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third of CAR. At its peak, the Ubangian expansion may have reached to the White Nile,
with the Banda family settling either in extreme eastern CAR or in the Bahr-el-Ghazal
province of Sudan. According to Bouquiaux & Thomas (1980), this migration took place
around 1000 B.C.
However, once in southwestern Sudan, the Ubangian people, particularly the
Banda, Ngbaka-Sere and Ngbandi groups, had contact with the Central-Sudanic people
(Nilo-Saharan), whose languages originated in the region (Cordell 1983: 37). Evidence of
this contact is that the Banda group absorbed some Central-Sudanic speakers (p. 38). The
resulting conflict led to a slight western movement of the Ubangian groups, with the
Banda people settling near the source of the Kotto River in eastern CAR, while the
Central Sudanic groups spread to the south and northwest of the Ubangian area.
Bouquiaux & Thomas and Cordell both agree that this rearrangement was complete by
around 1000 A.D.
At this point, the Banda people did not have a hierarchical political system.
According to Cordell (p. 38), they “...were extremely decentralized, living in small
groups of related males and their dependants. The clan was the only institution of broader
scale.” This decentralization made the Banda easy prey for the next contact they
encountered—the Arab slave trade. It is not clear when the slave trade first impacted the
Banda people. It was present in northern Africa by the 14th century, and continued to
grow until it reached its peak at the end of the 19th century. However, one piece of
evidence—the susceptibility to diseases of Banda slaves in the mid-19th century—
suggests that the raiding reached their region more recently. Tisserant (1930) states that
the majority of the Banda people were still residing near the source of the Kotto River in
1830. In fleeing the slave raids, some groups, such as the Yangere, moved west and
settled in western CAR. Others, such as the Ngbandi, Mbandja, and Mono moved
southwest into D. R. Congo. Maes (1983) places the Ngbandi crossing of the Ubangi
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