The Bassa Vah alphabet is used to write Bassa, a Kru language spoken in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Its origins are obscure. Its name in Bassa is Vah, which means ‘to throw a sign’. The alphabet fell out of use in Liberia during the 19th century.
In the 1900s, a Bassa by the name of Dr. Flo Darvin Lewis discovered that former slaves of Bassa origin living in Brazil and the West Indies were still using the Bassa alphabet. Dr Lewis had not encountered the alphabet before and, after learning it himself, he decided to try to revive the alphabet in Liberia.
Originally the Bassa alphabet was written on slates with charcoal, and the writing could be easily erased with a leaf known as yan. People began to write with pencils in the early 1940s. The original writing direction was boustrophedon (alternating between right to left and left to right), but the alphabet has been written from left to right since the 1960s.
The Bassa script is written from left to right, similar to the Latin alphabet. It consists of 23 consonant characters and 7 vowel characters. Its syllabary structure sets it apart from other African writing systems, such as the alphabetic Geʽez script or the logographic Nsibidi.
The Bassa alphabet highlights the rich linguistic diversity of Africa and the innovative ways in which African communities have created writing systems tailored to their languages.
The Bassa alphabet is a symbol of cultural pride and identity for the Bassa people. It reflects the community’s resilience and dedication to preserving their linguistic heritage. Colonialism and the introduction of Western education systems led to a decline in the use of indigenous writing systems, including the Bassa alphabet.
