Momolu Duwalu Bukele

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Momolu Duwalu Bukele (also: Momolu Duala Bukare in phonetic transcription : Mɔmɔlu Duwalu Bukɛlɛ ) is considered the inventor of the Vai script . He lived in the 19th century in what is now Liberia and belonged to the Vai people .

Life

The Vai script according to Omniglot

Bukele stayed in the coastal region of Liberia around 1819 and had contact with European and American traders and missionaries there. On this occasion he learned about the meaning and use of script and decided to develop his own alphabet for the Vai language. The script he created was not used to write reports or prose texts, but was only used to write down lists (names and relationships of people). According to tradition, he found the signs he chose during a dream. He passed this alphabet and writing technique on to his relatives and descendants. When missionaries from the Basler Mission ( Sigismund Wilhelm Koelle ) invaded his homeland in the middle of the 19th century , they were able to copy the lists of ancestors he had written.

literature

  • David Dalby: A survey of the indigenous scripts of Liberia and Sierra Leone: Vai, Mende, Kpelle, and Bassa . In: African Language Studies . tape 8 , 1967, p. 1-51 .
  • Konrad Tuchscherer, PEH Hair: Cherokee in West Africa: Examining the Origins of the Vai Script . In: History in Africa . tape 29 , 2002, pp. 427-486 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Siegmund Brauner et al .: Common and national languages ​​in Africa . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1985, Liberia, p. 120-122 .
  2. ↑ a b Christine Mullen Kreamer, Mary Nooter Roberts, Elizabeth Harney, Allyson Purpura: Inscribing Meaning: Writing and Graphic Systems in African Art . In: African Arts . Autumn edition, 2007. ( Inscribing Meaning: Writing and Graphic Systems in African Art ( Memento from July 11, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) as digitized version)
  3. ↑ Ayodeji Olukoju, Customs and Culture of Liberia , 2006, Greenwood Press, p. 43
personal data
SURNAME Bukele, Momolu Duwalu
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bukare, Momolu Duala (different tradition)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Inventor of the Vai script
DATE OF BIRTH 18th century or 19th century
PLACE OF BIRTH Liberia
DATE OF DEATH 19th century