Saki Mafundikwa, "Afrikan Alphabets: The Story of Writing in Afrika"
Saki Mafundikwa, "Afrikan Alphabets: The Story of Writing in Afrika"
Mark Batty | 2004 | ISBN: 0972424067 | English | PDF | 189 pages | 44.6 MB
Mark Batty | 2004 | ISBN: 0972424067 | English | PDF | 189 pages | 44.6 MB
Afrikan alphabets have a rich cultural and artistic history. Many continue to be in current use today. Their story, however, is little known due largely to their past suppression by colonial powers. This book sets the record straight. Both entertaining and anecdotal, African Alphabets presents a wealth of highly graphical and attractive illustrations. Writing systems across the Afrikan continent and the Diaspora are included, analyzed and illustrated: the scripts of the West Africans - Mende, Vai, Nsibidi, Bamum and the Somali, and Ethiopian scripts. Other alphabets, syllabaries, paintings, pictographs, ideographs, and symbols are compared and contrasted. This informative and beautiful book will be of interest to anyone fascinated with African cultural and art.
Saki Mafundikwa is a graphic designer, typographer and teacher. He holds an MFA from Yale University and has worked and taught in New York City. Returning to Zimbabwe, he founded the country's first graphic design and new media college, the Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts. The college opened in 1999 and continues to operate under extremely difficult conditions as the country goes through its most challenging era since independence.