Dandemutande

Afrikan alphabets have a long history and fantastic variety, and some continue to be in current use today. They are comparatively little known, due largely to their suppression by colonial powers. This book sets the record straight.

An entertaining and anecdotal text explains the wealth of highly graphical and attractive illustrations. Saki Mafundikwa explores writing systems across the Afrikan continent: among others, the scripts of the West Africans – Mende, Vai, Nsibidi, Bamum – and the Somali and Ethiopian scripts. Other alphabets, writing styles, paintings, pictographs, ideographs, and symbols are illustrated and compared. All the writing systems are put into the context of their use as a means to impart and record information and to communicate complex ideas.

Sample pages (1.3Mb Adobe Acrobat PDF file).

Author Saki Mafundikwa on Afrikan Alphabets.

Typographer John D. Berry on Afrikan Alphabets.

Contents:

• Preface (by Dr. Maurice Tadadjeu)
• Author's Introduction
• My Journey
• Roots of Afrikan Alphabets
• • Pictographs and Symbols
• • Rock Art of the San People
• • Mnemonic Devices
• • Knotted Strings: Aroko of the Yoruba
• • Tally Sticks: The Ishango Bone
• • Akan Symbol Systems
• • Akan Gold Weights
• • Adinkra Symbols
• • Bantu Symbol Writing
• • Ndebele Painters
• • Tifinagh Alphabet of the Tuareg
• Historical Afrikan Alphabets
• • Ethiopic
• • The Mande Syllabaries
• • Vai
• • Mende (Ki Ka Ku)
• • Bambara (Ma Sa Ba)
• • Loma
• • Kpelle
• • Shu-mom: The Bamum Syllabary
• • Nsibidi
• Alphabets of the Diaspora
• • Anaforuana
• • Djuka
• • Bassa Vah Script
• Contemporary Afrikan Alphabets
• • Somali Script
• • New West African Writing Systems
• • Wolof
• • Manenka N'Ko
• • Fula
• • Fula Dita
• • Bete Script
• • Gola
• • ZIVA Students
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgements
• Annotated Bibliography
• Glossary
• Index

Credits:

Saki Mafundikwa.