Africa and writing

Abstract

Africa is everywhere inscribed. From rocks to masks, sculptures, pyramids, and manuscripts one needs but a stubborn and narrow-minded commitment to alphabetic writing to deny that the continent has left graphic marks of its history everywhere. Graphic representation is indeed present, but is it writing? One of the best books on the topic, written from an Asian angle, Visible Speech , subtitled “The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems,” by John De Francis, will be my guide on what can be called the “African chapter in the history of writing” (see Figure 9.1). Speech communities always generate material means to keep and retrieve information – this is not always writing. I will then reflect on graphic representation of sounds and the competition generated between several systems of graphic representation, before considering the contribution of a new kind of artist, the alphabet inventor, who belongs to the history of art, and not to the history of literature. De Francis makes two useful distinctions that have a practical bearing on the analysis of writing in Africa. He divides students of graphic systems into two camps, the inclusivists and exclusivists, using as a discriminating criterion their definition of writing: Partial writing is a system of graphic symbols that can be used to convey only some thought. Full writing is a system of graphic symbols that can be used to convey any and all thought. Inclusivists believe that both partial and full writing should be called writing; exclusivists believe that only full writing deserve this label. (De Francis 1989:5)