| Abstract: | A script may be defined as a system of interrelated visual symbols used to record and transmit ideas which can be verbally formulated. It can be written on various materials, e.g. the human skin, mud walls, stone, wood, metal, bark, sand floor, parchment, paper, with a variety of performance techniques, or it may be modelled from materials themselves, such as strings, leaves, feathers, bamboo, shells, and the like. With reference to the mode of communication, three forms of graphic records may be distinguished: pictograms or 'picture writing', ideograms or ideographs, and phonological scripts (syllabic, hieroglyphic, phonemic). The stereotype of Africa as the 'preliterate' continent is incorrect. Already in precolonial times a varied range of graphic systems existed. The author presents the results of his own investigations in Tanzania (e.g. Pangwa facial marks), Malawi (e.g. -Yao 'initiation images'), Gabon, Cameroon (e.g. the Bamum script), Angola and Zambia (e.g. the tusona/sona ideographic tradition) between 1962 and 1984. Bibliogr., sum. in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. |
AfricaBib 
Periodical article
Leiden University catalogue
WorldCat