Momolu Duwalu Bukele

Momolu Duwalu Bukele (also: Momolu Duala Bukare in phonetics: Mɔmɔlu Duwalu Bukɛlɛ ) is considered the inventor of the Vai script. He lived in the 19th century on the territory of present-day Liberia and belonged to the people of Vai.

Life

Bukele talked about 1819 in the coastal area of Liberia, and there had contact with European and American traders and missionaries. He learned on this occasion the importance and use of writing to know and decided to develop their own alphabet for the Vai language. However, he created font is not used for transcribing reports or prose texts, but was only used to record lists (names and relationships of people). According to tradition, he found his chosen characters during a dream. He gave this alphabet and the writing technique to his relatives and descendants. When in the middle of the 19th century missionaries of the Basel Mission ( Sigismund Wilhelm Koelle ) penetrated to his home, they could copy the written by him Ancestry lists.