Saki Mafundikwa: Ingenuity and elegance in ancient African alphabets

翻译人员: Fen Guan 校对人员: Linda Zhou

I moved back home 15 years ago

15年前，我回到家乡

after a 20-year stay in the United States,

那时已经在美国呆了20年

and Africa called me back.

是非洲召唤我回去

And I founded my country's first

我建立了祖国的第一个

graphic design and new media college.

平面设计新媒体学院

And I called it the Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts.

被我命名为数位视觉艺术津巴布韦研究院

The idea, the dream, was really for a sort of Bauhaus

创校理念是建成包豪斯风格的设计学院

sort of school where new ideas were interrogated

在这里，我们审视

and investigated,

调研新的创意

the creation of a new visual language

创造基于非洲善于创造的传统

based on the African creative heritage.

的新视觉语言

We offer a two-year diploma

我们为有天赋的

to talented students who have successfully completed

高中毕业生提供一个

their high school education.

两年的资格教育

And typography's a very important part of the curriculum

字体排印学是我们课程中很重要的一部分

and we encourage our students to look inward for influence.

我们鼓励学生深入其中获得灵感

Here's a poster designed by one of the students

这是其中一个学生设计的海报

under the theme "Education is a right."

主题为“教育是一项权利”

Some logos designed by my students.

这些是我的学生设计的商标

Africa has had a long tradition of writing,

非洲有历史悠久的书写传统

but this is not such a well-known fact,

但鲜为人知

and I wrote the book "Afrikan Alphabets" to address that.

为此，我写了“非洲字母表”来阐述这点

The different types of writing in Africa,

非洲有多种文字系统

first was proto-writing,

第一种是原始文

as illustrated by Nsibidi,

比如Nsibidi文

which is the writing system of a secret society

是尼日利亚南部的Ejagham人的一个

of the Ejagham people in southern Nigeria.

隐秘部落使用的文字

So it's a special-interest writing system.

所以是一个特殊群体的专用文字

The Akan of people of Ghana and [Cote d'Ivoire]

约400年前，加纳和科特迪瓦（象牙海岸）的

developed Adinkra symbols some 400 years ago,

阿肯人发明了Adinkra符号

and these are proverbs, historical sayings,

这些（Adinkra符号）代表谚语，古格言，

objects, animals, plants,

实物，动物，植物，

and my favorite Adinkra system

其中我最喜欢的

is the first one at the top on the left.

是左上方的第一个

It's called Sankofa.

叫做Sankofa

It means, "Return and get it." Learn from the past.

意思是，“返回并获得”，以古为鉴。

This pictograph by the Jokwe people of Angola

这个安哥拉Jokwe人用的象形文字

tells the story of the creation of the world.

讲了创世界的故事

At the top is God, at the bottom is man, mankind,

最上面是上帝，最下面是人类

and on the left is the sun, on the right is the moon.

左边是太阳，右边是月亮

All the paths lead to and from God.

所以的路径都连通上帝

These secret societies of the Yoruba, Kongo

分布在尼日利亚、刚果和

and Palo religions

安哥拉的

in Nigeria, Congo and Angola respectively,

的约鲁巴人、刚果人及Palo教徒的神秘部落

developed this intricate writing system

分别创建了这复杂的文字

which is alive and well today in the New World

这种文字现在依然在古巴、

in Cuba, Brazil and Trinidad and Haiti.

巴西、特立尼达岛和海地的新世界中使用

In the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo,

在刚果民主共和国的雨林

in the Ituri society,

在伊图利部落

the men pound out a cloth out of a special tree,

男人猛击一种特殊树木制成这布料

and the women, who are also the praise singers,

然后由女人，一边唱赞美诗，

paint interweaving patterns

一边画出这些交织的图形

that are the same in structure

这图形的结构就像她们

as the polyphonic structures that they use in their singing --

歌中用的复调结构

a sort of a musical score, if you may.

你可以称它为一种乐谱

In South Africa, Ndebele women

在南非，恩德贝勒族的女人

use these symbols and other geometric patterns

把这些符号和几何图形

to paint their homes in bright colors,

亮丽地涂在她们的家里

and the Zulu women use the symbols

祖鲁女人把这些符号

in the beads that they weave

用在她们串

into bracelets and necklaces.

手镯和项链的珠子里

Ethiopia has had the longest tradition of writing,

埃塞俄比亚曾拥有最悠久的文字传统

with the Ethiopic script that was developed

埃塞俄比亚语的文字体系

in the fourth century A.D.

在公元四世纪就形成

and is used to write Amharic,

现在还在用来写

which is spoken by over 24 million people.

逾2400万人使用的阿姆哈拉语

King Ibrahim Njoya of the Bamum Kingdom of Cameroon

喀麦隆前巴姆穆(Bamum)王国的国王Ibrahim Njoya

developed Shü-mom at the age of 25.

在25岁的时候发明Shü-mom

Shü-mom is a writing system.

Shü-mom是一种文字

It's a syllabary. It's not exactly an alphabet.

它是一种音节文字，不完全是符号系统

And here we see three stages of development

这是它30年中经过的

that it went through in 30 years.

三个发展阶段

The Vai people of Liberia had a long tradition of literacy

在19世纪利比里亚的Vai人与欧洲人接触前

before their first contact with Europeans in the 1800s.

他们就已经有很长的文字史

It's a syllabary and reads from left to right.

它是一种从左读的音节文字

Next door, in Sierra Leone, the Mende

在邻近的塞拉利昂共和国，曼地人

also developed a syllabary,

也发明了一种音节文字

but theirs reads from right to left.

但他们的是从右读

Africa has had a long tradition of design,

非洲曾有很长的设计文化

a well-defined design sensibility,

具有非常清晰的设计感

but the problem in Africa has been that,

但是，尤其是在当今，非洲的问题是

especially today, designers in Africa

非洲的设计者

struggle with all forms of design

在各种设计形式中挣扎

because they are more apt to look outward

因为他们更倾向于追求外界（非洲以外）

for influence and inspiration.

的影响潮流和灵感

The creative spirit in Africa, the creative tradition,

如果设计者可以认真审视

is as potent as it has always been,

他们会发现非洲一直都拥有自己的创新精神，

if only designers could look within.

并且这种创新的力量和精神可以像过去一样有影响力

This Ethiopic cross illustrates

这个埃塞俄比亚图腾便阐释了

what Dr. Ron Eglash has established:

Ron Eglash 博士曾经提出的观点：

that Africa has a lot to contribute to computing

非洲对于分形的直观理解

and mathematics through their intuitive grasp of fractals.

对计算数学有很大贡献

Africans of antiquity created civilization,

古代非洲人创造了人类文明

and their monuments, which still stand today,

他们现存的遗迹

are a true testimony of their greatness.

就是他们伟大贡献的见证

Most probably, one of humanity's greatest achievements

字母表的发明可以说是

is the invention of the alphabet,

人类最伟大的发明之一

and that has been attributed to Mesopotamia

这要归功于美索不达米亚

with their invention of cuneiform in 1600 BC,

他们在公元前1600年发明了楔形文字

followed by hieroglyphics in Egypt,

然后是埃及的象形文字

and that story has been cast in stone as historical fact.

这个故事作为历史真相被刻在石头上

That is, until 1998,

直到1998年，

when one Yale professor John Coleman Darnell

耶鲁教授John Coleman Darnell

discovered these inscriptions in the Thebes desert

在埃及西部底比斯沙漠

on the limestone cliffs in western Egypt,

石灰岩悬崖上发现了这些碑文

and these have been dated at between 1800 and 1900 B.C.,

它们被确认为是公元前18到19世纪

centuries before Mesopotamia.

在美索不达米亚文明之前的古迹

Called Wadi el-Hol

被叫做恐怖峡谷字母

because of the place that they were discovered,

由他们被发现的地方命名

these inscriptions -- research is still going on,

关于这些碑文的研究还在进行

a few of them have been deciphered,

一小部分已经被解码

but there is consensus among scholars

但研究者已达到共识

that this is really humanity's first alphabet.

这确实是人类第一个字母表

Over here, you see a paleographic chart

这是一个古体文字表

that shows what has been deciphered so far,

显示了至今已经被解码的文字

starting with the letter A, "ālep," at the top,

从字母A，最上面的“ālep”，开始

and "bêt," in the middle, and so forth.

B，中间的 “bêt”，依此类推。

It is time that students of design in Africa

现在非洲的设计学学生应该要

read the works of titans like Cheikh Anta Diop,

读这些伟人的作品，像Cheikh Anta Diop（人名），

Senegal's Cheikh Anta Diop,

塞内加尔的Cheikh Anta Diop，

whose seminal work on Egypt is vindicated

他关于埃及的开创性的研究就是

by this discovery.

被这一发现证实。

The last word goes to the great Jamaican leader

最后来说一下伟大的牙买加领导人

Marcus Mosiah Garvey

马科斯·加维（Marcus Mosiah Garvey）

and the Akan people of Ghana

和加纳的阿肯人

with their Adinkra symbol Sankofa,

他们的Adinkra文字Sankofa

which encourages us to go to the past

鼓励我们以古为鉴

so as to inform our present

用之于今

and build on a future for us and our children.

来为我们和我们的孩子建立未来

It is also time that designers in Africa

非洲的设计者也

stop looking outside.

不该再只向其他文化借鉴

They've been looking outward for a long time,

他们已经向外学习很长时间了

yet what they were looking for

然而他们要从找寻的

has been right there within grasp, right within them.

其实就在触手可及的地方，就在他们自己身上

Thank you very much.

非常感谢

(Applause)

（掌声）