehret)



Peoples, Cities and States in the Southern Half of Africa ca. 1400

Map Creator:   Christopher Ehret
Source:   Ehret, Christopher. 2002. The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.
Date Created:   2002.

Map Description:
This map displays cities, kingdoms and peoples in southern Africa circa 1400. The territories of many of the smaller groups are uncertain, and hence have not been outlined. These, along with several of the kingdoms pictured, continued expanding their borders and developing the southern half of Africa as Europeans began their explorations of the continent (Ehret). Peoples are indicated by white lettering on the map, states by polygons.


Note: Scanned or downloaded images have been geo-registered for compatibility with our project interface. Slight imperfections are an inevitable result of the registration process. View original image(s) to see the unaltered map(s).

Peoples, States and Cities in southern Africa ca. 1550 (Ehret)



Peoples, Cities and States in the Southern Half of Africa ca. 1550

Map Creator:   Christopher Ehret
Source:   Ehret, Christopher. 2002. The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.
Date Created:   2002.

Map Description:
This map displays cities, kingdoms and peoples in southern Africa circa 1550 as shown by Christopher Ehret. During this period, the Portuguese slave trade had begun rapid expansion, and rival European powers had begun colonization in an attempt to begin their own competing stations. Trade routes shifted due to the new influence, and many of the great savannah states began to decline in importance while those on the coasts flourished.


Note: Scanned or downloaded images have been geo-registered for compatibility with our project interface. Slight imperfections are an inevitable result of the registration process. View original image(s) to see the unaltered map(s).

Peoples, States and Cities in southern Africa from 1725-1775 (Ehret)



Peoples, states and cities in the southern half of Africa, ca. 1725-1775

Map Creator:   Christopher Ehret
Source:   2002. The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia. 430.
Date Created:   2002.

Map Description:
This map displays the important groups and locations in southern Africa from 1725-1775, including European colonies and African empires. At this time, the European slave trade was in full swing. Some African groups still resisted European colonization, and it was not long after this period that the first successful slave rebellion occurred in what is now Haiti, resulting in the formation of that country.


Note: Scanned or downloaded images have been geo-registered for compatibility with our project interface. Slight imperfections are an inevitable result of the registration process. View original image(s) to see the unaltered map(s).

Southern Nilotic Speakers Seeking the Kenyan Highlands (Newman)



Southern Nilotic Speakers Seeking the Kenyan Highlands

Map Creator:   James L. Newman
Source:   1995. The Peopling of Africa. New Haven: Yale University Press. 168.
Date Created:   1995

Map Description:
According to James L. Newman, the interior of East Africa is one of the most complex ethnolinguistic regions on the continent, due to the continuous movement of groups, including Khoisan, Cushitic, Nilotic and Bantu peoples. This map shows the movement of the Southern Nilotes that occurred around 500 BC. They shared space with the Southern Cushites for quite some time, before the arrival of the Bantu, which drastically altered the interior of Africa (Newman).

Other resources related to this project:
Eastern and Southern Cushites Introduce Food-Producing Economies to the Interior Mosaic (Newman)
Bantu Colonization of the Interior Mosiac of Africa (Newman)
Influential Eastern Nilotic Migrations (Newman)
Ngoni, Kamba, Arab-Swahili, and Yao Movements, Migrations, and Trade Routes Within the Interior Mosiac (Newman)



Note: Scanned or downloaded images have been geo-registered for compatibility with our project interface. Slight imperfections are an inevitable result of the registration process. View original image(s) to see the unaltered map(s).

The Countries of Dadog History (Ehret)



The Countries of Dadog History

Map Creator:   Christopher Ehret
Source:   Southern Nilotic History. 1971. Northwestern University Press. p. 57.
Date Created:   1971

Map Description:
In his book Southern Nilotic History, Christopher Ehret discusses a number of possible settlements and linguistic interactions of the Dadog of the Masai. He uses loanword evidence to support his hypothesis that they expanded mainly southward, eventually living as far south as central Masailand. They influenced many peoples that they encountered; the linguistic affects seen in Sonjo are particularly strong, and Ehret suggests that this may indicate that the Sonjo live in much the same way and location today as they did in the past.

Other resources related to this project:
Directions of Southern Nilotic Expansion ca. 400-1000 AD (Ehret)
The Proto-Kalenjin and their Neighbors (Ehret)
The Kalenjin ca. 1000-1500 AD (Ehret)



Note: Scanned or downloaded images have been geo-registered for compatibility with our project interface. Slight imperfections are an inevitable result of the registration process. View original image(s) to see the unaltered map(s).

The Kalenjin from 1400-1500 AD (Ehret)



The Kalenjin ca. 1400-1500 AD

Map Creator:   Christopher Ehret
Source:   Southern Nilotic History. 1971. Northwestern University Press. p. 67.
Date Created:   1971

Map Description:
The division of the proto-Kalenjin community began early in the second millenium, and this separation resulted in the large dialectal variation seen among Kalenjin languages today (Ehret). Illustrated on this map are the areas which several specific proto-groups inhabited around 1400-1500. Ehret reconstructs this past by using information gained from the study of their modern descendants, including both cultural and linguistic details. An example of this investigation is his research into musical instruments; he points out that the drum, although rare among Southern Nilotic peoples, does not have a term in proto-Kalenjin that is known, and this indicates the possibility that drums were introduced to a descendant group.

Other resources related to this project:
Directions of Southern Nilotic Expansion ca. 400-1000 AD (Ehret)
The Countries of Dadog History (Ehret)
The Proto-Kalenjin and their Neighbors (Ehret)



Note: Scanned or downloaded images have been geo-registered for compatibility with our project interface. Slight imperfections are an inevitable result of the registration process. View original image(s) to see the unaltered map(s).

The Proto-Kalenjin and Their Neighbors ca. 1000 AD (Ehret)



The Proto-Kalenjin and their Neighbors

Map Creator:   Christopher Ehret
Source:   Southern Nilotic History. 1971. Northwestern University Press. p. 65.
Date Created:   1971

Map Description:
This map illustrates the approximate locations of the proto-Kalenjin people and their neighbors. These descendants of the Southern Nilotes were closely related to the Kitoki (known also as Bukusu or Yumbu), and shared many cultural as well as linguistic aspects. The proto-Kalenjin (and now, modern Kalenjin) economy was centered around grain cultivation and the raising of livestock, and their societal structure has remained relatively unchanged over the centuries (Ehret).

Other resources related to this project:
Directions of Southern Nilotic Expansion ca. 400-1000 AD (Ehret)
The Countries of Dadog History (Ehret)
The Kalenjin ca. 1000-1500 AD (Ehret)



Note: Scanned or downloaded images have been geo-registered for compatibility with our project interface. Slight imperfections are an inevitable result of the registration process. View original image(s) to see the unaltered map(s).