<P> A typical trait in the Niger - Kordofanian family as a group is the division of nouns . This has been juxtaposed with the gender system of the Indo - European languages . </P> <P> Before the expansion of farming and pastoralist African peoples, Southern Africa was populated by hunter - gatherers and earlier pastoralists . </P> <P> It is thought that Central African Pygmies and Bantus branched out from a common ancestral population c. 70,000 years ago . Many Batwa groups speak Bantu languages; however, a considerable portion of their vocabulary is not Bantu in origin . Much of this vocabulary is botanical, deals with honey collecting, or is otherwise specialised for the forest and is shared between western Batwa groups . It has been proposed that this is the remnant of an independent western Batwa (Mbenga or "Baaka") language . </P> <P> Proto - Khoisan - speaking peoples, whose descendants have largely mixed with other peoples and taken up other languages; a few still live by foraging (often supplemented by working for neighbouring farmers) in the arid regions around the Kalahari desert, while a larger number of Nama continue their traditional subsistence by raising livestock in Namibia and adjacent South Africa . </P>

What effect did the bantu migration have on the africa continent