•The Benue-Congo
languages, including Plateau, Cross River, Kainji, Jukunoid and other smaller groups predominate in the centre and east of
Nigeria
•They also gave
rise to Bantoid and Bantu
•To account for
their present distribution, the most likely initial point of dispersal was the Niger-Benue confluence
•Reading back into the past from the probably dates of the Bantu
expansion this must have been 6-7000 kya
•As with Gur-Adamawa, this is primarily a land-based expansion, although on reaching Cross River, fisheries began to play a major role in
subsistence