It has been assumed that West Africa had been introduced to writing by the Arabs. This is evidently untrue because of the demands of trade; scripts were invented by African trader groups. This especially held true for the Mande/Manding speaking groups who are now recognized as the inventors of several scripts. They were derived from a proto-Mande script invented thousands of years ago by the ancestors of the Mande when they lived in Sahara at the time it was fertile. This proto-Mande script was used by the ancient Mande to write or engrave inscriptions throughout the Western Sahara. This script was a syllabary similar to the Vai script. Mande scripts were invented by traders to keep their business records. These scripts were created by the demands of long distance trade. They were created by merchants to help them keep records of their business transactions and were later used as a means of preserving religious doctrines and writing obituaries. Evidence suggests that copper......

Join Now to view the rest of this term paper!
Members: Login to view this research paper.

Title: Ancient Manding Script
Approximate Word Count: 493
Approximate Pages: 2 (250 words per double-spaced page)

With the Term Papers Lab Membership Pass, you get instant access to every essay on this site, including this essay on Ancient Manding Script, for as long as you remain a member.

Other essays sites charge almost $100 for a single term paper. At Term Papers Lab, you can get instant access to over 100,000 research papers for as little as $29.95!