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47 Afro-Atlantic Graphic Writing: Bidimbu, Bisinsu, and Firmas Kongo Graphic Writing Systems: Overview of Character and Origins The term graphic writing systems can be credited to Gerhard Kubik. Building on existing scholarly work on particular writing traditions that facilitated an awareness of graphic expression in Africa,1 Kubik was the first scholar to study and explain in systematic terms graphic writing traditions.2 He argued that graphic writing must be understood as a “visual communication system whose constituent parts are graphemes, the smallest meaningful unit in the system.”3 In the context of Kongo graphic writing, these constituent parts include ideograms, pictograms, and cosmograms, which can be differentiated as follows: • Ideograms: Visual signs or abstract graphic representations of an idea or mental image. A character or symbol representing ideas or things without expressing a particular word or phrase for it.4 • Pictograms or pictographs: Visual signals or figurative graphic representations that depict objects and produce mental images that give direct access to the objects and ideas. More simply, pictures used to represent words or ideas.5 • Cosmograms: Compounds of two conventional signs represented using another, nonfigurative form of representation or notation of the thought. This form of notation has the function of alluding to knowledge with implications in the metaphysical, philosophical, and religious realm. This kind of knowledge is known as cosmology , reports about the origin of life, and as cosmogony, reports about human conception and the existence of God. In Kongo writing, these constituent graphic units have no form of independent phonetic expression but can generally be identified by their proper names. In addition to using ideographs, pictograms, and cosmograms as their basic building blocks, Kongo graphic writing systems incorporate mnemonic elements and letters from the Latin alphabet. Much like any type of language, these components are combined in both simple and compound sequences to convey recognizable meaning. Far more than mere ­ collections C H A P T E R 4 Kongo Graphic Writing and Other Narratives of the Sign 48 of visual signs, Kongo graphic writing systems are complex codes of shared knowledge that develop and communicate cosmology, mythology, and philosophy and define aesthetic realities. They perpetuate and validate collective memories, epics, legends, myths, and ancient knowledge and play an integral role in the definition and development of African and Kongo-Caribbean cultures and in the practice of traditional and contemporary African-based religions. The ancient Bakongo called graphic writing Sinsu kia Nguisami, a phrase that translates as “communication by code and symbol.” Still in use today in many parts of Central Africa, graphic writing includes signs known as bidimbu (symbols) and bisinsu (codes). Although numerous scholars have studied the use and design of graphic traditions across a range of cultures, including pre-Columbian (Mayan scripture ), Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Vietnamese calligraphies), and North African (Egyptian hieroglyphs), there is a relative dearth of academic work that examines African graphic writing systems in great depth or in social context. The imprecision of available historical documents and the lack of clear reference to graphic writing in Africa before the nineteenth century result in limited solid ground on which to build a study of the role of graphic writing in Kongo culture. Early works on the subject, such as scholarship by Joseph H. Greenberg, David Dalby, Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, Marcel Mauss, Paul Rivet, Georges Balandier, J. K. MacGregor, Jacques Fédry, and J. Lacouture, have demonstrated the diversity of graphic designs but have neither explained the way graphic writing can be read nor imbued this tradition of communication with an understanding of its religious context. Although several contemporary writers have made reference to religious forms and uses of minkisi and firmas, only a couple have begun to systematically explore the meanings and uses of these communicative forms. The most complete references to Kongo graphic writing are found in the works of linguist Clémentine Faïk-Nzuji, in her book Arts africains: Signes et symboles; African art historian and anthropologist Robert Farris Thompson, in his book The Four Moments of the Sun; and priest and philosopher of Kongo culture K. K. Bunseki Fu-Kiau, who has written extensively about Kongo writing, most notably in Self-Healing Power and Therapy: Old Teachings from Africa. Faïk-Nzuji introduces the notion of bidimbu as a mode of expression and graphic tradition in Central and West Africa and explores the concept of symbol in the context of African culture and language.6 Faïk-Nzuji’s most important contributions are her attempt...

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