The PANAFRICAN Review
within their spaces . What is proposed here is an emphasis on the bilingualism of members of Africa ’ s deaf community in both their indigenous sign languages and other more widely used and understood sign languages .
Historically , several oral and text-based evidences exist on the lives of hearing-impaired people in the past one thousand years of Africa ’ s history . Up to 100 records by explorers and travelers exist about the use of formal sign languages across 42 African nations . For instance , Europeans traders who plied West African territories have several records of silent trade whereby negotiations were conducted in gestural or sign languages . Other parts of the continent where this silent trade took place include Angola , the Congo , Egypt , Ethiopia , Kenya , Mozambique and possibly Somalia .
A traveler in South Africa , centuries ago , described the use of sign language among the deaf communities he encountered . These deaf people were gainfully employed and completely integrated in their various communities . He quoted a particular deaf craftsman who was " uncommonly clever in handicraft employments and was exceedingly useful to the inhabitants of the country , in making gun-locks , tools for all kinds of work , and in general in all the finer kinds of smith ' s work ", as well as “ artistic carvings and engravings .”
During the Benin punitive expedition , the British team recorded that a dumb man was one of the guides who knew the way to Benin City and using sign language , he was able to lead them to the city . There are also records of formal sign languagesthat can be found in government , institutional and missionary archives , and in academic research reports , folklore , and other such narratives .
Today over 20 formal sign languages appear in the most recent linguistic encyclopedia . One sign language that stands out in West Africa and is worth mentioning here is the Adamorobe sign language in Ghana . The Adamorobe sign language is assumed to be over 200 years old , although numbers of the high occurrence of deafness in Adamorobe has been available only since 1961 when it stood at 11 % of the total population . It is recorded that the traditional ruler of the community instituted a policy afterwards banning intermarriages between deaf people . The policy has reduced the incidence of deafness in Adamorobe community to 1 % as of 2012 .
The Adamorobe sign language is completely indigenous to the Adamorobe community and is used by both the deaf and hearing people . It comes complete with functionality for everyday use , including traditional greetings , proverbs and every other indigenous requirement for the transfer and exchange of knowledge within a community .
Adamorobe sign language is now , however , being overshadowed by the Ghanaian Sign Language
( GSL ). The GSL is an adaptation of the American Sign Language that was established by the Reverend Andrew Foster . The Adamorobe Sign Language is losing its potency among the younger generation who now attend boarding school for the deaf outside of their community , where GSL is used in teaching and learning . If this situation is not addressed , the result could be that soon , many elders who are not fluent in GSL will be unable to communicate with the younger generation , since the Adamorobe Sign Language is completely different from the Ghanaian Sign Language . At this point , however , there are already a lot of loan words from the Ghanaian Sign Language that are already making their way into the Adamorobe Sign Language .
The inability of older , hearing elders to communicate with younger deaf members of their community as a result of the loss of the Adamorobe Indigenous Sign Language implies a loss in the indigenous knowledge that could have been transferred to the younger generation . The loss of Africa ’ s indigenous knowledge must be stymied and developing indigenous sign languages is only one of the numerous strategies that can be pursued to achieve this objective .
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