Namibian Sign Language (commonly abbreviated as NSL) is a

sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign ...

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and e ...

and

Angola , national_anthem = "Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

. It is presumed that there are other sign languages in these countries. The first school for the deaf was at

Engela Engela is an Ovambo settlement in the Ohangwena Region in northern Namibia. Formerly situated in the Oukwanyama area it is since 2004 part of the town Helao Nafidi, although it still maintained its own village council until the 2015 local autho ...

, and was established c. 1970 by the Evangelical Lutheran Church. The first teachers were black Namibians trained in South Africa, and used the

Paget Gorman Sign System The Paget Gorman Sign System, also known as Paget Gorman Signed Speech (PGSS) or Paget Gorman Systematic Sign Language is a manually coded form of the English language, designed to be used with children with speech or communication difficulties. D ...

with

Ovambo Ovambo may refer to: *Ovambo language *Ovambo people *Ovamboland *Ovambo sparrowhawk The Ovambo or Ovampo sparrowhawk, also known as Hilgert's sparrowhawk, (''Accipiter ovampensis'') is a species of sub-Saharan African bird of prey in the family ...

grammar. Students used the PGSS signs, but developed their own grammar. In 1975 the South African government started a new school for the deaf at Eluwa. All children under 17 attending Engela were moved to Eluwa, and took their language with them. The Namibian exile community in Angola included a number of students from these schools, and in 1982 a school for the deaf was set up for them in Angola, where they taught NSL to new students.

References

*Ashipala et al., "The development of a dictionary of Namibian Sign Language", in Erting, 1994, ''The Deaf Way: Perspectives from the International Conference on Deaf Culture'' {{sign language navigation Namibian culture Sign languages Languages of Namibia