This article is not so much a review as an FYI. We’re all very familiar with the African oral tradition. What you may not be so familiar with is the African tradition of writing. It turns out that the Egyptians had a writing system known as Hieratic script which was created by 1600 BC, perhaps even earlier than the Phoenicans alphabet that, in the west, is taught as the first alphabet. This script was considered a shorthand and would never be used on their monuments. They preferred instead to use Hieroglyphics (sacred writings) for important documents and monuments.

The book I’m writing about, Afrikan Alphabets by Saki Mafundikwa, doesn’t speak on Egyptian writing though. The author states that he doesn’t want to get into the argument of whether the ancient Egyptians were African or not (they were). Instead, and perhaps more importantly, he documents writing systems that exist in sub-saharan Africa. He puts them all into the category of alphabet though he understands that many are actually “syllabaries”. The characters represent syllables rather that having singular consonant or vowel sounds as we would understand an alphabet.
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As promised, here are more Adinkra symbols to use for whatever purpose you see fit. Don’t forget to check the previous collection posted earlier. If you’re slick you’ll click the “Clip Art” category under the “Sight” quadrant. That will put both posts right up front. Part 3 (coming soon) should finish it up with some of the more popular symbols.

You’re probably familiar with the West African symbology known as Adinkra. I won’t go into the details of where they come from and why they’re used. What I am going to do is make available these symbols to artists who may want to use them in their designs.  I’ll be putting up collections of 15 or 20 along with their names and meanings as I have time. This is the first installment in .jpg format. To get them onto your machine just drag the image to your hard drive if you’re on a Mac. If you are on a PC I believe a right click will allow you to save.

Part 2 of the Adinkra symbols can be found here