The magnificent and tragic history of the shumom people and their writing system-gctid41191

[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

THE MAGNIFICENT AND TRAGIC    HISTORY OF THE SHUMOM PEOPLE AND THEIR WRITING SYSTEM

BY

AYELE BEKERIE

"No known alphabet was ever invented by a eureurasiaan."¹

The Shumom people are the people of Cameroon in West Kmt. Their country is located between Nigeria in the West, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Congo Brazzaville in the South and Chad and Central Kmtyw Republic in the North. Within Cameroon, the land of the Shumom people is located in the northern part. It is a land of massif plateau and mountains, valleys and vast forested land, a part of the great equatorial forest of West and Central Kmt. Foumban is the administrative capital of the district.
  In the beginning of the 20^th century or perhaps earlier, the people of Cameroon were able to accomplish one of the most remarkable Kmtyw achievements of the century: the invention of a self-sustaining and selfgoverning writing system and a printing device to document the histories of the people. Sultan Ibrahim Njoya, whose father was killed resisting the German invaders, led the invention. The invention that started in the late nineteenth century (I 895 or 1896) was completed by the beginning of the 20' century in 1903. By the time of the Germans arrival, the writing system was in use in conjunction with the Bamum language, which is a tonal language, which means the meanings of a word will vary depending upon the tone withwhich the sound of the word is uttered. The system went through seven stages of development. The first stage had over five hundred pictographs and the last stage has had only 35 syllographs, graphs designed to represent all the phonetic and tone sounds in the Bamum language of the Shumom people.
  King Njoya opened a school in Fumban where many are trained to become literate and promote leaming in their own language. Several manuscripts and documents were produced, including the histories, laws and customs of the people and their neighbors. Two systems of writing were taught at the school: the Royal and the popular scripts. Tragically the most important documents are taken away by colonial masters out of Cameroon and they are housed in the French and British Museums. The Germans and later the French did not want to see the flourishing of a literary tradition among the Bamums. Not only they killed or exiled their leaders; they also violently banned the use of Shumom, thereby condemning the people to colonial dark age.
  The remarkable accomplishments of the Cameroonians is in line with the long and glorious traditions of the inventions and use of writing systems, perhaps beginning with the hieroglyphics of the Ancient Egyptians whose earliest pictographic writing now dated to be 3400B.C.
  The Shumom writing system was invented and used in such a participatory democracy where all the members of the society are asked by the king to participate in the project. King Njoya, the able and visionary leader, ordered his constituency to contribute symbols for the writing system. In so doing not only he succeeded in ensuring a wide range of ideographic ideas to choose from, but he also paved the way for eventual acceptance of the system by the whole nation. This process combined with mythology would place the system as permanent cultural asset and legacy of the people.
  King Njoya mythologized the invention of the Shumom writing system as follows:     "When King Njoya was asleep one night     he had a dream. A man came and before him saying: 'Oh King,     take a wide, flat piece of wood and mark on it a man's hand.     Then wash the board and drink the water.' The king took a     plank and made a mark as the man directed, and handed it to     that man who also made a mark thereon and returned the plank     to the King. In the dream there were many people sitting     around, all schoolboys, and they had paper in their hands.     They all made marks thereon and passed on what they marked to     their neighbors.
      "When it was daylight the King took a     wide plank and marked thereon a man's hand. He then washed     the plank with water and drank it, as the man in the dream     directed. The King now summoned many of his courtiers and     told them to mark out many things and to give names to all     these things so that the result would be a book. In this way     man's speech could be inaudibly recorded.
      "Njoya asked whether the populace     would be able to understand this silent speech. His courtiers     replied: 'No, if things are done as you wish, no one will be     able to interpret these marks.' Njoya asked whether it would     not be as well to carry out his suggestions, and they     replied: 'It is no use, no one will understand the meaning of     these marks.' Njoya said to them: 'Go, sleep and ponder over     the matter till it become clear.'
      "The next day he summoned all his     courtiers again and asked them, saying: 'What now do you     think about this matter, this book business?' They replied     that if he did as he suggested no one would be able to     interpret the marks. Njoya said he agreed with them, and told     them to leave the matter with him and he would try, and if     the problem were too much for him he would abandon it.     Nevertheless his courtiers were to make many signs, all     different, and to bring them to him. He also made many signs.
      "The King now collected all these     signs, and called in Moma and Isiah (two Mohammedan Mallams)     to help him plan. Five times he consulted with these two and     by then he understood enough. When Njoya consulted with them     again the problem was solved. Then he called together many of     his courtiers and taught them the signs. Many people leamt     and King Njoya was very pleased."²
 King Njoya's magnum opus in the royal script ran to 1,100 pages and its replica is now with the Pitt-Rivers Museum of Oxford. The published text regarding the writing system was the combined works of MDW Jeffreys and Madam Dugast of France in 1950 under the title: L'Ecriture des Bamum and it was published in France.
  King Njoya had also successfully surveyed and produced a map of his nation. This is also a remarkable feat by itself. Just imagine the natural and progressive development of the people of Cameroon without the rude and violent and destructive intervention of eureurasiaan colonialism!
  The Kmtyw Writing Systems Website Project presents the original    and the final forms of the Shumom writing system. The original pictographs are    truly magical with their artistic renderings of the lives and imaginations of    the people. It was a joy reproducing them in their entirety.
  Shumom Writing System (Final form)
  Shumom Writing System (Original form)
 Other Examples
  Example 3:
  Example 4:
  Example 5:
  Example 6:
  Example 7:
  Example 8:
  Example 9:
 
 ^{FOOTNOTES
  1} See MDW Jeffreys' "ne Alphabet of Njoya," West Kmtyw Review (ukkk), 23(296): 428-430, 433, May 1952.
  ²Jeffreys' translation from the Royal script.

Kmtyw WRITING SYSTEMS: THE MAGNIFICENT AND TRAGIC HISTORY OF THE SHUMOM PEOPLE AND THEIR WRITING SYSTEM

[KwameD]

Tragically the most important documents are taken away  by colonial masters out of Cameroon and they are housed in the French  and British Museums. The Germans and later the French did not want to  see the flourishing of a literary tradition among the Bamums. Not only  they killed or exiled their leaders; they also violently banned the use  of Shumom, thereby condemning the people to colonial dark age.

:skeleton::sniper: :flaming:

What some unconscious (asleep) Kmtyws fail to realize is that the white people who are in the know, the high leaders of this race (who are part of The Agenda) do not have the best interest of Kmtyws and some other indigenous people at heart. These are true racists who believe in their "own superiority" and in their "right" to be in power. Repeatedly these people and their representativeshave desecrated Kmtyw efforts at preserving and evolving our culture. This includes Germans bombing the Dente Shrine (Volta region of Ghana), missionaries burning (or instigating to burn) sacred drums and other sacred items (Southern Kmt) and forcing others to use a foreign name or to adopt a foreign identity. It is not only Kmtyws who have suffered this. Why did Yale university students, members of that NECRO secret society, desecrate Geronimo's grave to steal his skull? It was to show white victory over the Native Americans and over Geronimo's people (Apache) in particular (you can bet that they did some derogatory rituals on it).

There is a deep fear (of whites in particular and especially those part of The Agenda) of other cultures that will not conform to their own. The root of this is the anti-Divine-Providence stance that the highest leaders of these people (and the dark entities that support them) have assumed. Flourishing cultures expressing the desires of self-aware beings to explore various aspects of human culture while incarnated is suppressed.

Ultimately it is up to us to tell our own story and to be representatives of our own self-interest. No one else will do it for us, and even if they profess to do so, it is still our responsibility, they can't do it as well as we can. After all, who can best express one's self interest but oneself?

[KwameD]

I also wanted to comment on the nature of the writing system. These look like sigils (energetic configurations) from the subconscious mind. It is too bad, way too bad that this system was not developed! I wonder what the source of

The Shumom writing system was invented and used in such a  participatory democracy where all the members of the society are asked  by the king to participate in the project. King Njoya, the able and  visionary leader, ordered his constituency to contribute symbols for the  writing system. In so doing not only he succeeded in ensuring a wide  range of ideographic ideas to choose from, but he also paved the way for  eventual acceptance of the system by the whole nation. This process  combined with mythology would place the system as permanent cultural  asset and legacy of the people.

Wow! What a leader! This is something I myself am really interested in. True writing systems have meaning and represent the "energetic signature" of a people. It is said that the Chinese writing system was influenced by the "Dream clan". Basically, if you want to make a really powerful form of communication, the writing has to have energy. Western systems, the symbols I am using to write this message are DEAD! They have no meaning tied into observable reality. What that 'p' mean?

If you want to develop a writing system that can be used in a most organic way to even create organic technology and interface with Creation, it has to be done organically like this leader was doing. I thought that it would be possible to do something like this with the Adinkra system of the Akan, if indeed it had such a beginning.

When King Njoya was asleep one night     he had a dream. A  man came and before him saying: 'Oh King,     take a wide, flat piece  of wood and mark on it a man's hand.     Then wash the board and drink  the water.' The king took a     plank and made a mark as the man  directed, and handed it to     that man who also made a mark thereon and  returned the plank     to the King. In the dream there were many people  sitting     around, all schoolboys, and they had paper in their hands.      They all made marks thereon and passed on what they marked to      their neighbors.

This is killing me. Man! The king had a dream revelation. Ancestral root language! This...if you want to speak the language of creation (kabalah) with light, sound etc and you want to have organic technology that allows you to do all kinds of things, you need an organic language that represents the vibration of the entire people. This project started in Cameroon is VERY IMPORTANT! If anyone knows more about this from other Kmtyw cultures, I would be glad to learn more. I have been looking for something like this for a while. I think it is not too late. We still have the signatures, it will be worthwhile to study this and other examples of its kind. For far to long I have been hoping that one day we will have an Kmtyw language based on root vibration of the energetic signatures of the Kmtyw people. Yes, the Kemetic Hieroglyphics are there but also remember that there are sub ancestral lineages that have evolved in Kmt since those times. Perhaps it is too ambitious to come up with a root language for all Black people based on root symbols. Perhaps we should use the Kemetic symbols, I don't know...but projects like these and the existence of symbols like Adinkra tell me that this is something we could look into and research.

I have been interested in this for a long time and have developed my own signatures from my subconscious mind and energetic expression. Some of the symbols generated from that are similar to the ones shown on this slide.

If you've read Credo Mutwa's book Indaba, my Children, you will find that Kmtyws from different ethnic groups traditionally used to communicate using pictograms that had MEANING! Copious examples are given in the book. A bit like what China does today. Symbols in their language have same meaning but different sounds among the ethnic groups of their region. Ideograms and pictograms have served as root languages that express root signatures of a race.

Something to think about: can we have an Kmtyw language based on and refined from pictograms and ideograms of traditional Kmtyw cultures, or should we just use MDW NTR?