The origin of the Bantu must be investigated. Did you know that the Sumerians had goddesses and gods with Bantu sounding names such as Enten, Baba, Antu, Damu, Anunna, Enki, Erra, Girra, Gula, Haya, Inana, Nanna, Nisaba, Ninisinna, Utu, Bunene and Kakka?
But perhaps the similarities between the names of the Sumerian deity and the Bantu language is simply because both languages have repetition of sounds such as ‘na,’ ‘ne’, ‘ka’ and so on.
Enten was the god of vegetation, created to take responsibility on earth for the fertility of ewes, goats, cows, donkeys and birds. So I can't help linking it to the word 'ente' for cow in some Bantu languages.
Gula – Babylonian goddess of healing (means ‘buy’ in Luganda)
Damu (meaning the child) – Vegetation
god (means ‘blood’ in Kiswahili)
Baba – Akkadian goddess of healing
(means ‘father’ in most Bantu languages)
Antu – Babylonian goddess (Suffix of the word ‘Bantu’ that means 'people,' in many Bantu languages)
Annuna – a group of ancient
Sumerian gods (‘Anuuna’ in Luganda means he/she is sucking)
Annunaki – a group of ancient Sumerian gods (offspring of the Sumerian god of the sky, An) – (‘Anuuna kyi?’ means what is he/she sucking?)
Enki – Sumerian god of water (means
‘what’ in some Bantu languages)
Erra – Akkadian god of chaos and
epidemics (can mean ‘and’ in Luganda)
Girra – Babylonian and Akkadian god of
fire and light (suffix of the word ‘okugira’ that means ‘to finish’ in Luganda)
Haya – Sumerian god of the scribes
(means ‘okay’ in Kiswahili)
Nisaba – Sumerian goddess of writing,
learning, and the harvest (‘Ni saba’ means ‘it’s seven’ in Kiswahili)
Inana – Ancient Sumerian goddess of
love, beauty, sensuality, war, justice and political power. Her most prominent
symbols included the lion and the eight-pointed star. (Inana sounds like ‘munaana’ which
means ‘eight’ in some Bantu languages such as Luganda. It also sounds like Nanna, the Sumerian god
of the moon)
Ninisinna – Sumerian patron goddess of the city
Isin (sounds like ‘nini?’ ‘sina’ which
mean ‘what?’ ‘I don’t have’ in Kiswahili)
Utu – Sumerian god of the sun, justice, morality, and truth (sounds like the suffix of the word ‘mutu’ which means ‘person’ in Kiswahili and most Bantu languages)
Bunene – chariot driver of the sun-god Šamaš (means ‘bigness’ in Luganda)
Kakka - attendant and minister of state to both the gods Anu and Anshar (‘Kaka’ means ‘brother’ in Kiswahili)
References:
“List of Mesopotamian
Deities.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Apr. 2021,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mesopotamian_deities.
Mark, Joshua J. “Sumer.” World
History Encyclopedia, World History Encyclopedia, 6 June 2021,
www.worldhistory.org/sumer/.
