BANTU PLACE NAMES IN AFRICA. 



By Rev. W. A. Norton, B.A.. B.l.itt. 



Underneath the bergs, kops, dorps, spruits, laagtes, kloofs, 

 fonteins, Ijanks, bosches, velds, plaats, hoeks, pans, poorts, rands, 

 riviers, vleis, klips, gats, bults, draais, burgs, kuils, vlaktes, neks, 

 and last (but not least) dams, with which the maps of Dutch 

 South Africa abounds, lie a multitude of outworn or forgotten 

 Bushmen and Hottentot, Portuguese and Bantu place names, 

 of which a remnant still adorn the map; but the rest, except a 

 few which may be recorded in lessening numbers by careful 

 enquiry from the older natives, have gone under the palimpsest 

 of time 



The native territories, however, yield a harvest of names 

 to the philologist, replete with geographical and historical in- 

 terest (when the meaning and origin can be traced), and con- 

 trilmting very specially to the comparative ])hilolog\' and 

 ethnology of the nations of this continent. 



My concern to-day is with the Bantu names merely, and 

 these lie, as I shall shew more precisely presently, between a 

 northern limit, running roughly from the (julf of Biafra to 

 Zanzibar, and a southern liiuit running from Windhoek, through 

 the Kalahari to the junction of the Vaal and Orange, and then 

 across the Free State, where Bantu names are scarce on the 

 map, to the con(|uered Territory. Basutoland, and — roughly 

 again — along the East London line from Bethulie. That is to 

 say, the southern part of South-West .\frica and Ca])e Colony, 

 except the Eastern Province and the dependencies to the East 

 again, are ])ractically free from Bantu names ( I do not forget 

 Lendlovu, just to the north of the Bay). Besides the recent 

 English and Dutch names, Portuguese is represented, Bushman 

 and Hottentot, but not Bantu. 



Thus only about half of South Africa, south of the Tropic, 

 contains llantu names, the south limit of which practically bi- 

 sects it from north-west to sotith-east. Presides which, the Bush- 

 man and Hottentot names, not to sav l\)rtuguese and other 

 Eur()])ean, encroach upon the Hanttt sphere; but from the Tropic 

 to the iMjuator, and now considerably beyond { exce])t on the 

 east side), the Bantu, except for (|uite modern names and a few 

 Portuguese and Arabic-, hold the field. 



i^)Ut before' we proceed to discuss this held, let us revert 

 for a little to iIk- moot (|uestion of the intermingling of Bush- 

 man, Hottentot, and Kaffir names. And here I shall refrain 

 from entering into the delicate ]ioint of the distribution 1)etween 

 the two former, nor sliall I enter into the like deep question of 

 the ])honetic origin of the co-called clicks. I shall content my- 

 self with referring to I)r. IVringuey's learning on the former 

 r|uestion, and ^hall take for granted what Professor Meinhof 



