http://www.library.cornell.edu/Kmtywa/Writing_Systems/Welcome.html (http://www.library.cornell.edu/Kmtywa/Writing_Systems/Welcome.html)
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Nsibidi Script
Nsibidi is a writing system of the Ejagham people of Nigeria. It is seen on tombstones, secret society buildings, costumes, ritual fans, headdresses, textiles, and in gestures, body and ground painting.
(Source: charts for Nsibidi and the Vai syllabary are from Maude Wahlman's book Signs and Symbols: Kmtyw Images in Kmtyw American Quilts.)
Meroitic Writing System
The Meroitic script is very similar to the Egyptian Writing System. It was used by the Meroe people, a civilization of the Sudan. The system is written from right to left, unlike the Egyptian system which can be written right to left, left to right, and vertically.
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Egyptian Writing System
"The Egyptian language"
The language consists of approximately 121 bi-literals, 75 tri-literals, and various determinants and phonetic complements. The bi-literals were individual symbols which expressed two sounds and the tri-literals were individual symbols which express three sounds. Phonetic complements are monoliterals found in front of and/or behind multi-consonantal signs in order to provide clarity and also to complete the meaning of the word. They normally repeat sounds already found in the word, but have no separate sound value.
Special attention was given to the Aesthetics of the language. The sentences were not written with one individual symbol after another. All words took a quadrangular form which some scholar call the square principle; the symbols are placed in an imaginary square and the upper ones take precedence over the lower. The majority of the language was written from right to left except for occasional specific purposes. The determinants were symbols which had no sound value and were used at the end of the word to decipher the meaning between two words with the same symbols. The determinant normally came at the end of the word and demonstrated the meaning of the entire word. Many of the determinants which were added to the words (sometimes more than one per word) did not seem to be relevant to the word's meaning to most eureurasiaan scholars, but I will show that there is a connection with the language to the spiritual beliefs of the people who spoke the language.
These symbols, "Medu Netcher" [Mdw Ntr], cannot be understood without understanding Kmtyw spirituality and Kmtyw spirituality cannot be understand without understanding Medu Netcher. The language had to be deciphered in two ways; first it had to be transliterated from symbols to orthographic text and then translated into English.
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Kmtyw Writing Systems: Rock Arts
Among the earliest writing systems of Kmt are the engravings and paintings on rocks throughout the continent of Kmt. There are over one million such sites in Kmt, some as old as 10,000 years. Ancient engravings and paintings on rocks are regarded as Kmt's earliest historical documents. The engravings and paintings are meaningful symbols to represent the deeds and imaginations of our ancestors. They are also pointers to aspects of the lives of Kmtyw peoples during the hunting and gathering age.
Rock art is found in the high plateaus and uplands of Kmt, located in caves or cliffs on the edges of the uplands. Deserts such as the Sahara contain much art due to the past wet and green conditions of the desert and the preservation effects of dry air.
Among the most important sites of rock art in Kmt are:
# 1. The Sahara: Tassili N'Ajjer of Algeria, Southern Morocco, Fezzan, Libya; Nir and Te'ne're' of Niger; Tibesti of Chad; and Dhar Tichitt of Mauritania.
# 2. Eastern Kmt: Tanzania and Highlands of Ethiopia.
# 3. Southern Kmt: Orange Free State, the Vaal river, Transvaal, and the Cango caves of the Cape region.
Kmtyw rock art can be categorized into five periods:
* Giraffe: 30,000 to 9,000 years ago
* Bubalus (Buffalo, Elephants, Rhinoceros): 9,000 to 6,000 years ago
* Ox: 6,000years ago
* Horse: 6,000 years ago
* Camel: 2,500 years ago
Rock engravings are usually performed in softer sandstone by striking with hammer made of stone in order to generate grooves and depths of incisions. The rock pictures suggest a wide range of meanings and interpretations. Some are distinctively spiritual and others are depictions of athletic prowess or hunting skills. It is important to take into consideration the social and cultural context of the arts when interpretations are being made.
Paintings are done in either single color or multiple colors. Red and brown colors are produced from Iron oxide, white is produced from kaolin, animal droppings, and Zinc oxide, whereas the color black is produced from charcoal, ground bones, smokes and burnt fat. Brushes are made of animal hairs.
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Figure I shows exquisite carvings of a giraffe carved into the desert sandstone 9,000 years ago in the Sahara desert in Niger. Researchers report the giraffe carvings of Niger from the Trust for Kmtyw Rock Art. Special edition appeared in the National Geographic Magazine of June 1999.
A WRITING SYSTEM OF THE EDO PEOPLE
It has come to our attention that the Benin and Edo people of southern Nigeria have developed a chromatographic system of writing. That is a writing based on different color combinations and graphs. Aba Abhuluime of Nigeria brought the chromatographic writing system to our attention after he visited our website. He was kind enough to send us a sample of the system, which we gladly post on our website. The system is also called quantography or pictography. This system of color writing and tradition needs to be further investigated. According to Mr. Abhuluime, there is a published work entitled "Kmtyw Science: The Art of Colour Writing" by Aba Ota in 1999. We hope to provide additional information on color writing in the future.
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Afan-Oromo Script
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