A transdisciplinary approach to the past and present of Bantu languages, Bantu speech communities and their material worlds. The research starts from the data-driven study of language and/or material culture and is combined — whenever and wherever possible or needed — with methods and theoretical insights from (historical) linguistics, archaeology, (historical) anthropology, art history, (ethno)history, ethnobotany, ethnozoology, genetics, etc.
This research group aims to continue and to broaden the work undertaken within the ERC-funded KongoKing (2010-2016) and BantuFirst (2018-2022) projects, the BELSPO-funded CongoConnect (2015-2019) project, as well as associated projects within the field of Bantu Studies, and formalises the de facto research culture of about two dozen researchers who work together towards similar goals.