ABSTRACT
This chapter aims at an interdisciplinary integration of new bodies of evidence from archaeology, palaeoecology, population genetics, and historical linguistics in view of reconstructing the deep history of Bantu speakers south of the Congo rainforest since their first colonisation of the Kwilu-Kasai region until modern times. It revisits major debates related to the Bantu Expansion such as its relationship with farming and climate change and how it was shaped through contact with indigenous peoples inhabiting Central Africa since more than 40,000 years ago and with later newcomers like Ubangi speakers. By identifying continuities, cut-offs and interactions in the ancient population and environmental history of the Kwilu-Kasai region through the lens of different disciplines, it also address the very issue of interdisciplinarity as a core method in the domain of ancient African history.
