webmaster@africanidea.org     The Magnificence of African Written Culture & Why We Must Adopt Geez Fidel for Ethiopian Languages  Ghelawdewos Araia October 5, 2004 This paper will discuss and critically examine the magnificence of African writing systems and demystify the mythology of the non-existence of written cultures in Africa. It will also candidly present, by way of suggestion and not imposition, that spoken Ethiopian languages consider the adoption of Geez Fidel (alphabet) in lieu of Latin. The Eurocentric perspective pertaining to African languages that they are merely spoken and that Africans don’t have scripts to document their history and culture is a preliminary judgment without historical precedent. Unfortunately, many African scholars who were unable to appreciate the unrivaled genius of African invention of alphabets internalize this Eurocentric stereotype. There are about 200 written languages and 5000 spoken languages throughout the world and out of these, 800 languages and 1000 dialects are found in Africa. According to Joseph Greenberg and other linguists, African languages are generally classified into Afro-Asiatic, Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, Khoisan, and Malayo-Polynesian (Madagascar). The African linguistic groups are sometimes classified into Semitic, Hamitic, Kushitic, and Chadic. The Semitic group includes Geez, Tigre, Tigrigna, Amharic, Guragigna, Harari, Gafatigna, Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramean. The Hamitc group comprises Kemetic (old Egyptian), Coptic, Lybic, and Kabyle & Tuareg (Berber). While Beja, Afar, and Somali fall under the Kushitic group, Haussa is classified as Chadic. Swahili, Lingola, and Zulu are Niger-Congo, and Longo & Massai are Nilo-Saharan. Admittedly, most African languages are spoken and oral tradition was widely employed for recording events and transmitting culture from generation to generation. This reality, however, does not make Africa as a whole a continent without script. On the contrary, Africans were the first to invent written systems, and as I shall demonstrate below, the African written culture indeed transcended the limitations of African vocal tradition.  Some historians theorized that the Sumerians, in about 3500 BC, were the first to come up with a written system generally understood as cuneiforms. On the other hand, historians confirm, beyond doubt, that the Egyptians invented hieroglyphics in 3400 BC. For the sake of argument, lets agree that both Sumerian and Egyptian written system evolved at about the same time. Nevertheless, what most historians don’t reckon with is the fact that the Sumerians were black people who settled in Mesopotamia, and most importantly, in terms of their physiognomy and culture (including clean-shaven heads), the Sumerians were very much like the Egyptians. The ancient Egyptians have invented hieroglyphics, but they also created other written styles known as Hieratic (circa 3000 BC) and Demotic (around 600 BC). On top of this, we must bear in mind that ancient Egypt did not simply come up with a single innovation of written culture. Egyptians had indeed a comprehensive civilization that featured the simultaneous evolution of astronomy, calendar, geometry, mathematics, architecture, agriculture (irrigation), religion, philosophy, and medicine. The ancient Egyptians indeed witnessed intellectual pedigree (Imhotep for one) with a veneer of antique wisdom. The plethora of Egyptian innovation are testimony of an unusually holistic picture, and the written culture was meant to crystallize their insight and wisdom into a sufficiently logical structure (hence their philosophy and spirituality).  In light of sociolinguistics, we may entertain a micro approach of social interaction to explain the purpose of languages and alphabets, but in its macro sense African written systems, in one form or another virtually captured all mundane and spiritual dimensions. As Ayele Bekerie of Cornell University aptly puts it, “writing systems are components of knowledge systems. By definition, they are philosophical because they assist in synthesizing ideas, thoughts, and deeds through the use of signs, symbols, or other pictorial renderings. Specifically, writing is a means by which people record, objectify, and organize their activities and thoughts through images and graphs. Writing is a means to inscribe meanings that are expressed through sounds. Further, writing provides an aspect of historicality. This means that writing facilitates the proper recording of transmissions of events and deeds from one generation to another.”  Egyptian written culture was indeed a synthesis of Kemetic civilization and its concomitant philosophy is very much reflected in the design and renderings of the respective characters. In point of fact, the Egyptian words had a quadrangle or the ‘square principle’ form. The number 4 in the Egyptian psyche symbolized the four cardinal points (East, West, North, South), the four sons of Horus (the son of Osiris), the square base of the pyramids, the four dimensions of the obelisks etc. The philosophy and aesthetics of the Egyptian 4 was later adopted by the Judeo-Christian tradition of the Four Gospels and the four animals accompanying them. And in concrete terms, based on the square (4) and other numbers, magnificence and beauty emerged from the symmetry of mathematical relationship in the construction of the pyramids, which in turn were embellished by hieroglyphics. Ultimately, the wonderful Egyptians aligned their consciousness with the heavenly bodies (astronomy) as repository of their divine wisdom. Once the consciousness was aligned, the daily encounter and historical experience had to be recorded and documented on papyrus, temples, pyramids, obelisks; and thanks to the ancient Egyptians they have left us enormous wealth that we have yet to fully decipher and explore. Following the Egyptian written culture, the greatest contribution to humanity comes from the Kushites who gave us the Meroitic writing system, a civilization of ancient Sudan. Initially, the Kushites borrowed Egyptian hieroglyphics, but later on they invented their own distinctive cursive alphabets. The essential difference between the Meroitic and Egyptian scripts is that the former (like Ethiopic) is written from right to left, and the latter could be written right to left (like Ethiopic), left to right (like Hebrew and Arabic) as well as vertically (like Japanese orthography). Unlike the Egyptian, however, the Meroitic alphabets were not fully explored and understood, but interestingly, whether by coincidence or design, the signs that we use today for URL in the Internet, namely, colon and double slash (: //) are in fact Meroitic in origin. Ethiopic or Geez Fidel (Fidel) are unique Ethiopian characters that are entirely phonetic structured in seven columns with 26 syllographs on each column. In other words, each character in the Geez Fidel system has seven sounds or component parts. For instance, the first character in the first column is ‘Hae’ Geez (1st) and its component parts are ‘Hu’ Ka’eeb (2nd ), ‘Hee Sa’lis (3rd), ‘Ha’ Ra’bie (4th), ‘Hie’ Hamees (5th), ‘H’e’ Sadis (6th ), and ‘Ho’ Sabee’e (7th). Same logic and application follows to pronounce all other Ethiopic characters. The seven sounds, as in the Egyptian quadrangles, have aesthetic, philosophical, and spiritual values. In ancient Egypt 7 represented ‘completion’; in Judeo-Christian tradition, 7 denotes completion as well, but it symbolizes the post-creation resting day for God; hence Sabbath in Hebrew, 7 elements replete in Revelations of the last chapter of the Bible, 7 Day Adventists, the 7 Chakras (energy spots in the body) in Luminati, 7 times Ululation when a boy is born in some Ethiopian tradition etc. Both in their sophisticated elegance and calligraphic beauty, Geez Fidel are not only a dazzling of human creativity but also, in practical terms, a powerful medium for communication and social interaction. The power of Geez Fidel resides in the characters ability to represent virtually every sound. The ancient Ethiopians, who invented Ethiopic writing system, were poised, it seems, to capture and harness all sounds in the universe. With respect to sounds, however, a word of caution is in order: while Tigrigna preserved all original sounds, Amharic has lost some sounds of some characters. For instance, while ‘Hae’ and ‘Ha’ have different pronunciation in Tigrigna, they have the same ‘Ha’ sound in Amharic. By the same token, ‘A’ (1st) & ‘Aa’ (4th) have different sounds in Tigrigna, but they are both pronounced as ‘Aa’ in Amharic. Moreover, ‘Hae’ Hamer, the third character in the third row, and ‘Ae’ Ayn are guttural and hence pronounced totally different in Tigrigna as opposed to that of Amharic where they sound like ‘Ha’ and ‘Aa’ respectively. The guttural sounds are still used by Tigre (spoken in Eritrea) speakers and Geez liturgy to this day. The logical argument that follows from the above analysis is that one cannot have 7 renderings if the Geez (1st) and Ra’bie (4th) characters are pronounced the same. In fact, one will end up having six sounds for some characters and no explanation for such arbitrary measure. If we depend on ‘dialect geography’ and ‘wave theory’ in linguistics, however, we could surmise that the loss of phonetic value for some characters in Amharic could have been engendered due to interaction with other non-Semitic Ethiopian languages.  By inventing Geez Fidel, the ancient Ethiopians, like ancient Egyptians, have documented their experience with remarkable care for historical accuracy. The diligence of the ancient Ethiopian literati (high priests) is breathtaking; they employed Geez Fidel to write thousands of books (whose folios are processed from skin goats), ranging from a relatively small book such as ‘Songs of David’ to a huge voluminous book known as the Tsome Duga.  Geez Fidel is one of the very few written systems that have survived in the African continent to this day. Its endurance is an indication of a continuing Ethiopian resilience that has withstood centuries of challenges and societal transformations. Other magnificent written systems in Africa are the Vai syllabary, the NSIBIDI script of the Ejagham people of eastern Nigeria, the chromatography of Benin & the Edo people of southern Nigeria, Shumom writing system of Cameroon, and Adinkra symbols of (Ghana) West Africa. The Vai syllabary is an intricate system of writing, some of which are reminiscent of the Sabean, Ethioipic, and Meroitic characters. Behind the prosaic façade of the Vai syllabary lies a secret tradition that perhaps served Poro and Sande secret societies of Liberia and Sierra Leone. By contrast, the NSIBIDI denote simple elegance of representation: two intersecting close-ended lines as in X and two intersecting converging lines represent ‘love’, and two diverging lines separated by a straight line like this sign )I( symbolizes ‘hatred’. Three small x represent a ‘word’, one big X represents speech, and + or cross-like sign is for ‘meeting.’ And the cross-like sign overlapped diagonally by another cross-like shape is for ‘congress.’ When I distributed handouts of the NSIBIDI script for my Modern African History class some eight years ago, the majority of my students perceived the signs representing ‘reflection’ as teacup, TV set, and micro ovens. Our thoughts are indeed culturally determined! When it comes to ‘table set for drink and meat’ of the NSIBIDI, however, the table manner is very much universal and no culture-specific analysis is required.  The Shumom writing system of Cameroon had evolved from the original pictographic style (including some that resemble the Ankh of the Egyptians) to alphabets that intriguingly look like Latin. For instance Shumom ‘a’ is written as S and ‘nzam’ is very much like Y but with a dot inserted within; similarly, Shumom ‘re’ is written as L but with two dots on either side of the horizontal line of the character. The Adinkra are entirely philosophical writing systems with artistic sophistry and breathtaking intricate designs. Some of the Adinkra symbols like ‘Akoma’ for ‘the heart’ are simple in their designs, but their philosophical underpinnings are deep. ‘Akoma’ represents ‘patience’ and ‘tolerance.’ ‘Chief of Adinkra symbols’ that conveys ‘greatness and charisma’ is also a set of simple concentric circles. Some of the signs like ‘Dwennimmen’ (ram’s horns) for ‘humility and strength’ (four concentric circles joined by a cross-like figure with a hole at the center) & ‘Kintinkantan’ (four circles joined by a circle at the center which has a diamond shape within) for ‘arrogance and extravagance’ manifest contrasting behaviors and world outlooks. While ‘Nyame Biribi Wo Soro’ (God is in heaven) for ‘hope’ is represented by two oval shapes connected by a diamond figure, ‘Nmusuyidee’ (that which removes ill luck) for ‘good fortune’ is an elaborated cross. Interestingly, the latter echoes the Swastika of archaic period in Africa that meant good luck, and incidentally the Swastika sign is to be found in some Ethiopian churches including those of Lalibela. Finally, the chromatography of the Edo people, which can be classified between art and written system are impressive juxtaposition of colors with emphasis on pink, blue, and yellow. Africa thus had a highly developed written culture, and still has a prevalent one, namely the Ethiopic or Geez Fidel. Geez Fidel are simple to write and easy to pronounce, and as stated above all audible sounds are incorporated in Geez. By contrast there are no equivalent pronunciation to ‘Hae’ and ‘Ha’ Hamer; ‘Ae’ and ‘Aa’ Ayn; ‘Ta’ with underscore dot & ‘t’ or ‘Tse’ with underscore dot & ‘s’. It is for this apparent reason that Latin becomes deficient compared to Geez. Moreover, Geez characters don’t beg for vowels in order to make sounds; they are designed to naturally sound and they are free (‘Geez’ or ‘Agazi’ literally connote ‘freedom’) of external technique that propels sounds.  I have no objection to the use of Latin, but when there is a readily available Ethiopic African ingenuity that can satisfy communication efficiency and cultural preservation, why seek an alien script that would not be palatable to the spoken Ethiopian languages? If the ancient Armenians and the people of Georgia could adopt Geez Fidel for liturgy, why can’t present Ethiopians do the same? Similarly, the Japanese borrowed the Chinese characters by blending into their culture and adopting a vertical written style. If the Japanese exhibit affinity to Chinese characters, why can't Ethiopian nationalities who don't possess alphabets embrace Geez Fidel?  Although most Ethiopians are familiar with Ethiopic, it seems to me that there is unwarranted bias and politically tainted prejudice against Geez by some minority nationalities in Ethiopia. One misconception is that Geez Fidel are misconstrued as ‘Amharic alphabets’ and since the Amharas were dominant till the 1974 revolution, their language was also perceived as “language of the enemy,” which of course is neither logical nor convincing. If we can transcend this misconception and fantastic attribute of politics to language and come to our senses and begin to understand that languages and their scripts are effective communication vehicles, we will begin to enjoy the enormous benefits of Geez Fidel. Of all Ethiopian Semitic languages, it is only Tigrigna and Amharic that extensively use the Fidel and I don’t see any reason why Gafatgna (if we can revive it) and Harari (which is well and alive) can’t use Ethiopic. And if the latter Semitic languages can use Geez, all other Kushitic and Hamitic Ethiopian languages can use it as well, and to be sure Geez Fidel does not belong to the Amharas and Tigrayans alone; it is an authentic glimpse of an African civilization and as such must be used by all. I once suggested to a colleague of mine, who happen to be from East Africa, to try Ethiopic for Swahili, and he responded by saying that the Swahili speaking people are already familiar with Latin and that English is spoken widely in East Africa. It is a convincing argument in light of technical difficulties and cost to introduce Geez Fidel in East Africa, although Latin will not sufficiently capture the many sounds of Swahili. I was flabbergasted and intrigued when I read “Alphabets prepared for three languages in Benshangul Gumuz State” (WIC, September 11, 2004) “Latin alphabets are designed for Berta and Shinasha languages, while Gumuz language is getting Ethiopic alphabets” reports Walta Information Center. In light of the above discussion and the magnificence of African written systems, as well as the future unity of the Ethiopian people, Berta and Shinasha should have opted for Geez Fidel too. If Geez Fidel is incorporated into the various educational sectors of the different regions, it would have a far-reaching impact on the overall operation of an efficient and uniform intellectual infrastructure; and it can further enhance the development agenda in Ethiopia by creating network among the diverse Ethiopian population.