Although academics and scholars only began the process of creating African alphabets in the 20th Century, some African languages have had alphabets for hundreds of years. The Ge’ez script in Ethiopia, for example, has existed in some form for 2,000 years. It’s still used today to write Amharic and Tigrinya (spoken in Ethiopia and Eritrea), and in religious ceremonies by Ethiopian Jews. Meanwhile, other scripts have been invented more recently; while some have been very successful, others haven’t. 

So, what scripts are there?

Ge’ez:

This is perhaps the most used script out of all the ones that will be discussed. It has been used for writing Amharic in courts, during trade and in the military since the 12th Century. Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia, is spoken by approximately 25 million people there. The script is syllabary, meaning that each letter is a syllable (either a vowel or a consonant-vowel combination) similar to Korean script. The script originated from Ancient South Arabian script. It was first seen in Ethiopia in the 9th Century BCE. Interestingly, Ge’ez numbers are similar to Greek. Possibly entering the language through the Coptic language of Egypt. 

Mandombe:

Mandombe script was created in the 1970s in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by a member of the Kimbanguist Church. A religious church in central Africa. The alphabet is syllabary, like Ge’ez script, and is based around the sacred symbols of  5  and 2 . The Kimbanguist Church is Mandombe’s main supporter. It is used to write Lingala, Kikongo, Swahili and Tshiluba . The national languages of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by those taught by Kimbanguist schools in central Africa. 

N’Ko:

Created in 1949, this script is used to write down Manding languages.  They are a group of languages in West Africa, particularly Mali and Guinea. N’Ko has some similarities to Arabic. It is written from right to left, and the letters connect at the base. Currently, this script is used and taught in Guinea, Ivory Coast, and Mali. Various publications has translated into N’Ko, such as the Qur’an. 

Vai:

Invented in the 1830s, this writing system was created to write down the Vai language of central Liberia. This writing script uses Arabic numerals and was originally a logographic language, like Mandarin or Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs. Meaning that symbols represented specific things. Now, it is a syllabary language, although 2 symbols are still in use today. Some also argue that the inspiration for the Vai script came from the Cherokee script.  A Native American language spoken in the USA and Canada. As many US migrants of Cherokee origin emigrated to coastal Liberia.