19 used & new from $78.74

See All Buying Options

Added to

Unable to add item to List. Please try again.

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 8 images

Follow the Author

Saki Mafundikwa

Afrikan Alphabets: The Story of Writing in Afrika Hardcover – October 1, 2006

by Saki Mafundikwa (Author)

8 customer reviews

See all 3 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Hardcover

"Please retry"

—

$216.60

$75.00

Paperback

"Please retry"

—

$79.00

$59.00

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Saki Mafundikwa is a graphic designer, typographer and teacher. He holds an MFA from Yale University and has worked and taught in New York City. Returning to Zimbabwe, he founded the country's first graphic design and new media college, the Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts. The college opened in 1999 and continues to operate under extremely difficult conditions as the country goes through its most challenging era since independence.

Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: Mark Batty Publisher; First Edition edition (October 1, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0972424067
ISBN-13: 978-0972424066
Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 1 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
Average Customer Review: 8 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,911,948 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #754 in Books > Arts & Photography > Graphic Design > Typography
- #987 in Books > Arts & Photography > Other Media > Calligraphy
- #1173 in Books > Reference > Words, Language & Grammar > Alphabet

Would you like to tell us about a lower price?
If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?

Be the first video

Your name here

Important information

Ingredients

Example Ingredients

Directions

Example Directions

8 customer reviews

2 star (0%)

1 star (0%)

Review this product

Write a customer review

Showing 1-8 of 8 reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

PictureMe

Isn't Egypt in Afrika? Revised

August 10, 2015

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Update: this is such scholarly work. It was a mistake to give it 4 stars. Thank you Mr. Saki, I believe you are an absolutely brilliant artist and writer. There aren't any Egyptians in Egypt anymore, the people there now, came from across Afrika's border.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

Amazon Customer

Four Stars

December 2, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The reader, is very impressed and enthusiastic about the challenges, that the material will create in a positive note!!!!

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

Amazon Customer

so I guess they liked it.

August 27, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

this was a gift for someone . no complaints, so I guess they liked it.

Helpful

Comment

T S

light on ancient thought

August 3, 2013

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

cool. good quality, good info. extensive stuff on the symbolic level. I liked that. The encoding of meaning in shapes, and the manifestations of meaning in sound. yum stuff.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

dedee

Expectation

April 26, 2008

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I had expected this book to be worded differently and to include many alphabets of the afrikan languages. It was a good read.

Helpful

Comment

The Sesh

Great overview of the history of indigenous African scripts, but incomplete.

July 9, 2006

Format: Hardcover

This book is fantastic in covering the history of indigenous African scripts, a subject many are unaware of. However, the author should have begun by discussing the beginning of African writing which took place in Ancient Kemet (Egypt). He did not discuss it at all. Perhaps one could claim that it is because the script is no longer in use, but then why did the author discuss some contemporary scripts that are not in use? The only other reason I could think of is because Egypt is already so well known and he wanted to focus on the Sub-Saharan groups that are more disregarded. Fair enough, but then the author should have discussed the Meroitic script of the ancient Nubians of Kush and noted the lack of global interest in deciphering this ancient alphabet.

Otherwise, the book is fantastic and the Zimbabwean author a blessing to the global community of people of African descent. His understanding of the unity of our people is unsurpassed and refreshing in light of the separatism we are taught to practice among ourselves.

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

cesar landucci neto

indispensável.

May 16, 2007

Format: Paperback

esqueçamos um pouco essa cultura eurocentrada. olhemos além.

as coisas mais próximas da terra.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

Mark Newbrook

good and timely survey vitiated by errors and slanted approach

January 31, 2012

Format: Paperback

This book provides a very interesting survey of an area often neglected in discussions of writing systems; indeed, as the author and the preface-writer Tadadjeu indicate, it is often assumed (though not by linguists) that African languages were seldom written before the introduction of alphabets (mainly by European colonisers) in modern times. The material covers the origins and characteristics of a wide range of scripts used to write various African languages.

The main problem with the book involves a considerable element of `Afrocentrism': the recent tendency (especially in the USA and elsewhere in the African diaspora) to exaggerate the role of Africa in world culture, by way of reaction to the previous, often racist down-playing of Africa's contributions to history and intellectual life (and to institutions such as slavery). Examples are the ready acceptance of Bekerie's extreme and often dubious claims about the Ethiopic `abugida' (intermediate between an alphabet and a syllabary), and the seriously exaggerated claims made for the Cameroonian Shu-Mom system (made especially strongly in the preface). Afrocentric pseudo-historical works are cited without any acknowledgment of their highly marginal status. Quasi-mystical notions involving `harmony' and spirituality are foregrounded in places.

There are also some oddities, commencing with the decision to spell the words Africa and African with K rather than C, on the ground that K is the letter normally used for the sound in question in Africa itself. The C-K contrast arises only in the context of the modern use of the roman alphabet, where either letter would serve. The Romans used the form with C because this was how they transliterated all Greek loans which had kappa (K) in the original. Furthermore, and more seriously, the scripts covered include various non-alphabetic systems (syllabaries, the Ethiopic abugida, etc); the title is thus misleading (possibly because alphabet is much the best known of these terms among non-linguists). In addition, some of the systems discussed are not true scripts but are instead semiotic systems not representing specific languages or their words, or even simply art or at best matters of graphic design. This may involve the desire to suggest that pre-modern African societies were more literate than was in fact the case (another manifestation of Afrocentrism). And in more general terms the level of linguistic expertise leaves something to be desired. For instance, the notions of ideograph and logograph are confused, and the comments about the ultimate origins of writing are rather naive and inaccurate.

In sum: while the book is informative on a little-known topic, it must be read with various caveats in mind.

12 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

Follow the Author

Similar authors to follow

Afrikan Alphabets: The Story of Writing in Afrika Hardcover – October 1, 2006

Sponsored products related to this item (What's this?)