Kavango

Kavango denotes the cluster of Bantu languages spoken along the Kavango River on the Namibia-Angola border, together with their close Southwest Bantu kin across northern Namibia and southern Angola. The riverine Kavango varieties each belong to one of the five matrilineal Kavango kingdoms, with RuKwangali the most widely used. Their relatives include the Ovambo dialects, the Herero language of the cattle-keeping Ovaherero, and Nyaneka and Umbundu farther into Angola.

Bantu farmers and herders entered this region from the northeast: Ovambo groups began settling near the Angola-Namibia border around the 1300s and pushed farther south during the 1600s. Before the 1800s these peoples kept largely to themselves, untouched by the caravan trade reaching other parts of southern Africa.