Lhe main proper African alphabets (Vaï, Mendé, Bamoun and Bassa) were born in the 19th century. They borrow their spellings from ancient traditions.
The proper African spellings are found in WEST AFRICA.
Each writing seems to be a complete invention of each character.
The writing system is syllabary.
There are between 100 and 200 signs.
They are all read from left to right, except the mende from right to left.
Africa is teeming with languages, from 700 to 1500 according to the distinction drawn between languages and dialects from Nigeria to Sierra Leone and from the Niger Delta to Cameroon.
Most systems gave way to Romanized transcriptions at the beginning of the 20th century, except the Vai which is still in use.