Book explains Ethiopian writing system as more than just language

By Lerato Nomvuyo Mzamane

In 1988, Ayele Bekerie read a newspaper article on land disputes in the then-Soviet Union. Within the article were examples of the Armenian alphabet, whose shapes resembled the alphabet used in his home country of Ethiopia. And what began as a comparative study to fulfill self-interest became the topic for Bekerie's 1994 doctoral dissertation at Temple University and the subject of his first book, Ethiopic, An African Writing System: Its History And Principles (1997, Red Sea Press/Africa World Press).

In the text, Bekerie, a visiting professor at the Africana Studies and Research Center, presents scientific and historical evidence of a writing system in Africa that is at least 3,000 years old. Ethiopic, as it is called, originates in the northeast African countries of Ethiopia and Eritrea. What is especially interesting about the system, Bekerie argues, is its multifaceted dimensions.

"I am contending that Ethiopic as a writing system goes beyond language; it also encompasses properties such as philosophy, numerology, ideography and astronomy," he said. "In other words, it is a knowledge system."

To help explain his point, Bekerie uses tables and charts in a number of ways in the book. For example, to illustrate the numerology of Ethiopic, he depicts circular columns that correspond to the 182 syllographs, or pictographic characters, of the Ethiopic writing system and the number values 1 to 5,600. And to illustrate the ideographic property of Ethiopic, he shows the evolution of the first word in the writing system, which evolved from the head and horns of a bull.

The connection between agriculture, or "the experience of life" as he terms it, and the writing system is made throughout the book. It is a link that came easily to Bekerie who, before becoming an historian, was an agronomist, earning a master's in that field at Cornell.

For Bekerie, Ethiopic is much more than a contribution to scholarship, however, although that is a significant and much needed goal, he said.

"Writing systems reveal a wide range of cultural and historical knowledge," he argues. "As a result, the tendency to limit their function strictly to languages is unwise."

What also disturbs Bekerie are most historical studies of African writing systems that, he said, tend to limit languages of northeastern Africa to a geographical orientation that makes them appendages of Asian and European influences of the Middle East and Mediterranean region, rather than of Africa.

And the book carries an added personal significance for the Ethiopian author, who says he has a deep commitment and determination to tell the story of his people.

"I am attempting to place Ethiopia within the context of African history," Bekerie said.

He points out, for instance, that the use of pictographs in Ethiopic should be viewed in relation to Egyptian hieroglyphics.

"Another contention of mine is that Ethiopic is better understood if it is studied alongside the writing systems of Northeast Africa, including the Nile Valley," he said.

Says Teshale Tibebu, Temple University professor of African history, "Dr. Bekerie's book, Ethiopic, is the first comprehensive attempt by a Western-educated Ethiopian scholar to tackle the issue of indigenous Ethiopian history through the study of its writing system, Ethiopic. I am confident that the book will generate debates among Ethiopianists."

It is a possibility relished by the author.

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For more information on Ethiopic, An African Writing System: Its History And Principles, visit the Website http://www.library.cornell.edu/africana/Writing_Systems/book.html.