Why Don't Traditional Black Cultures Have An Alphabet?

Hey Guys and Gals,
I'm sorry if this thread has been done before. I just wanted to ask everyone this question. Why don't traditional black cultures around the entire world happen to have one? I can't think of any that have a traditional alphabet. Instead they use pictoral descriptions when telling a story by hand. Could Hieroglyphs be the ancient language of black cultures around the world, but forgotten through time? The original race of ancient egypt could very well have been Black African. Seeing as though alot of noses have been smashed off alot of relics and statues icluding the famous sphinx by people who obviously had something to hide. It couldn't be because its a vunerable part of a statue, surely. Could they maybe have at least contributed to the building of "The tower of Babel" and had their "languages confused"? All people are buy and large equal in intellect. It is complete utter nonsense to assume no black culture has an alphabet and written language because they didn't evolve intellectually. They must have had it taken away from them at some stage. When you think about it. All black cultures, all around the world, no traditional alphabet. What the duece?! But Hieroglyphs exist with a mystery as to whom they belonged to.
Please give me your opinions on this theory. If this theory is nonsense then its all very perplexing to me.

Funny! We were talking about languages evolving from symbols to written pictographs to alphabets just last night. Well, actually I was talking about it. Languages are oral but assigning meaning to each sound must have started somewhere by someone (or someones) to the written style of communication.

Its interesting that you point out no alphabet for black cultures. I never knew that.

I don't know for actual fact that there isn't any, but it's just uncanny that I've never ever heard of a traditional alphabet belonging to a black culture. Never.
I tried googling it too in different ways, but to no avail. Only other references to black people being the ancient egyptians.

Well, I decided to do a tiny bit of research on this and I found this Wikipedia page. According to it most of the languages are written in the arabic alphabet in recent times and now in modern times are written in the Latin alphabet or Arabic. en.wikipedia.org...

I don't think that Wiki page contains much information, though, because I found much more through some Google searches. There are books on the subject, but I think it's one of those things that not many people research and so compared to the languages of Asian, Europe, the Americas it is much less well-documented. Also, apparently, colonial powers suppressed the indigenous writing systems and languages as a way to assert power over the peoples of Africa. Many scripts, symbols, pictograph systems, etc were used only by secret groups in Africa, and with colonialism and the strife that accompanied it, many have been lost.

One such indigenous script is Nsibidi:
(Wikipedia)

The Nsibidi set of symbols [1] is independent of Roman, Latin or Arabic influence and a completely indigenous creation of these peoples. Today, not much is known about Nsibidi because it was used almost exclusively by the now, largely extinct secret societies that regulated social activities in the community. Only members initiated into the secret society knew the symbols, which were mainly used for ritual and ceremonial purposes.

www.carlos.emory.edu...

Ge'ez - The classical language of Ethiopia. May have developed from Sabaean, a now extinct south Arabian language spoken in the biblical Saba (Sheba) at some point. The actual origins of Sabaean are unknown.

www.omniglot.com...

There are more recent ones like Vai, which was created in 1820 by Dualu Bukele of Liberia.

Meroitic - Probably developed from Hieroglyphics, somewhat mysterious, language of Kush, spoken in northern Sudan.

There is the Bagam script...there remains a single document in existence.

Eh, more research should be done.

You'd have a lot better chance of getting your answer in the Ancient & Lost Civilizations forum.

Then brains such as the byrd can take a crack at this.

Edit: Keep in mind, I hadn't seen misterglad's ^^ post above. Star for you Mr.

[edit on 18/6/09 by ConspiracyNut23]

Egyptians are Africans and they have complex writing.

Here is a link to an interesting site that goes into this with more detail:

There were many different writing systems in Africa. The writing systems were and still are, a reflection of various philosophies [thought processes] found in African cultures and civilizations. Language, to an African mind is part of your spirituality.

And here are a couple of examples:

The Meroitic Writing System of the Ku#es in the Sudan uses two or three dots as word separators, just like the extant Ethiopic Writing System, thereby suggesting a link between the two writing systems in the Abbay-Atbara river complex

Link

(edit) ... what misterglad said ...

[edit on 18/6/2009 by deltaalphanovember]

Originally posted by deltaalphanovember
Egyptians are Africans and they have complex writing.

Here is a link to an interesting site that goes into this with more detail:

There were many different writing systems in Africa. The writing systems were and still are, a reflection of various philosophies [thought processes] found in African cultures and civilizations. Language, to an African mind is part of your spirituality.

And here are a couple of examples:

The Meroitic Writing System of the Ku#es in the Sudan uses two or three dots as word separators, just like the extant Ethiopic Writing System, thereby suggesting a link between the two writing systems in the Abbay-Atbara river complex

Link

(edit) ... what misterglad said ...

[edit on 18/6/2009 by deltaalphanovember]

I completely skipped that link, but it has some of the most interesting information. The Akan script in particular is a strange one. It is a system of weights that somehow form a kind of symbolic language? It was used "...like spoken language, to commemorate social or historical events or entities, to express philosophical or religious views, aspirations, and dreams, or simply to ask questions, or to express displeasure" (Nitecki, 1982). www.marshall.edu...

The Akan Gold Weights can be seen as classic representations of the depth and dimensions of African material culture. The weights are symbols of conventionalized reflections, each weight signifying specific meanings. The weights are also used in conjunction with a monetary system, mathematics, numbers, and ideograms. In a way they symbolize the empirical minds of the practitioners. The people in the Gulf of Guniea and its surroundings, long before the colonial period, had designed and operated a weight and monetary system. The great museums of Europe and the United States "own" a sizable amount of the weights. They are also found in African museums such as The Ifan Museum at Dakar, The Human Science Museum at Abidijan, and museums in Mali and Ghana. To be precise, the weights were the creative works of the people of Cote d' Ivore, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, and Mali - all in West Africa. The weights are figures that represent proverbs, maxims, riddles, and hints to historic events. In essence, the weights are the sum total representations of the people's knowledge - a three dimensional thought and word rendering images and meanings. In Akan's tradition, a decree is implemented through the apportionment of gold measured by a figurine designed or minted in conjunction with the decree.

I found a tiny bit more on that script including a mention of a script of Ancient Akan that was lost ages ago. books.google.com... TvEYWOtAPYppT-Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6

I'm not sure if that is a reference to the gold weights or to some other system that is even less known.

Thanx guys for your input. Is this language used to this day or is it old and unused? Like the Rune etc.

Ethiopians do. I believe Amharic has an alphabet, and while they are "black", they are genetically very different from the West Africans that most New World black people descend from.

What about the east? Australian Aboriginis, fijiians and the rest of the pacific islands. What about them? I havent seen nor heard of any alphabet belonging to them.

In the coastal city of Gosford, Australia, Ther are ancient sacred aboriginal rock carvings and only a couple a km's away as the crow flies are the alleged Gosford Hieroglyphs that neither been confirmed nor denied officially. Interestingly, the local council are developing the areas surrounding around it, not through it. Someone gets to have it in their back yard eventually by the looks of it. Also the hieroglyphs are marked on a geo cache promotion which me and my sister accidentally found. The hieroglyphs didnt take long to find surprisingly. Whether they were faked in the early 80's like someone who knew someone who knew someone said, that a forestry officer saw a man with a hammer and chisel, or they are genuine. Either way, the fact that they are only a stones throw away from each other is interesting. I video taped the hieroglyphs as well. If anyone wants to see them in video.

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It’s good to see someone judging a people not by the color of their skin, but by the size of their nostrils. (Apologies to Chevy Chase)

Is there any example of an ancient artifact having it’s nose blown off other than the sphinx ? I know that Napoleon was a busy guy, but really.

Great thread here Exoviewer I have learn t a lot from the discussion already .

some down under thunder

star n flag

Thankyou very much for you positive feedback. This subject certainly is fascinating to me. I believe there is alot to learn from Australia's indiginous people. I believe they could very well be the originators of Buddism and eastern philosophy. But that remains to be seen so far.
Thanks again.