The Mwangwego script is an
abugida
An abugida (, from Ge'ez: ), sometimes known as alphasyllabary, neosyllabary or pseudo-alphabet, is a segmental writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units; each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel no ...
writing system developed for
Malawian languages and other African
Bantu languages
The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages.
The t ...
by linguist Nolence Mwangwego in 1977.
It is one of several indigenous scripts invented for local language communities in Africa.
History
About the creator
Nolence Moses Mwangwego was born on July 1, 1951 in
Mwinilunga District in what was then
Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in south central Africa, now the independent country of Zambia. It was formed in 1911 by amalgamating the two earlier protectorates of Barotziland-North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesi ...
(now modern
Zambia
Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...
); his roots come from Yaphet Mwakasungula village in the area of Paramount chief Kyungu in
Karonga District
Karonga is a district in the Northern Region of Malawi. The district covers an area of 3,355 km.² and has a population of 365,028. It is a border district between Malawi and Tanzania, mainly occupied by the Tumbuka and Nkhonde tribes. Ot ...
of the former
Nyasaland
Nyasaland () was a British protectorate located in Africa that was established in 1907 when the former British Central Africa Protectorate changed its name. Between 1953 and 1963, Nyasaland was part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasala ...
(now modern
Malawi
Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northe ...
).
He speaks and writes
Chewa
Chewa may refer to:
*the Chewa people
*the Chewa language
Chewa (also known as Nyanja, ) is a Bantu language spoken in much of Southern, Southeast and East Africa, namely the countries of Malawi , where it is an official language, and Mozambiq ...
,
Tumbuka,
Kyangonde, English, French, and Portuguese. He is currently working as teacher of French at the French Cultural Center, in
Blantyre
Blantyre () is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, L ...
.
He was installed the headman of his village as Yaphet Mwakasungula IV on December 29, 1997. He is married to Ellen Kalobekamo and has four children.
Development and dissemination
The idea for a Malawian script came on November 10, 1977, in Paris, when Mwangwego discovered that there are various writing systems in the world, and thought that words meaning "to write" in Malawian languages were evidence that they once had a script of their own.
The Mwangwego script was created in 1979, with additional symbols created up to 1997 by Mwangwego.
This was further revised until it was eventually finalised in 2003. The script was launched with significant publicity especially with an audience from Malawian Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Mr
Kamangadazi Chambalo, was quoted as saying:
"Mwangwego script is in itself history in the making. Irrespective of how it is going to be received by the public nationwide, the script is bound to go in the annals of our history as a remarkable invention."
The first person to learn the script was Mwandipa Chimaliro;
ten other students that year learned the script as well who went on to teach others.
In 2007 the Mwangwego Club was formed whose membership is open to those that have learned the script. As of 2012, there were about 395 people using it. Only one book has ever been published using the script which is ''A Malawi Tili Pati'' ("Malawians, where are we?") by Nolence Mwangwego himself in
Chichewa
Chewa (also known as Nyanja, ) is a Bantu language spoken in much of Southern, Southeast and East Africa, namely the countries of Malawi , where it is an official language, and Mozambique and Zambia. The noun class prefix ''chi-'' is used for l ...
in 2011.
Mwangwego continues to hold public lectures and exhibitions in academic institutions and teach the script.
As of 2018, the script has not yet been recognised by the
ISO 15924 standard; however, the Script Encoding Initiative is working to have it included and there is a proposal to include its characters in
Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...
.
"Mwangwego"
ScriptSource, retrieved 21 June 2018.
References
External links
Article on designing a font for the script
''Endangered Alphabets''
{{list of writing systems
Malawian culture
Abugida writing systems
Writing systems of Africa
Constructed scripts