History:Bantu expansion

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Short description: Postulated millennia-long series of migrations
Chronological overview after Nurse and Philippson (2003):[1]
1 = 4,000–3,500 BP: origin
2 = 3,500 BP: initial expansion
"early split": 2.a = Eastern,    2.b = Western[2]
3 = 2,000–1,500 BP: Urewe nucleus of Eastern Bantu
4–7: southward advance
9 = 2,500 BP: Congo nucleus
10 = 2,000–1,000 BP: last phase
Map indicating the spread of the Early Iron Age across Africa; all numbers are AD dates except for the "250 BC" date.

The Bantu expansion is a hypothesis about the history of the major series of migrations of the original Proto-Bantu-speaking group,[3][4] which spread from an original nucleus around West-Central Africa. In the process, the Proto-Bantu-speaking settlers displaced, eliminated or absorbed pre-existing hunter-gatherer and pastoralist groups that they encountered.

The primary evidence for this expansion is linguistic – a great many of the languages which are spoken across sub-Equatorial Africa are remarkably similar to each other, suggesting the common cultural origin of their original speakers. The linguistic core of the Bantu languages, which comprise a branch of the Atlantic-Congo language family, was located in the southern regions of Cameroon. However, attempts to trace the exact route of the expansion, to correlate it with archaeological evidence and genetic evidence, have not been conclusive; thus, although the expansion is widely accepted as having taken place, many aspects of it remain in doubt or are highly contested.[5]

The expansion is believed to have taken place in at least two waves, between about 4,000 and 2,000 years ago (approximately 2,000 BC to AD 1). Linguistic analysis suggests that the expansion proceeded in two directions: the first went across or along the Northern border of the Congo forest region (towards East Africa),[6] and the second – and possibly others – went south along Africa's Atlantic coast into what is now the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Angola, or inland along the many south-to-north flowing rivers of the Congo River system. The expansion reached South Africa, probably as early as AD 300.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]

Theories on expansion

Bantuists believe that the Bantu expansion most probably began on the highlands between Cameroon and Nigeria.[15] The 60,000-km2 Mambilla region straddling the borderlands here has been identified as containing remnants of "the Bantu who stayed home" as the bulk of Bantu-speakers moved away from the region. Archaeological evidence from the separate works of Jean Hurault (1979, 1986 and 1988) and Rigobert Tueché (2000) in the region indicates cultural continuity from 3000 BC until today.[16] The majority of the groups of the Bamenda highlands (occupied for 2000 years until today), somewhat south and contiguous with the Mambilla region, have an ancient history of descent from the north in the direction of the Mambilla region.

Initially, archaeologists believed that they could find archaeological similarities in the region's ancient cultures that the Bantu-speakers were held to have traversed. Linguists, classifying the languages and creating a genealogical table of relationships, believed they could reconstruct material culture elements. They believed that the expansion was caused by the development of agriculture, the making of ceramics, and the use of iron, which permitted new ecological zones to be exploited. In 1966, Roland Oliver published an article presenting these correlations as a reasonable hypothesis.[17]

The hypothesized Bantu expansion pushed out or assimilated the hunter-forager proto-Khoisan, who had formerly inhabited Southern Africa. In Eastern and Southern Africa, Bantu speakers may have adopted livestock husbandry from other unrelated Cushitic-and Nilotic-speaking peoples they encountered. Herding practices reached the far south several centuries before Bantu-speaking migrants did. Archaeological, linguistic, genetic, and environmental evidence all support the conclusion that the Bantu expansion was a significant human migration. Generally, the movements of Bantu language-speaking peoples from the Cameroon/Nigeria border region throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa radically reshaped the genetic structure of the continent and led to extensive admixture between migrants and local populations.[18] In 2023, using 1,487 Bantu speakers sampled from 143 populations across 14 African countries, revealed that the expansion occurred ~4,000 years ago in Western Africa. The results showed that Bantu speakers received significant gene-flow from local groups in regions they expanded into.[19]

Based on dental evidence, Irish (2016) concluded that the common ancestors of West African and Proto-Bantu peoples may have originated in the western region of the Sahara, amid the Kiffian period at Gobero, and may have migrated southward, from the Sahara into various parts of West Africa (e.g., Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Togo), as a result of as a result of desertification of the Green Sahara in 7000 BC.[20] From Nigeria and Cameroon, agricultural Proto-Bantu peoples began to migrate, and amid migration, diverged into East Bantu peoples (e.g., Democratic Republic of Congo) and West Bantu peoples (e.g., Congo, Gabon) between 2500 BC and 1200 BC.[20] He suggests that Igbo people and Yoruba people may have admixture from back-migrated Bantu peoples.[20]

Atlantic–Congo languages

The Atlantic-Congo family comprises a huge group of languages spread throughout Western, Central and Southern Africa. The Benue–Congo branch includes the Bantu languages, which are found throughout Central, Southern, and Eastern Africa.

A characteristic feature of most Atlantic–Congo languages, including almost all the Bantu languages except Swahili, is their use of tone. They generally lack case inflection, but grammatical gender is characteristic, with some languages having two dozen genders (noun classes). The root of the verb tends to remain unchanged, with either particles or auxiliary verbs expressing tenses and moods. For example, in a number of languages the infinitival is the auxiliary designating the future.

Pre-expansion-era demography

Before the expansion of Bantu-speaking farmers, Central, Southern, and Southeast Africa was populated by Pygmy foragers, Khoisan-speaking hunter-gatherers and nomadic pastoralists, Nilo-Saharan-speaking herders, and Cushitic-speaking pastoralists.

Central Africa

It is thought that Central African Pygmies and Bantus branched out from a common ancestral population c. 70,000 years ago.[21] 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.[22]

Southern Africa

Before the Bantu expansion, Khoisan-speaking peoples inhabited Southern Africa. Their descendants have largely mixed with other peoples and adopted 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.

Southeast Africa

Prior to the arrival of Bantus in Southeast Africa, Cushitic-speaking peoples had migrated into the region from the Ethiopian Highlands and other more northerly areas. The first waves consisted of Southern Cushitic speakers, who settled around Lake Turkana and parts of Tanzania beginning around 5,000 years ago. Many centuries later, around AD 1000, some Eastern Cushitic speakers also settled in northern and coastal Kenya.[23]

Khoisan-speaking hunter-gatherers also inhabited Southeast Africa before the Bantu expansion.[24]

Nilo-Saharan-speaking herder populations comprised a third group of the area's pre-Bantu expansion inhabitants.[25][26][27]

History and development

Expansion

San rock art depicting a shield-carrying Bantu warrior. The movement of Bantu settlers, who migrated southwards and settled in the summer rainfall regions of Southern Africa within the last 2000 years, established a range of relationships with the indigenous San people from bitter conflict to ritual interaction and intermarriage.[citation needed]

Linguistic, archeological and genetic evidence indicates that during the course of the Bantu expansion, "independent waves of migration of western African and East African Bantu-speakers into southern Africa occurred."[28] In some places, genetic evidence suggests that Bantu language expansion was largely a result of substantial population replacement.[29] In other places, Bantu language expansion, like many other languages, has been documented with population genetic evidence to have occurred by means other than complete or predominant population replacement (e.g. via language shift and admixture of incoming and existing populations). For example, one study found this to be the case in Bantu language speakers who are African Pygmies or are in Mozambique,[29] while another population genetic study found this to be the case in the Bantu language-speaking Lemba of Southern Africa.[30] Where Bantu was adopted via language shift of existing populations, prior African languages were spoken, probably from African language families that are now lost, except as substrate influences of local Bantu languages (such as click sounds in local Bantu languages).

c. 3000 BC to c. AD 500 

It seems likely that the expansion of the Bantu-speaking people from their core region in West Africa began around 4000–3500 BC. Although early models posited that the early speakers were both iron-using and agricultural, definitive archaeological evidence that they used iron does not appear until as late as 400 BC, though they were agricultural.[31] The western branch, not necessarily linguistically distinct, according to Christopher Ehret, followed the coast and the major rivers of the Congo system southward, reaching central Angola by around 500 BC.[32]

It is clear that there were human populations in the region at the time of the expansion, and pygmies are their closest living relatives. However, mtDNA genetic research from Cabinda suggests that only haplogroups that originated in West Africa are found there today, and the distinctive L0 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.[33]

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.

Another stream of migration, having moved 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. The Urewe culture dominated the Great Lakes region between 650BC and 550BC. It was one of Africa's oldest iron-smelting centres.[34][35] By the first century BC, Bantu speaking communities in the great lakes region developed iron forging techniques that enabled them to produce carbon steel.[36]

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 difficult farming conditions in areas farther from water. Archaeological findings have shown that by 100 BC to 300 AD, Bantu speaking communities were present at the coastal areas of Misasa in Tanzania and Kwale in Kenya. These communities also integrated and intermarried with the communities already present at the coast. Between 300 AD-1000 AD, through participation in the long-existing Indian Ocean trade route, these communities established links with Arabian and Indian traders, leading to the development of the Swahili culture.[37] Other pioneering groups had reached modern KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa by AD 300 along the coast, and the modern Limpopo Province (formerly Northern Transvaal) by AD 500.[38][39][40]

From the 11th century to 17th century

Between the 11th and 16th centuries, powerful Bantu-speaking states on a scale larger than local chiefdoms began to emerge. Notable early kingdoms include the Kingdom of the Kongo in present day Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom in the Great Lakes region, the Kingdom of Mapungubwe (c.1075–c.1220) in present day South Africa , and the Zambezi River, where the Monomatapa kings built the Great Zimbabwe complex.[41][42] The Swahili city-states were also established early in this period. These include sultanates based at Lamu, Mombasa, Kilwa, Pate and Malindi. The Swahili traded with the inland kingdoms, including Great Zimbabwe.[37] Such processes of state-formation occurred with increasing frequency from the 16th century onward. They likely resulted from denser population, which led to more specialised divisions of labour, including military power, while making outmigration more effortful. Other factors promoting state-formation were increased trade among African communities and with European and Arab traders on the coasts, technological innovations in economic activity, and new techniques in the political-spiritual ritualisation of royalty as the source of national strength and health.[43] Other inland centres established during this phase of expansion include Bigo bya Mugenyi in Uganda, Thimlich Ohinga in Kenya and the Kweneng' Ruins in South Africa .[44][45]

Criticism

Manfred K. H. Eggert stated that "the current archaeological record in the Central African rainforest is extremely spotty and consequently far from convincing so as to be taken as a reflection of a steady influx of Bantu speakers into the forest, let alone movement on a larger scale."[46]

See also

  • Bantu peoples
  • Matrilineal belt
  • Pre-modern human migration

References

  1. ↑ Derek Nurse and Gérard Philippson: The Bantu Languages. Routledge, London 2003.
  2. ↑ Patin, Etienne; Lopez, Marie; Grollemund, Rebecca; Verdu, Paul; Harmant, Christine; Quach, Hélène; Laval, Guillaume; Perry, George H. et al. (5 May 2017). "Dispersals and genetic adaptation of Bantu-speaking populations in Africa and North America". Science 356 (6337): 543–546. doi:10.1126/science.aal1988. PMID 28473590. Bibcode: 2017Sci...356..543P. 
  3. ↑ Clark, John Desmond; Brandt, Steven A. (1984). From Hunters to Farmers: The Causes and Consequences of Food Production in Africa. University of California Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-520-04574-3. https://books.google.com/books?id=dftPHu1o2s8C&pg=PA33. 
  4. ↑ Adler, Philip J.; Pouwels, Randall L. (2007). World Civilizations: Since 1500. Cengage Learning. p. 169. ISBN 978-0-495-50262-3. https://books.google.com/books?id=mPoqfoiIp4sC&pg=PA169. 
  5. ↑ Berniell-Lee, Gemma; Calafell, Francesc; Bosch, Elena et al. (2006). "Genetic and Demographic Implications of the Bantu Expansion: Insights from Human Paternal Lineages". Molecular Biology and Evolution 26 (7): 1581–9. doi:10.1093/molbev/msp069. PMID 19369595. 
  6. ↑ Pollard, Elizabeth; Rosenberg, Clifford; Tignor, Robert (2011). Worlds Together, Worlds Apart: A History of the World: From the Beginnings of Humankind to the Present. New York: Norton. p. 289. ISBN 978-0-3939-1847-2. https://archive.org/details/worldstogetherwo03alti. 
  7. ↑ Vansina, J. (1995). "New Linguistic Evidence and 'The Bantu Expansion'". Journal of African History 36 (2): 173–195. doi:10.1017/S0021853700034101. 
  8. ↑ Tishkoff, S. A.; Reed, F. A.; Friedlaender, F. R. et al. (2009). "The Genetic Structure and History of Africans and African Americans". Science 324 (5930): 1035–44. doi:10.1126/science.1172257. PMID 19407144. Bibcode: 2009Sci...324.1035T. 
  9. ↑ Plaza, S; Salas, A; Calafell, F; Corte-Real, F; Bertranpetit, J; Carracedo, A; Comas, D (2004). "Insights into the western Bantu dispersal: MtDNA lineage analysis in Angola". Human Genetics 115 (5): 439–47. doi:10.1007/s00439-004-1164-0. PMID 15340834. 
  10. ↑ Coelho, M; Sequeira, F; Luiselli, D; Beleza, S; Rocha, J (2009). "On the edge of Bantu expansions: MtDNA, Y chromosome and lactase persistence genetic variation in southwestern Angola". BMC Evolutionary Biology 9 (1): 80. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-9-80. PMID 19383166. Bibcode: 2009BMCEE...9...80C. 
  11. ↑ De Filippo, C; Barbieri, C; Whitten, M et al. (2011). "Y-chromosomal variation in sub-Saharan Africa: Insights into the history of Niger–Congo groups". Molecular Biology and Evolution 28 (3): 1255–69. doi:10.1093/molbev/msq312. PMID 21109585. 
  12. ↑ Alves, I; Coelho, M; Gignoux, C et al. (2011). "Genetic homogeneity across Bantu-speaking groups from Mozambique and Angola challenges early split scenarios between East and West Bantu populations". Human Biology 83 (1): 13–38. doi:10.3378/027.083.0102. PMID 21453002. 
  13. ↑ Castrì, L; Tofanelli, S; Garagnani, P et al. (2009). "MtDNA variability in two Bantu-speaking populations (Shona and Hutu) from Eastern Africa: Implications for peopling and migration patterns in sub-Saharan Africa". American Journal of Physical Anthropology 140 (2): 302–11. doi:10.1002/ajpa.21070. PMID 19425093. 
  14. ↑ "Carte Blanche > M-Net". Beta.mnet.co.za. http://beta.mnet.co.za/carteblanche/Article.aspx?Id=2619. 
  15. ↑ Koile, Ezequiel; Greenhill, Simon J.; Blasi, Damián E.; Bouckaert, Remco; Gray, Russell D. (2022-08-09). "Phylogeographic analysis of the Bantu language expansion supports a rainforest route" (in en). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119 (32): e2112853119. doi:10.1073/pnas.2112853119. ISSN 0027-8424. PMID 35914165. Bibcode: 2022PNAS..11912853K. 
  16. ↑ Zeitlyn, D and Connell, B (2003): Ethnogenesis and Fractal History on an African Frontier: Mambila-Njerep, -Mandulu. Journal of African History, Vol. 44, No 1, pp. 117-138, June 11, 2003. C.U.P.
  17. ↑ Oliver, Roland (1966). "The Problem of the Bantu Expansion". The Journal of African History 7 (3): 361–376. doi:10.1017/S0021853700006472. 
  18. ↑ Bird, Nancy; Ormond, Louise; Awah, Paschal; Caldwell, Elizabeth F.; Connell, Bruce; Elamin, Mohamed; Fadlelmola, Faisal M.; Matthew Fomine, Forka Leypey et al. (2023). "Dense sampling of ethnic groups within African countries reveals fine-scale genetic structure and extensive historical admixture". Science Advances 9 (13): eabq2616. doi:10.1126/sciadv.abq2616. ISSN 2375-2548. PMID 36989356. Bibcode: 2023SciA....9.2616B. 
  19. ↑ Cesar A. Fortes-Lima (2023-05-04). "The genetic legacy of the expansion of Bantu-speaking peoples in Africa". doi:10.1101/2023.04.03.535432. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.03.535432v1.full. 
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Irish, Joel D (2016). "Tracing the 'Bantu Expansion' from its source: Dental nonmetric affinities among West African and neighboring populations". American Association of Physical Anthropologists. doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.14163.78880. 
  21. ↑ Awad, Elias. "Common Origins of Pygmies and Bantus". CNRS International Magazine. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/1164.htm. 
  22. ↑ Bahuchet, Serge (1993). Hladik, C.M.. ed. History of the Inhabitants of the Central African Rain Forest: Perspectives from Comparative Linguistics. Paris: Unesco/Parthenon. ISBN 978-9-2310-2879-3. 
  23. ↑ "Early migrations into East Africa | Enzi". http://www.enzimuseum.org/after-the-stone-age/early-migrations-into-east-africa. 
  24. ↑ Ambrose, S.H. (1986). "Hunter-gatherer adaptations to non-marginal environments: an ecological and archaeological assessment of the Dorobo model". Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika (SUGIA) 7 (2): 11. 
  25. ↑ Ehret, Christopher (1980). The Historical Reconstruction of Southern Cushitic Phonology and Vocabulary. 5 of Kölner Beiträge zur Afrikanistik. Berlin: Reimer. p. 407. 
  26. ↑ Ehret, Christopher (1983). Culture History in the Southern Sudan. Nairobi, Kenya: British Institute in Eastern Africa. pp. 19–48. ISBN 9781872566047. 
  27. ↑ Ambrose, Stanley H. (1982). Archaeological and Linguistic Reconstructions of History in East Africa. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-5200-4593-4. https://books.google.com/books?id=kJMFMpoHuVgC&pg=PA104. 
  28. ↑ Michael C. Campbell and Sarah A. Tishkoff, "The Evolution of Human Genetic and Phenotypic Variation in Africa," Current Biology, Volume 20, Issue 4, R166–R173, 23 February 2010
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Patin, E. et al. (2009). "Inferring the Demographic History of African Farmers and Pygmy Hunter–Gatherers Using a Multilocus Resequencing Data Set". PLOS Genetics 5 (4): e1000448. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1000448. PMID 19360089. 
  30. ↑ Spurdle, A. B.; Jenkins, T. (1996), "The origins of the Lemba 'Black Jews' of southern Africa: evidence from p12F2 and other Y-chromosome markers", American Journal of Human Genetics 59 (5): 1126–33, PMID 8900243 
  31. ↑ Vansina, Jan (1990). Paths in the Rainforest: Toward a History of Political Tradition in Equatorial Africa. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-2991-2573-8. [page needed]
  32. ↑ Ehret, C. (2001). "Bantu Expansions: Re-Envisioning a Central Problem of Early African History". The International Journal of African Historical Studies 34 (1): 5–41. doi:10.2307/3097285. 
  33. ↑ Beleza, Sandra; Gusmao, Leonor; Amorim, Antonio; Caracedo, Angel; Salas, Antonio (August 2005). "The Genetic Legacy of Western Bantu Migrations". Human Genetics 117 (4): 366–75. doi:10.1007/s00439-005-1290-3. PMID 15928903. 
  34. ↑ Clist, Bernard-Olivier (1987). "A critical reappraisal of the chronological framework of the Early Iron Age Urewe Industry". MUNTU 6: 35–62. 
  35. ↑ Lane, Paul; Ashley, Ceri; Oteyo, Gilbert (January 2006). "New Dates for Kansyore and Urewe Wares from Northern Nyanza, Kenya". Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 41 (1): 123–138. doi:10.1080/00672700609480438. 
  36. ↑ Schmidt, Peter; Avery, Donald H. (22 September 1978). "Complex Iron Smelting and Prehistoric Culture in Tanzania: Recent discoveries show complex technological achievement in African iron production.". Science 201 (4361): 1085–1089. doi:10.1126/science.201.4361.1085. PMID 17830304. 
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 Pouwels, Randall L.; Kusimba, Chapurukha M. (2000). "The Rise and Fall of Swahili States". The International Journal of African Historical Studies 33 (2): 437. doi:10.2307/220701. 
  38. ↑ Ehret, Christopher (1998). An African Classical Age: Eastern and Southern Africa in World History, 1000 BC to AD 400. London: James Currey. ISBN 9780813920573. https://books.google.com/books?id=1i-IBmCeNhUC. [page needed]
  39. ↑ Newman, James L. (1995). The Peopling of Africa: A Geographic Interpretation. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-07280-8. https://archive.org/details/peoplingofafrica00newmrich. [page needed]
  40. ↑ Shillington, Kevin (2005). History of Africa (3rd ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press. [page needed]
  41. ↑ Thornton, John (October 1977). "Demography and History in the Kingdom of Kongo, 1550–1750". The Journal of African History 18 (4): 507–530. doi:10.1017/s0021853700015693. 
  42. ↑ Doyle, Shane (11 January 2016). "Bunyoro-Kitara, Kingdom of". The Encyclopedia of Empire: 1–3. doi:10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe078. ISBN 978-1-118-45507-4. 
  43. ↑ Shillington (2005).
  44. ↑ "Farmers, cattle-herders and rulers in western Uganda, AD 1000–1500". Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 33 (1): 39–72. January 1998. doi:10.1080/00672709809511464. 
  45. ↑ Sadr, Karim (9 July 2019). "Kweneng: A Newly Discovered Pre-Colonial Capital Near Johannesburg". Journal of African Archaeology 17 (1): 1–22. doi:10.1163/21915784-20190001. 
  46. ↑ Eggert, Manfred K. H. (2016). "Genetizing Bantu: Historical Insight or Historical Trilemma?". Medieval Worlds (4): 79–90. doi:10.1553/medievalworlds_no4_2016s79. 

Further reading

External links

  • Berniell-Lee, G.; Calafell, F.; Bosch, E.; Heyer, E.; Sica, L.; Mouguiama-Daouda, P.; van der Veen, L.; Hombert, J.-M. et al. (1 July 2009). "Genetic and Demographic Implications of the Bantu Expansion: Insights from Human Paternal Lineages". Molecular Biology and Evolution 26 (7): 1581–1589. doi:10.1093/molbev/msp069. PMID 19369595. 
  • Bantu Expansion and Hunter-gatherers
  • Patin, Etienne; Lopez, Marie; Grollemund, Rebecca; Verdu, Paul; Harmant, Christine; Quach, Hélène; Laval, Guillaume; Perry, George H. et al. (5 May 2017). "Dispersals and genetic adaptation of Bantu-speaking populations in Africa and North America". Science 356 (6337): 543–546. doi:10.1126/science.aal1988. PMID 28473590. Bibcode: 2017Sci...356..543P. 



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