THE POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL,

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES,

FACULTY OF ARTS

UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN

A TERM PAPER SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE COURSE

HIS 803: TRENDS IN WEST AFRICAN HISTORIOGRAPHY

TOPIC

INDIGENOUS WRITTEN CULTURE

BY

TAOFEEK AYINDE OGUNDIWIN

MATRIC NO 12/15CA135

ADEDIRAN NAFIU ADEDOLAPO

MATRIC NO 13/68DA006

LECTURER- IN- CHARGE.

PROF. S. O. AGHALINO.

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INTRODUCTION

Indigenous peoples, also known as first peoples, aboriginal peoples or native peoples, are ethnic
groups who are the original inhabitants of a given region, in contrast to groups that have settled,
occupied or colonized the area more recently. Groups are usually described as indigenous when
they maintain traditions or other aspects of an early culture that is associated with a given region.
Not all indigenous peoples share this characteristic, sometimes having adopted substantial
elements of a colonising culture, such as dress, religion or language. Indigenous peoples may be
settled in a given region (sedentary) or exhibit a nomadic lifestyle across a large territory, but
they are generally historically associated with a specific territory on which they depend.
Indigenous societies are found in every inhabited climate zone and continent of the world.

The adjective indigenous was historically used to describe animals and plant origins. During the
late twentieth century, the term Indigenous people began to be used to describe a legal category
in indigenous law created in international and national legislations; it refers to culturally distinct
groups affected by colonization. It is derived from the Latin word indigena, which is based on
the root gen- 'to be born' with an archaic form of the prefix in 'in'. Any given people, ethnic
group or community may be described as indigenous in reference to some particular region or
location that they see as their traditional tribal land claim.

The use of the term peoples in association with the indigenous is derived from the 19th century
anthropological and ethnographic disciplines that Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines as "a
body of persons that are united by a common culture, tradition, or sense of kinship, which
typically have common language, institutions, and beliefs, and often constitute a politically
organized group".

Also, according to James Anaya, former Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
has defined indigenous peoples as "living descendants of pre-invasion inhabitants of lands now
dominated by others. They are culturally distinct groups that find themselves engulfed by other
settler societies born of forces of empire and conquest".

In the post-colonial period, the concept of specific indigenous peoples within the African
continent has gained wider acceptance, although not without controversy. The highly diverse and
numerous ethnic groups that comprise most modern, independent African states contain within

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them various peoples whose situation, cultures and pastoralist or hunter-gatherer lifestyles are
generally marginalized and set apart from the dominant political and economic structures of the
nation. Since the late 20th century these peoples have increasingly sought recognition of their
rights as distinct indigenous peoples, in both national and international contexts.

Many civilizations and Empires developed over the millennia in Africa. Empires like the great
Ghana and Mali Empires in the Senegambia areas of West Africa. The Songhai Empire, The
Asante, The Kanem- Bornu in the Lake Chad region, The Sokoto Caliphate in present Northern
Nigeria, The Old Oyo Empire in the South West of Nigeria and most of the neighbouring states
of Benin and Togo, and not forgetting the great Benin Empire in the Niger-Delta region of
Nigeria.

These civilizations and Empires had their unique written cultures embedded in oral history and
unique art works that told numerous tales of valour, gallantry, conquest, trade, commerce, daily
living, culture and traditions. As with the countries of Europe and Asia who had a long history of
written culture, tradition and art, so with the people of Africa. Traditional African societies as in
the aforementioned great empires had long practiced their own versions of history. Lacking the
convenience of written culture and documentation like the Europeans and Asians, they developed
a superb oral and art historical culture where they stored up their rich history, culture and
tradition to satisfy the need of the average mankind who had the need to know whom they were
and from whence they came from.

African Literature, oral and written literature produced on the African continent. Africa has a
long literary tradition, although very little of this literature was written down until the 20th
century. In the absence of widespread literacy, African literature was primarily oral and passed
from one generation to the next through memorization and recitation. Most of Africa’s written
literature is in European languages, owing to European colonization of the continent from the
16th century to the mid-20th century. During that period European languages supplanted African
languages in government, education, business, and, to a great extent, in daily communication. By
far the most widely used European language in African literature is English, followed by French
and Portuguese, respectively. Works written in African languages and traditional oral texts went
virtually unacknowledged until the late 20th century, but today they are receiving increased
recognition. Many scholars prefer to speak of African literatures in the sense that, they look at it
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from a collective perspective due to the multi-ethnic, cultural and linguistic differences inherent
in Africa, rather than the study of a single ethnic literature. This is to emphasize the many
different literary traditions the term encompasses.

Modern African literatures have been influenced to a remarkable degree by the continent’s long
tradition of oral artistry. Before the spread of literacy in the 20th century, texts were preserved in
memory and performed or recited. These traditional texts served many of the same purposes that
written texts serve in literate societies—entertainment, instruction, and commemoration, for
example. However, no distinctions were made between works composed for enjoyment and
works that had a more utilitarian function. Africa’s oral literature takes the form of prose, verse,
and proverb, and texts vary in length from the epic, which might be performed over the course of
several days, to single-sentence formulations such as the proverb. The collective body of oral
texts is variously described as folklore, verbal art, oral literature, or (more recently) orator.

Foremost among prose forms in African literature is the myth. Like myths everywhere, African
myths typically explain the creation of the universe, the activities of the gods at the beginning of
creation, the essence of all creatures, and the nature of their interrelationships. Next in
importance is the legend, intended to enhance a listener’s understanding of the constitution of the
universe. Legends, which deal with events that occurred after the era of the gods, describe such
heroic human feats as establishing dynasties or single-handedly preventing disaster. The African
legend has much in common with the epic, in that both focus on heroism. However, unlike epics,
legends are less elaborate and are not performed on special occasions or in formal settings.
Instead, these prose works are shared in the context of everyday life.

The folktale, another prose form, is usually told for night time entertainment. Folktales feature
human beings and animals, either separately or together. They are often employed for social
commentary and instruction and also serve as a potent means of affirming group values and
discouraging antisocial behavior. A popular type is the trickster tale, which features a small but
wily animal that employs its cunning to protect itself against much larger and more powerful
animals. Examples of animal tricksters are Anansi, a spider in the folklore of the Ashanti people
of Ghana; Àjàpá, a tortoise in Yoruba folklore of Nigeria; and Sungura, a hare found in central
and East African folklore

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When the integrity of a text is important, it is cast in verse. Certain myths, for example, must be
recited exactly as part of the sacred cult of a divinity or chanted in the process of divination
(foretelling future events or interpreting omens). Texts in verse form are more easily committed
to memory and recalled. Various devices to aid recall are embedded in the text, as in the Yoruba
panegyrics [Oriki] performed in praise of Kings [Oba] and Chiefs [Ijoye].

Finally, several African cultures possess a rich repertoire of epigrams, including proverbs and
riddles. In many African societies effective speech and social success depend on a good
command of proverbs. These treasured sayings convey the demonstrated wisdom of the ages and
therefore serve as a reliable authority in arguments or discussion. Closely related to proverbs are
riddles—both are based on principles of analogy that require the listener to decipher the intended
meaning. American linguist Amiri Farakhan, Swahili Proverbs (1981) offers examples of
proverbs from East Africa.

Despite the major transformations that have taken place in Africa in the past few centuries, a
large number of people remain in close contact with traditional cultures and institutions. Oral
traditions continue to play important roles in their lives. For the westernized elite, oral traditions
are useful resources for placing an authentic African stamp on writings and they can aid in
reconstructions of traditional life.

AFRICAN WRITTEN LITERATURE

Talking about the history of Ancient Africa and its civilizations, writing systems is not the term
that generally comes to mind. Oral tradition and storytelling would be the first thing that comes
into being when thinking of traditional history and Africa. Research has shown however, that this
is not the case.
The purpose of writing has always been to communicate ideas, and humans have been doing so
for at least 100,000 years in the form of engravings, such as those uncovered at the Blombos
Cave in South Africa. Such engravings would later evolve into so-called proto-writing or
identifiable symbols that were used to conveyed information but are not known to be part of
language. University of Bordeaux researchers in Diepkloof, South Africa have found 60,000-
year-old ostrich eggshells with symbolic patterns that are believed to communicate the names of
local communities. The Wonderwerk cave paintings (c. 25,000 BC) in northern South Africa

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feature hundreds of unique symbols and patterns alongside images of people and wildlife. This
uncovers an important link in the development of writing by modern humans.

Ancient Egyptians are largely considered to be the premier African civilization, spanning from
roughly 3000 B.C.-300 B.C. a period of almost 2700 years. At its height, Egypt's boundaries
stretched from Syria in the north, Libya in the west, the Dead Sea to the east, and down to the
kingdom of Kush in the south. As is also commonly known, the Egyptians were also primarily
known as the civilization that created one of the most renowned writing systems in the known
world. What the Egyptians were able to create through language is still largely regarded as one of
the earliest of written languages, behind cuneiform, and it is still possible it is indeed the earliest.
Egypt was a vast empire, which spanned many miles and survived for thousands of years. They
developed one of the most well known writing systems that of hieroglyphs along with some of
the lesser known Demotic, or cursive script.
The Egyptians had writings; written by sages for the purpose of instruction, either to family
members, or to others in the form of schooling. There were clear and definite examples that
prove the Egyptians had an intricate and very well established writing system long before anyone
else, with the possible exception of cuneiform being earlier. The Egyptian's well developed
writing system was clearly not influenced by anything else, or was due to some outside
influence.
It is evident that ancient Africa has the world's oldest and largest collection of ancient writing
systems, and is home to the world's first identifiable proto-writing. Evidence of such dates to pre-
historic time and can be found in various regions of the continent. However, Africa's oldest
known writing system is over 6,000 years old. By contrast, continental Europe's oldest writing,
Greek, was not fully in use until c. 1400 BC (a clay tablet found in Iklaina, Greece) and is largely
derived from an older African script called Proto-Sinaitic. The oldest Asian writing, Proto-
Cuneiform, dates to around 3000 BC (clay texts found at Jemdet Nasr).

Perhaps the world's oldest known form of writing are inscriptions of what some archaeologists
and linguists have termed, "Proto Saharan" near the Kharga oasis west of so-called "Nubia" that
date to at least 5000 BC. The writings under the image that looks like the Nilotic god Seth show
similarities to later writing systems such as Tifinagh and Vai.
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An example of Nsibidi characters, Nsibidi is an ancient script used to communicate in various
languages in West Central Africa. Most notably used by the Uguakima and Ejagham (Ekoi)
people of Nigeria and Cameroon, Nsibidi is also used by the nearby Ebe, Efik, Ibibio, Igbo, and
Uyanga people. The script is believed to date back to 5000 BC, but the oldest archaeological
evidence ever found dates it to 2000 BC (monoliths in Ikom, Nigeria). Similar to the Kemetic
Medu Neter, Nsibidi is a system of standardized pictographs. In fact, both Nsibidi and Medu
Neter share several of the exact same characters.

Literatures in African languages have received little scholarly attention, in part because of a
Western bias in favor of literature in European languages. Another barrier is that few scholars of
African culture know any African languages, and few Africans know an African language other
than their own. The best-known literatures in African languages include those in Yoruba and
Hausa in West Africa; Sotho, Xhosa, and Zulu in southern Africa; and Amharic, Somali, and
Swahili in East Africa.

In West Africa, Yoruba writing emerged after Bishop Ajayi Crowther, a former slave, developed
a script for the language and in 1900 published the first Yoruba translation of the Bible. Isaac
Babalola Thomas published the first work of fiction in Yoruba, Sègilolá eléyinjú egé (Segilola of
the Seductive Eyes, 1929). It appeared in serial form in Akéde Èkó, a newspaper in Lagos,
Nigeria, and warns of the woes in store for women who live a life of prostitution. The most
important Yoruba writer, Daniel Olorunfemi Fagunwa, used his writings to commend Christian
virtues to the public. His first work is also the first full-length novel published in Yoruba: Ògbójú
ode nínú igbó irúnmalè (1938) was translated by Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka as The
Forest of a Thousand Demons: A Hunter’s Saga (1968). It tells of the exploits of Akara-Ogun, a
fearless hunter in a forest infested with a myriad of unnatural creatures, and draws extensively on
Yoruba folklore. Writing emerged in the Hausa language earlier than in the Yoruba language,
with such works as Wakar Muhammadu (Song of Muhammad, 1845?), a portrait of the prophet
Muhammad by poet Asim Degel.

Amharic script: It is designed as a meaningful and graphic representation of knowledge.

Amharic script is a component of the African knowledge systems and one of the signal
contributions made by Africans to the world history and cultures. It is created to holistically
symbolize and locate the cultural and historical parameters of the Ethiopian people. The System,
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in its classic state, has a total of 182 syllographs, which are arranged in seven columns, each
column containing 26 syllographs. Through time many characters are added to give it the present
shape.
Mende script: The Mende Ki-ka-ku or KiKaKui syllabary, invented by Kisimi Kamara in Sierra
Leone in the early 20th century. This script was used by the Mende people of Sierra Leone. It is
not only considered a writing system, it is a work of art. And it is still used.

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.
Vai Syllabry: The Vai Syllabry is a writing system used by the Vai people of West Africa since
the 20th century. It is one of the many indigenous secret writing systems in Africa. The Vai
syllabary invented by Mɔmɔlu Duwalu Bukɛlɛ for the Vai language in what is now Liberia
during the early 19th century. It is still used today.

Meroitic Script: The Meroitic script is very similar to the Egyptian Writing System. It was used
by the Meroe people of the Sudan. The system is written from right to left, unlike the Egyptian
system which is written both from right to left, left to right, and vertically.
Shumom Writing System: The Shumom people are the people of Cameroon in West Africa.
Cameroonians use the Shumom writing systems, perhaps beginning with the hieroglyphics of the
Ancient Egyptians writing.
Bassa Script: Bassa is the most commonly spoken languages in Liberia which has its own
written script. Bassa script is phonemic rather than syllabic.
There are also other languages in Africa known to have their own written language. These scripts
include the Kpelle, Gola, Lorma, Grebo, and Kissi. Most of these scripts have diminished over
time, as a result of abandonment.
The Bamum Script: (Bamun; also Shumom) system of pictographic writing was invented
beginning in the late 19th century by Sultan Njoya Ibrahim for writing the Bamun language in
what is now Cameroon. It quickly developed into a syllabary. It is rarely used today, but a fair
amount of material written in this script still exists.

Other modern writing systems developed in West Africa include:

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The Adlam alphabet developed for writing the Fula language, mostly used in Guinea and
northern Nigeria.

The Akagu alphabet designed for the Igbo language, used to supplement modernized Nsibidi
characters

Bété syllabary of Ivory Coast

The Eghap script was used by the Bagam (Tuchscherer 1999, Rovenchak 2009) of Cameroon

Kpelle syllabary[17] of Liberia and Guinea

The N'Ko alphabet.

Loma syllabary of Liberia and Guinea

Mandombe script, invented by Wabeladio Payi in the Bas-Congo province of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo

N'Ko, invented in 1949 by Solomana Kante in Guinea, primarily for the Manding languages. It is
apparently in increasing use in West Africa, including some efforts to adapt it to other languages
(Wyrod 2008).

The Nwagu Aneke syllabary invented in the 1950s for the Igbo language of southeastern Nigeria

Zaghawa (Beria) of Darfur and Chad, created in 2000 from an earlier proposal made from
livestock brands.

In conclusion, there are various other writing systems native to West Africa and Central Africa.
In the last two centuries, a large variety of writing systems have been created in Africa (Dalby
1967, 1968, 1969). Some are still in use today, while others have been largely displaced by non-
African writing such as the Arabic script and the Latin script.

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End Notes & References

CISSE, Mamadou. 2006. Ecrits et écritures en Afrique de l'Ouest. Sudlangues n°6.

http://www.sudlangues.sn/spip.php?article101

Connor Murphy. An essay on the development of writing systems in Africa

Dalby, David. 1967. A survey of the indigenous scripts of Liberia and Sierra Leone: Vai, Mende,
Kpelle, and Bassa. African Language Studies 8:1-51.

Dalby, David. 1968. The indigenous scripts of West Africa and Surinam: their inspiration and
design. African Language Studies 9:156-197.

Dalby, David. 1969. Further indigenous scripts of West Africa: Manding, Wolof, and Fula
alphabets and Yoruba holy-writing. African Language Studies 10:161-191

Diringer, David (1953). The alphabet: a key to the history of mankind. Philosophical Library. pp.
148–149.

Elechi, O. Oko (2006). Doing justice without the state: the Afikpo (Ehugbo) Nigeria model.
CRC Press. p. 98. ISBN 0-415-97729-0.

Gregersen, Edgar A. (1977). Language in Africa: an introductory survey. CRC Press. p. 176.
ISBN 0-677-04380-5.

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Hayward and Hassan, "The Oromo Orthography of Shaykh Bakri Saṗalō", Bulletin of the School
of Oriental and African Studies, 44 (1981), p. 551

Hayward, Richard J. and Mohammed Hassan. 1981. The Oromo Orthography of Shaykh Bakri
Sapalo. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 44.3:550-556.

"Isibheqe Sohlamvu: An Indigenous Writing System for Southern Bantu Languages" (PDF).
linguistics.org.za. 2015-06-22. Retrieved 2015-08-28.

"IsiBheqe". isibheqe.org. 2015-08-23. Retrieved 2015-08-28.

Laitin (1977:86–87)

Mafundikwa, Saki. 2004. Afrikan alphabets: the story of writing in Afrika. West New York, NJ:
Mark Batty. ISBN 0-9724240-6-7

Million Meshesha, C. V. Jawahar. Indigenous Scripts of African Languages, Center for Visual
Information Technology, International Institute of Information Technology, Gachibowli,
Hyderabad - 500 019

"Mwangwego". Omniglot.com. 1997-04-07. Retrieved 2013-11-26.

Pasch, Helma. 2008. Competing scripts: the introduction of the Roman alphabet in Africa.
International Journal for the Sociology of Language 191:65-109.

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Savage, Andrew. 2008. Writing Tuareg — the three script options. International Journal of the
Sociology of Language 192: 5-14.

Slogar, Christopher (2005). Eyo, Ekpo, ed. Iconography and Continuity in West Africa: Calabar
Terracottas and the Arts of the Cross River Region of Nigeria/Cameroon (PDF). University of
Maryland. pp. 58–62.

Slogar, Christopher (Spring 2007). "Early ceramics from Calabar, Nigeria: Towards a history of
Nsibidi". African Arts. University of California. 40 (1): 18–29. doi:10.1162/afar.2007.40.1.18.

Tuchscherer, Konrad. 1999. The lost script of the Bagam. African Affairs 98:55-77.

Writing Systems of West Africa

Wyrod, Christopher. 2008. A social orthography of identity: the N’ko literacy movement in West
Africa. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 192:27-44.

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