Beautiful.
In the light of what may be described as the ubiquity of African writing systems, why has classical African thought not been seen as accessible as that of ancient Egypt, for example?
Why is it easy to point to books in classical Asian cultures, for example, books produced at the time of the existence of those cultures, but difficult, if not impossible to find the same for knowledge produced using African writing systems, apart from Egypt?
Was it the absence of a means of making the equivalent of parchment or paper? Animal hides could have been used, wall inscriptions, etc as in Egypt, could have been more evident.
One of the world's richest expressive systems and still very much in use in its traditional contexts is Nsibidi of Nigeria's Cross-River. Relative to the scope of content, variety of expressive strategies and geographical range of this system, however, literature on it is severely limited, the most detailed work known to me coming from US based researchers Jordan Fenton, Amanda Carlson and Eli Bentor, along with Ivor Miller who has worked in Nigeria.
Online, apart from contributions represented by the online name Nsibiri, general documentation on such blogs as Okporu Before and references related to the art of Victor Ekpuk, along with my own efforts in integrating these contributions,not much is evident from within the parent communities of Nigeria and Cross River on this system, although more work might be present in the research projects of tertiary institutions in the region and other parts of Nigeria.
This inadequate visibility might be due to the fact that it is largely controlled by an esoteric order, what is more conventionally known as a secret society, in this case Ekpe in its various forms.
One of the world's richest expressive systems and still very much in use in its traditional contexts is Nsibidi of Nigeria's Cross-River. Relative to the scope of content, variety of expressive strategies and geographical range of this system, however, literature on it is severely limited, the most detailed work known to me coming from US based researchers Jordan Fenton, Amanda Carlson and Eli Bentor, along with Ivor Miller who has worked in Nigeria.
Online, apart from contributions represented by the online name Nsibiri, general documentation on such blogs as Okporu Before and references related to the art of Victor Ekpuk, along with my own efforts in integrating these contributions,not much is evident from within the parent communities of Nigeria and Cross River on this system, although more work might be present in the research projects of tertiary institutions in the region and other parts of Nigeria.
This inadequate visibility might be due to the fact that it is largely controlled by an esoteric order, what is more conventionally known as a secret society, in this case Ekpe in its various forms.
It would be wonderful if such systems were made more accessible, the experts in the traditional institutions that manage the systems sharing with the world their own cognitive architectures built through its use.
thanks
toyin
On 2 September 2017 at 03:21, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@ccsu.edu> wrote:
--Dear Colleagues,
Comments are welcome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=2OT2ZmBCP0U
African Writing Systems
GE
Professor Gloria EmeagwaliProfessor of History
History DepartmentCentral Connecticut State UniversityGloria Emeagwali's Documentaries onAfrica and the African Diaspora8608322815 Phone8608322804 Fax
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