#EndangeredAlphabets: God’s Handwriting

Rembrandt, Moses, stone, God's handwriting Our sense of the extraordinary qualities of writing has sunk so much in the past century that when we hear how many cultures have traditionally regarded writing as a divine creation, a gift to the human race by a deity, we shrug it off as superstition and ignorance. In a … Continue reading #EndangeredAlphabets: God’s Handwriting

#EndangeredAlphabets: Succeed at Your Peril

Topographic map in the Bamum script from early 20th-century Cameroon. Image courtesy of the Incunabula Library. Creating a new script for an indigenous people during a colonial era is a two-edged sword. The desire to claim and assert one’s cultural identity may provide the driving force that sustains an author through the long, hard work … Continue reading #EndangeredAlphabets: Succeed at Your Peril