Nabongo Mumia VII
Lister
As you all know, the continent of Africa came under complete control by Europeans at the end of the 19th century. Africa was the last major part of the world to be brought into the Western hegemony; and even though colonialism in our continent lasted for a relatively short while, it completely transformed it. The imposition of Western Civilization has led to the neglect of our indigenous cultures and ways of life though not entirely. We still maintained stuff like our cuisine and our dress to some extent, while having almost entirely given up our architecture and religious beliefs.
And not to forget our languages, there are still hundreds of African languages spoken within and outside the continent, and the colonial languages - French, English and Portuguese - are used alongside them as official languages. Since African countries are mostly just geographical entities carved up in Berlin that are home to a plethora of different ethnic groups, each with it's own language, most African countries make use of the languages of the colonisers as their common tongue. However, most of Africa's vernacular languages survive to this day and have more speakers than ever thanks to be population boom we are currently experiencing, and they will remain relevant going into the future due to one crucial feature and that is the Latin Alphabet.
See, before colonisation Africa was largely isolated from the rest of the world. The peoples that traded and interacted with Europeans and Asians were merely on the periphery of the wider world. This largely hampered transfer of technologies including writing. It's believed that writing independently developed at only four points in the world - Mesopotamia, the Nile Valley, China and Mesoamerica - and from these areas writing spread out to the rest of the world. The hieroglyphs used by the people of Kmt were the basis of the Meroitic script used by their southern neighbours Kush, the Hieratic and Demotic scripts that they used, the Coptic script used today by the Coptic Christians and the Proto-Sinatic script, arguably the most influential of all of the above
It would evolve into the scripts used by the Phonecians and the inhabitants of Canaan, and the South Arabian script (a variant of which would become the Ge'ez scrit that is still in use in Ethiopia and Eritrea). The Phoenician alphabet would be adapted and used by the Greeks, and another variant would be used to write the Aramaic language which was spoken in Canaan during the time of Christ. The Greek script developed into the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, and the Aramaic alphabet evolved into the Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac and Bhrami scripts. Without the Africans in the Nile Valley, most of the alphabets in use in the world today would not have come into existence.
There are a few other examples of writing sytems that are indigenous to the African continent. There is the Tifinagh alphabet from North Africa is used by speakers of Libyc languages, and may have too developed from the Phonecian alphabet. Tifinagh is under limited use currently for political reasons. The Ge'ez script is still used to write Ethiopic languages. Besides these, there were idographic systems that were in use, such as Nsibidi, Akindra and Lusona. No other truly indigenous sytems existed in Africa. This has led to the wide usage of the Latin script in Sub Saharan Africa and the Arabic one in North Africa
But does this have to be the case? Many African academics have said no, and set to work on creating their own alphabets to be used to write their languages. Some notable ones include N'Ko, made by Guinean Solomana Kante to write the Manding languages; Vai, made by Liberian Momolu Bukele to write the Vai language and Madombe, proposed by Mbanza Ngungu from the DRC which was made to write the Kikongo, Tshiluba, Swahili and Lingala languages. Even our own Kefa Ombewa made an alphabet to write his native Dholuo language, which I believe should be expanded to include other East African languages. Like seriously, it looks like something made by an Alien civilization (take a look here). I encourage you to read up on more that I haven't mentioned, and possibly teach yourself how to write one.
And not to forget our languages, there are still hundreds of African languages spoken within and outside the continent, and the colonial languages - French, English and Portuguese - are used alongside them as official languages. Since African countries are mostly just geographical entities carved up in Berlin that are home to a plethora of different ethnic groups, each with it's own language, most African countries make use of the languages of the colonisers as their common tongue. However, most of Africa's vernacular languages survive to this day and have more speakers than ever thanks to be population boom we are currently experiencing, and they will remain relevant going into the future due to one crucial feature and that is the Latin Alphabet.
See, before colonisation Africa was largely isolated from the rest of the world. The peoples that traded and interacted with Europeans and Asians were merely on the periphery of the wider world. This largely hampered transfer of technologies including writing. It's believed that writing independently developed at only four points in the world - Mesopotamia, the Nile Valley, China and Mesoamerica - and from these areas writing spread out to the rest of the world. The hieroglyphs used by the people of Kmt were the basis of the Meroitic script used by their southern neighbours Kush, the Hieratic and Demotic scripts that they used, the Coptic script used today by the Coptic Christians and the Proto-Sinatic script, arguably the most influential of all of the above
It would evolve into the scripts used by the Phonecians and the inhabitants of Canaan, and the South Arabian script (a variant of which would become the Ge'ez scrit that is still in use in Ethiopia and Eritrea). The Phoenician alphabet would be adapted and used by the Greeks, and another variant would be used to write the Aramaic language which was spoken in Canaan during the time of Christ. The Greek script developed into the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, and the Aramaic alphabet evolved into the Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac and Bhrami scripts. Without the Africans in the Nile Valley, most of the alphabets in use in the world today would not have come into existence.
There are a few other examples of writing sytems that are indigenous to the African continent. There is the Tifinagh alphabet from North Africa is used by speakers of Libyc languages, and may have too developed from the Phonecian alphabet. Tifinagh is under limited use currently for political reasons. The Ge'ez script is still used to write Ethiopic languages. Besides these, there were idographic systems that were in use, such as Nsibidi, Akindra and Lusona. No other truly indigenous sytems existed in Africa. This has led to the wide usage of the Latin script in Sub Saharan Africa and the Arabic one in North Africa
But does this have to be the case? Many African academics have said no, and set to work on creating their own alphabets to be used to write their languages. Some notable ones include N'Ko, made by Guinean Solomana Kante to write the Manding languages; Vai, made by Liberian Momolu Bukele to write the Vai language and Madombe, proposed by Mbanza Ngungu from the DRC which was made to write the Kikongo, Tshiluba, Swahili and Lingala languages. Even our own Kefa Ombewa made an alphabet to write his native Dholuo language, which I believe should be expanded to include other East African languages. Like seriously, it looks like something made by an Alien civilization (take a look here). I encourage you to read up on more that I haven't mentioned, and possibly teach yourself how to write one.
