Lhe oldest written language in black Africa is being deciphered. Meroitic is a language that was spoken in the kingdom of Kush from the end of the 3rd century BCE until the 5th century. It was also written from the 2nd century BC. It was the language of the Kushite pharaohs of the 25th Dynasty. The Meroitic alphabet has two distinct scripts: one in Egyptian hieroglyphics, the other cursive. Although the signs were deciphered in 1911, the language remains largely incomprehensible. Since the 19th century, several thousand Meroitic texts have been discovered at sites in Egyptian Nubia and northern Sudan.
The Meroitic, whose signs are identified since 1911, testifies to the rich hours of the civilization of Nubia. Claude Rilly is in the process of deciphering a mysterious language which has stood up to the best specialists for a hundred years, the oldest written language in black Africa, Meroitic.