Ajami: The Kanji of Africa

[@FromNothing]

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[@jeh5176]

It always amazes me when people say, "Sub-Saharan Africa had no writing until the Arabs and Christians showed up." Yet they never mention that the Arabs and Christians had no writing either until they learned it from the Phoenicians and Arameans. Japan didn't have any writing until they got it from China. The Incas didn't have writing at all, yet they still managed to have a successful civilization. Even Brahmic came out of Aramaic tradition. Seems to me that even before the Arabs brought formal writing to West Africa, those civilizations still managed to have methods of communication. The Abomey used bas reliefs (similar to Hieroglyphs) to recall the exploits of their kings. You can still see them today on the Abomey palaces. Ghana used Adinkra symbols that represented aphorisms. Even at Great Zimbabwe there is eye witness accounts of an inscription above one of the doors of the buildings that no one could decipher. So maybe they left no records, but that doesn't mean they didn't have some form of symbolic communication.

[@qus.9617]

Didn't Arab ancestors have cuneiform they very likely are descended from Mesopotamians...

[@jeh5176]

@@qus.9617 maybe, but the Arabic script wasn't developed until long after Cuneiform had disappeared. The Arabic script replaced the Nabatean script in Arabia around 200 or 300 a. d. That's fairly recent compared to Cuneiform which began around 3000 b. c. Nabatean developed from Aramaic, and Aramaic from Phoenician, and this from Proto-Sinaitic, and Sinaitic from Egyptian Hieroglyphs. My whole point is that societies have a history of borrowing writing from older societies, so why should Africa be penalized for doing the same thing?

[@listenup2882]

The Phoenicians borrowed from the Egyptians.

[@qus.9617]

@@jeh5176 I am just saying literacy is not new to the middle east. They were not inspired by this original way of expression but adopted Aramaic over cuneiform

[@jeh5176]

@@qus.9617 literacy was not common in Greece and Rome until later through interactions with Phoenicians, though. Then Rome introduced it to the rest of Europe as they spread Christianity. And that is my point. Literacy spread. Only about four or five societies actually invented it without outside influence. Nigeria was one of them.

[@muhammadabdullahhanif8860]

This also happens in Indonesia at early independence, people that can read arabic script counted by census as illiterate.

[@prophetofbara1214]

Ajami script is pretty cool in how it help give many African languages a writing system. I like how it was modified to suit the specific African language

[@gequitz]

Makes me wonder how much proto-writing really existed in pre-colonial Africa, similar to Cylcons in Aboriginal Australia

[@malahamavet]

two things called my attention: 1 many South Nigerian "kanji" actualy look like kanji :o I don't know asian languages so if you told me they're chinese I would fall for it 2 the "illiterate" population of some african countries reminded me of middle ages Europe, where to be considered literate you had to know Latin, and French in the case of Britain, so the image of illiterate medieval people comes from that, not counting the native language. seriously, the parallels are crazy! it's history repeating itself... so crazy... i like finding similarities between people that are apart both in space and time, I think it's mind opening (and mind blowing haha)

[@FromNothing]

If you haven't noticed in my content, I too tend to find those parallels highly fascinating. It really goes to show that we're not so different.

[@malahamavet]

@@FromNothing i did notice and I love it

[@justepourlacheruncom8393]

Not shure if it's related but i remember some studies show that many dialects present similarity not because they are related but because we have the same preprogramming in our brain. In a more mudan thing perhaps writing and speaking have some contingency linked to our anatomy and transmission support who selects only some suited form.

[@admirekashiri9879]

It's a strange they disregard and ignore those literate in Ajami and Arabic it's I mean what the hell they're literally writing and reading how are they illiterate? I hope they continue to preserve their traditions and implement them into the wider societies of their countries. Anyway here are a few types of Ajami scripts I was able to find. Sūdānī writing Barnāwī script Wolofal alphabet Kanawī script Hausāwī script Wadaad writing

[@nosotrosloslobosestamosreg4115]

How important for world's science they were?

[@thatangrywickedtardigrade.39]

Ajami script is very insteresting to me as it's a variant of Arabic adapted to the local african langauges and all the types of Ajami scripts are adapted to translate the local language, i find it really strange that people call people writting in Ajami and Arabic Illiiterate when in fact they are just as literate as anyone else on the planet everyone should recognize the people who read and write Ajami as Literate.

[@cavaugnsharkey2699]

@@nosotrosloslobosestamosreg4115 Important enough for science to have been documented in Ajami scripts.

[@OhSanjiBoi]

When are you going to make videos?

[@CoriSparx]

That's racism for ya

[@GallowglassAxe]

Great video as always. It reminds me of medieval Europe where most people were consider illiterate because they didn't know Latin but they had their own local language and writing systems. A slight off topic question but the image at 8:55 reminded me of something. I've always been curious about the library in Timbuktu. Is there any way to see those books or are there translations of them? I feel like there has to be a massive wealth of knowledge there that isn't accessible to most people.

[@FromNothing]

As far as I know, most of the books are still closely guarded within Mali for proprietary reasons. They don't want other countries "colonizing" them for their own education systems etc.

[@redwallzyl]

@@FromNothing There is a bit of a perverse incentive to restrict access because people have a tendency to just take the scans and stop supporting the libraries.

[@abdulrahmanraheem423]

I recently saw a video about a great African Scholar from Mauritania. They said that he was so educated that he could teach atleast 50 books from memory. He had also memorized a Arabic dictionary called The Muheet(The Ocean) which is about 8-10 volumes however, when the French came to West Africa they wrote "illiterate" in his passport!???

[@Bombur888]

No, not their local writing systems, Latin uses the same writing system as the overwhelming majority of Western European languages, but it's true lots of people could write in their local language, which also used the latin alphabet.

[@powerist209]

This was what I learned while I was reading legal case during Albigensian Crusade where they had to get a translator for an letter from an “illiterate” person since he wrote it in Occitan French in Latin speaking court.

[@daron6616]

What’s of particular interest to me is the recently invented N’Ko script devised by Solomana Kante in 1949 for specific use for the Mandé/Manding languages. A widely held story is that Mr. Kante created N’Ko in response to a newspaper article written by a Lebanese reporter equating African languages to that of birds and being impossible to transcribe. This fueled his resolve to create that script.

[@nappeywappey]

Fun fact: because of the arabic conquer of the Iberian penninsula from the 800s to 1492, there is an ajami way to spell spanish! There are thousands of samples of spanish being written _de manera aljamiada_ (the ajami way).

[@KamikazeKatze666]

I love learning about things I have never even heard about in my whole (50+) life - this is why I love your channel so much.

[@curtisthomas2670]

l remember long ago reading about a slave in the US colonies who was caught by a white overseer reading from a book to a couple other slaves. Since reading was forbidden the overseer seized the book and took it and the slave to the owner, but when they opened it all they saw were what to them looked like chicken scratches and doodles so they concluded that the slave was only imitating what he had seen the owner's son doing as he read to his younger siblings and did not punish him, and put the book on a shelf and forgot about it. A while later a visitor to the farm saw the book and asked about it and after he was told he asked to see the slave. After speaking to him he immediately offered to buy him at a price the owner could not refuse and as he was considered a "troublemaker" the owner was happy to get rid of him. Turned out the visitor was an amateur book collector and he had acquired a trunk full of Arabic books from a ship captain and needed someone to translate them, and the slave was caught reading from a Quran and translating into English to his fellow slaves.

[@cavaugnsharkey2699]

I like how the Ajami script made a comprise between African languages and Arabic writing to suit the populace.

[@emerson3070]

This is brand new knowledge to me! This is EPIC! Ajami...now I know

[@leoamarino]

I learned a lot from this video. I had no idea that illiteracy statistics were skewed by flat out not counting whole scripts because they aren't used to write the colonial language. Great video.

[@matthewmann8969]

Yeah bringing more to the light and audience continue on

[@tommy-er6hh]

one minor point: Carthaginian = Phonetician language, Just like Canadian = English or Brazil = Portuguese.. Carthage started as a colony of the Phoneticians - by city of Tyre i believe.

[@listenup2882]

Phoenician alphabet was based on Egyptian hieroglyphs.

[@daron6616]

@@listenup2882 Yes, the Phoenician alphabet was based on a collection of simplified Egyptian hieroglyphs called Proto-Sinaitic which is also was parent script of Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic.

[@NoRockinMansLand]

Btw bro I do want to let you know that Islam actually came into east Africa before it came to north Africa. the followers of the prophet Muhammed were welcomed by the Somali Dir clan and they were granted protection by one of the 4 world powers of the time, Axum. Also, 3 of Africa's oldest mosques are all in Africa. One in northern Ethiopia called Al Negash, one built is Zeila (Somaliland) known as Masjid al-Qiblatayn and one in Eritrea known as as-Sahaba. Also, one of the first muslims in Africa were Somalis from the Dir clan, and it is also even said that the king of Axum converted to Islam before his death although that is more so shrouded in mystery

[@kandacejohnson6184]

Your intro background was awesome!

[@FromNothing]

Thanks. It's good to hear from you. Don't be a stranger.

[@Cybernaut551]

I am in awe of Ajami thus languages are always fascinating to understand; This video has valuable lessons from quality sources because I like how the professor's supporting quote ballances your conclusions. Overall, I reccommend this to friends. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[@ikhaatjullieallemaalpersoo5715]

Hey man, cool video, i'm planning on learning Yoruba someday and i think it would be fun to also learn Ajami. Do you know where i could find resources online to do so?

[@cavaugnsharkey2699]

Jabari made another banger as usual!

[@ladyluck7481]

Love your videos! Glad I found your channel.

[@Catlily5]

I think if someone can read they should be considered literate no matter the script.

[@daron6616]

Yeah basically. In societies that don’t use our script we’re considered the illiterate ones.

[@baconknightproductions8297]

That is the literal definition of literate: capable of reading. There have been many attempts in history of a new powerful ruling country and or race to try to belittle and destroy the original language and culture of those they take over to assimilate them and try to eliminate any chance of a potential uprising or sympathy from their own people.

[@Catlily5]

@@baconknightproductions8297 Yes. Though it doesn't always work.

[@M.M.83-U]

A very rich video, full of new (to me) informations. Thanks

[@grahamaskey5721]

You seem to have misunderstood the term abjad. Arabic script is not Abjad, it is an abjad ie an alphabet that doesn't include most or all the vowels, including Hebrew for example

[@magimon91834]

Great stuff like always

[@KingBlackknuckle]

this will help me with some world building, good looks

[@kufre4493]

Yo Jabari, you mentioned nsibidi and ge’ez but what about Mende, Vai, and bamum, they were all written and not pictorial like nsibidi. Or are they too recent to be considered African history

[@FromNothing]

They were all directly inspired by European colonizers.

[@slushkin8837]

Can you do a video on the shields that the Benin kingdom had? I can't find anything on them.

[@redwallzyl]

There is one on display in the Field Museum in Chicago and you can look up a few of them in their collection search. They are different then the ones shown on the bronzes though.

[@uyilol4557]

@@redwallzyl can you send a link pls I can't find them.

[@redwallzyl]

@@uyilol4557 collections-anthropology.fieldmuseum.org/catalogue/1115489 This is the link if it sends properly

[@redwallzyl]

@@uyilol4557 KZbin just seems to like to delete my comments when I post links so it may not work

[@uyilol4557]

@@redwallzyl ohh thx for the link?

[@stingyblue8189]

It would be better to describe the people south of the Sahara as pre-literate meaning they lived in society that had no written language and thus, no reading or writing took place. Illiterate refers a person or person who can’t reads or write in a society where there’s a written language. It’s almost exclusively used pejoratively! For the record, most people throughout the history of the World down to the present day were/are either preliterate or illiterate not just subsaharan Africans. Also, for the record, Black Africans inhabited all of Africa including the Sahara. So, will you please stop dividing Africans into Saharan and Subsaharan as if the Arabs and the light-skinned people masquerading as Berbers (Amazigh) are the original inhabitants of that part of Africa? Also, you should’ve mentioned this so-called common ancestor of ancient Egyptian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Greek, and Latin before you continued with your presentation. Hebrew, Aramaic, Akkadian, Babylonian, and Arabic are Afro-Asiatic languages meaning they are languages that are/were spoken by peoples in SW Asia but their roots are in Africa as the peoples’ . Ancient Egyptian is an African language as the Ancient Egyptians were from Subsaharan Africa. They said they came from the South. Greek and Latin are Indo-European languages which originated in the Caucuses region of Russia and Ukraine as did all Whites did. You do realize that all other peoples descended from the Africans who migrated Out of Africa and are the result of genetic adaptations to their environment? The Carthaginians and their Phoenician ancestors were an Afro-Asiatic people. In prehistoric and ancient times, Blacks migrated back and forth between Africa, Europe, and Asia. The Carthaginians just returned home when they settled in Tunisia. Please stop regurgitating Western (White Supremacist) propaganda about the history of Africa, Europe, and the so-called Middle East!

[@CrowdPleeza]

How are the symbols used in Dogon rock art characterized?

[@ajporsche4633]

Well their symbols not a written language alphabet.

[@CrowdPleeza]

One reason I asked about the Dogon is because I've seen where some people connect them to ancient Egypt. So I was wondering if their rock art shared any significant similarities to Egyptian hieroglyphic writing?

[@ajporsche4633]

@@CrowdPleeza James their nothing to do with ancient Egypt lol... Who are these some people!

[@CrowdPleeza]

@@ajporsche4633 Just check the comment sections of some Dogon videos. Especially those Dogon videos involving Dr. Charles Finch.

[@ajporsche4633]

@@CrowdPleeza ah yes those videos by afrocentrists, yes yes I've seen them James.

[@jacksonmowell3859]

Books written on pre-colonial African warfare. Is there an African Sun Zu.

[@cameo1013]

Ajami couldn't be considered a separated writing system though, it's just the Arabic script with some small modifications

[@samanth.]

Arabic is just aramean with small modifications

[@brianalice]

English is just Latin with some modifications.

[@FromNothing]

Nah. English comes from Germanic languages and has Latin loanwords.

[@brianalice]

Talking about the script in this thread. English is written with a slight variation of the Latin alphabet.

[@brianalice]

Talking about the script in this thread. English is written with a slight variation of the Latin alphabet.

[@stingyblue8189]

It is not required to be literate to be a Muslim. Muslims are not required to read the Qu’ran, but to recite it. The word Qu’ran (Koran) means the recitation. Muhammad couldn’t read. He just recited from memory what he was told by the Angel Gabriel. That’s all a Muslim is required to do: recite what the holy book said not what he read.

[@user-gr4ku2kh5k]

I think Ajami would be more like katakana than kanji

[@daron6616]

As being closer in structure I agree. The kanas (hiragana and katakana)are syllabaries which are closer to an alphabet. In application, I think the comparison of Kanji and Ajami is a good analogy as they’re both scripts that were adapted by peoples with unrelated languages. Ajami is an adapted Arabic script. Kanji is the Japanese adaptation of Hanzi (Chinese characters) to their language which is totally unrelated to any Chinese language/dialect.

[@Fazoéleson]

What about nsibid writing?

[@FromNothing]

May try actually watching the video before leaving a comment next time.

[@Fazoéleson]

@@FromNothing First of all, I don't speak English and it's not easy to have a full understanding depending on KZbin's poorly translated automatic subtitles. I may have missed something. As for your suggestion, I have a better idea! Don't see your videos anymore. Adeus!

[@FromNothing]

Well I literally mentioned it by name "Nsibidi" (which is not English) and even had my own caption in the video literally saying "Nsibidi" at the bottom of the screen showing a picture of the symbols. I wasn't being rude, I was giving you an actual suggestion. If your solution to that is to just stop watching my videos that's fine too. That's your choice. I could care less.

[@major_kukri2430]

2:58 he mentions it

[@Tessier9999]

Hello Jabri, I don't know if you seen it, but there a old theory that now gaining steam in the black american community about how China was originally black and that the early dynasties and the Great Wall were made by these black people. There a video with hundreds of thousands of views who is helping to spread this nonsense. If you make a video debunking these theories, I feel like it would possibly do numbers because the theory is gaining so much steam right now.

[@CrowdPleeza]

I've seen some of those videos. My question is why is China so largely non Black today? I've shared this info on some videos: Some info on ancient east Asian DNA. "When we analyzed the DNA of people who lived in coastal southern China 9,000-8,500 years ago, we realized that already by then much of China shared a common heritage. Because their archaeology and morphology was different from that of the Yellow River farmers, we had thought these coastal people might come from a lineage not closely related to those first agricultural East Asians. Maybe this group’s ancestry would be similar to the Tianyuan Man or Hòabìnhians. But instead, every person we sampled was closely related to present-day East Asians. That means that by 9,000 years ago, DNA common to all present-day East Asians was widespread across China..." Source: Ancient DNA is revealing the genetic landscape of people who first settled East Asia By Melinda Yang, assistant professor of biology

[@cavaugnsharkey2699]

He already did a video about Afrocentrism. Check it out.

[@Tessier9999]

@@cavaugnsharkey2699 I've seen that video. He has also done a video on black americans being native american myth where he went further into debunking specific theories.

[@daron6616]

Some people are just too eager to grasp onto anything that sounds good to them without realizing how foolish it makes them look 🤦🏽‍♂️. It just shows how damaged some of us are. They could find that same fulfillment by studying about Ancient Africa and it’d be genuine. Some of us are always trying to look beyond the rainbow for what can easily be found in our own areas .

[@major_kukri2430]

That kinda sounds like a meme.

[@gimbatul9761]

Yeet