Vai syllabary
Silabario vai
- Date
- c. 1833 · confidence medium
- Place
- Jondu, Grand Cape Mount, Liberia
- Credited to
- Momolu Duwalu Bukele
- People
- 👤 Momolu Duwalu Bukele1788–1900
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A syllabic script of about 200 signs created for the Vai language, apparently inspired by a dream. It is one of the earliest modern African scripts with a known author, and it was learned outside formal schooling.
Described by Sigismund Koelle in 1849. Whether Bukele knew of the Cherokee syllabary through missionaries is debated.
What it led to
- widespread Vai literacy for a century and a half
- a model for other indigenous scripts of West Africa
- studies of literacy without schooling