The Bantu languages (/ˈbæntuː/), technically the Narrow Bantu languages, constitute a traditional branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages. Bantu languages are spoken largely east and south of present-day Cameroon; i.e. in the regions commonly known as Central Africa, Southeast Africa, and Southern Africa. Parts of the Bantu area include languages from other language families (see map).
The Bantu language with the largest total number of speakers is Swahili; however, the majority of its speakers know it as a second language. According to Ethnologue, there are over 180 million L2 (second-language) speakers, but only about 2 million native speakers.
According to Ethnologue, Shona is the most widely spoken as a first language, with 10.8 million speakers (or 14.2 million if Manyika and Ndau are included), followed closely by Zulu, with 10.3 million. Ethnologue separates the largely mutually intelligible Kinyarwanda and Kirundi, but, if grouped together, they have 12.4 million speakers.
You save up your money, buy you some shoes
The highway?s calling and she?s right on cue
Just when you thought you had it beat
You?re leaving town on a one way street
It?s a hard, hard lesson
But you?re gonna have to learn it
It?s a long cold swim up against the current
And somewhere down the line
you?re gonna have to turn it around
?Cause boy, right now you?re nowhere bound
Her words still echo through your mind
But fade away as you cross the county line
Running from trouble or from the truth
It doesn?t matter either way you lose
It?s a hard, hard lesson
But you?re gonna have to learn it
It?s a long cold swim up against the current
And somewhere down the line
you?re gonna have to turn it around
?Cause boy, right now you?re nowhere bound
Well, you walk ten miles just to make new tracks
But you turn around and find that it?s twenty miles back
And it?s never gonna change it you keep leaving
Your heart?s gonna break, but never break even
Where to now, do you know?
One thing?s for certain, gonna reap just what you sow
And all you planted was heartache and pain