Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Picture History of the Vai Writing

Above we have a beautiful artifact engraved with Vai symbols.





Below is an ancient saharan inscription some archaeologist claim is 3000 years old. This inscription from Oued Mertoutek contains many symbols we find the Vai syllabary which provides a key to reading the thousands of inscriptions engraved on rocks throughout the Sahel, Sahara and West Africa. The Mande speakers before they adopted Islam worshipped the God Amma. This god Amma, was probably the Mande name for the god Aman/Amon/Amun of the Egyptians.





The Vai writing has been in continous use for thousands of years. The Vai Writing is one of the diverse writing systems used by Mande speaking people in West Africa.





The Vai script gives us an understanding of the phonemic values of the so-called Libyco-Berber symbols. The Libyco-Berber writing is nothing more than a varient form of the original Mande writing represented best by the Vai signs. The Mande in their migration from the Fezzan in Libya across the Sahara into West Africa have left us numerous inscriptions giving us tetimony to their literacy.



Today the Vai script is still being taught to a future generation of Mande speaking youth who will continue writing in this interesting script for hundreds of years to come.


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