'Tusona': Luchazi ideographs: the discovery of a system of ideographic writing in eastern Angola and northwestern Zambia

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Periodical article

Title:	'Tusona': Luchazi ideographs: the discovery of a system of ideographic writing in eastern Angola and northwestern Zambia
Author:	Kubik, G.
Year:	1986
Periodical:	Africana Budapest: African Studies in Hungary
Issue:	2
Pages:	76-83
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Angola Zambia
Subjects:	writing systems Lucazi language
Abstract:	The Chokwe, Luchazi, Mbunda and related peoples, who inhabit eastern Angola and northwestern Zambia, possess an elaborate and complex tradition of writing ideographs in the sand. The author undertook a detailed study of such ideographs among Luchazi-speaking people in Kabompo District, Northwestern Province, Zambia, in the 1970s, and more recently, in 1982, found comparable ideographs in a village in Malanji Province, Angola. The graphic structures drawn in the sand by the older, male members of the community on the occasion of leisure time meetings are called 'tusona' (sing. kasona) in the Luchazi language. In many of the tusona two basic modes of action are involved: the impressing of dots, and the drawing in of lines to pass between the dots. Sometimes a kasona is pictographic. Many, however, have long narratives or philosophical considerations attached to them. In these cases, the kasona functions not only as a structural representation of the thought or idea to be expressed, but simultaneously as a mnemonic aid or written memorandum. Bibliogr.