<P> It is clear that there were human populations in the region at the time of the expansion, and pygmies are their purer descendants . However, mtDNA genetic research from Cabinda suggests that only haplogroups that originated in West Africa are found there today, and the distinctive L of the pre-Bantu population is missing, suggesting that there was a complete population replacement . In South Africa, however, a more complex intermixing could have taken place . </P> <P> Further east, Bantu - speaking communities had reached the great Central African rainforest, and by 500 BC, pioneering groups had emerged into the savannas to the south, in what are now the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, and Zambia . </P> <P> Another stream of migration, moving east by 3,000 years ago (1000 BC), was creating a major new population center near the Great Lakes of East Africa, where a rich environment supported a dense population . Movements by small groups to the southeast from the Great Lakes region were more rapid, with initial settlements widely dispersed near the coast and near rivers, due to comparatively harsh farming conditions in areas further from water . Pioneering groups had reached modern KwaZulu - Natal in South Africa by A.D 300 along the coast, and the modern Limpopo Province (formerly Northern Transvaal) by A.D 500 . </P> <P> Between the 13th and 15th centuries, the relatively powerful Bantu - speaking states on a scale larger than local chiefdoms began to emerge, in the Great Lakes region, in the savanna south of the Central African rainforest, and on the Zambezi river where the Monomatapa kings built the famous Great Zimbabwe complex . Such processes of state - formation occurred with increasing frequency from the 16th century onward . They were probably due to denser population, which led to more specialised divisions of labour, including military power, while making outmigration more difficult . Other factors were increased trade among African communities and with European, and Arab traders on the coasts; technological developments in economic activity, and new techniques in the political - spiritual ritualisation of royalty as the source of national strength and health . </P>

Why did the bantu migrate and where did they migrate to