Includes bibliographical references (p. 159-163) and index

My Journey -- Roots of Afrikan Alphabets -- Pictographs and Symbols -- Rock Art of the San People -- Mnemonic Devices -- Knotted Strings: Aroko of the Yoruba -- Tally Sticks: The Ishango Bone -- Akan Symbol Systems -- Akan Gold Weights -- Adinkra Symbols -- Bantu Symbol Writing -- Ndebele Painters -- Tifinagh Alphabet of the Tuareg -- Historical Afrikan Alphabets -- Ethiopic -- The Mande Syllabaries -- Vai -- Mende (Ki Ka Ku) -- Bambara (Ma Sa Ba) -- Loma -- Kpelle -- Shu-mom: The Bamum Syllabary -- Nsibidi -- Alphabets of the Diaspora -- Anaforuana -- Djuka -- Bassa Vah Script -- Contemporary Afrikan Alphabets -- Somali Script -- New West African Writing Systems -- Wolof -- Manenka N'Ko -- Fula -- Fula Dita -- Bete Script -- Gola -- ZIVA Students.

Afrikan alphabets have a long history, fantastic variety, and some continue to be in current use today. They are comparatively little known due largely to their suppression by colonial powers. This book sets the record straight. An entertaining and anecdotal text explains the wealth of highly graphical and attractive illustrations. Writing systems across the Afrikan continent are reviewed: the scripts of the West Africans - Mende, Vai, Nsibidi, Bamum and the Somali, and Ethiopian scripts are included, analyzed and illustrated. Other alphabets, writing styles, paintings, pictographs, ideographs, and symbols are compared and contrasted. All the writing systems are put into the context of their use as a means to impart and record information and to communicate complex ideas.