Page 17 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 23
P. 17
History
him remember the writing
system in a dream. However,
evidence of its antiquity
comes from inscriptions from
Goundaka, Mali, that date to
3000 B.C.
script.
Tifinagh or ‘Lybico-Berber’
or ‘Mande’ (c. 3000 B.C.–
present)
Rock paintings dating as far
back as 3000 B.C. at Oued
Mertoutek in southern Algeria
show the earliest signs of Vai (3000 B.C.–present)
a “Lybico-Berber” or early
Tifinagh writing system. Vai is one of the world’s oldest
The Amajegh a-Mazigh alphabetic scripts in continuous
(Tuaregs), the Black people use, with more than 150,000
who mainly inhabit a vast users in present-day Liberia and
area of North and West Africa, Sierra Leone.
including present-day Mali, It’s a highly advanced syllabary
Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, writing system with more
southern Algeria and southern than 210 distinct characters ‘Meroitic’ or Napatan (800
Libya, still use the Tifinagh representing various consonants B.C. to 600 A.D.)
script and are the only known and vowel sounds used in the
group of Tamazight speakers Vai language (a descendant of The so-called “Meroitic” script
who have used it continuously ancient Mande). was developed sometime
since antiquity. around 800 B.C. in Napata,
a city-state of Nubia in what
The popular story told about Vai
However, the larger Tamazight- is that it’s a wholly unique script today is northern Sudan. The
speaking community of the invented circa 1830 by a West script remained in use after the
Sahara region has begun to African whose friends helped capital moved to Meroe until
adopt the Tifinagh script. the 7th century A.D. Thus, some
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