About Bamum Script

The writing system used for the Bamum language only supports that language and is therefore unique. The publications listed below include books, articles and documents that provide significant information about the Bamum writing system.

Bamum Script Research Materials

The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

Die Bamum-Schrift. by Schmitt, Alfred, 1888-1976.
Call Number: PL8050 .S3
Published/Created: 1963.
"La langue secrète du Sultan Njoya." by Institut français d'Afrique noire
Call Number: DT561 .I5
Published/Created: 1948-
Found in Études camerounaises 31-32, septembre-décembre 1950. Duala 3, pages 231-60. (OCoLC) 5067342.
L'écriture du roi Njoya: une contribution de l'Afrique à la culture de la modernité by Emmanuel Matateyou, editor, contributor.
Call Number: PL8050.5 .E37 2015
ISBN: 2343043523
Published/Created: 2015
Includes bibliographical references and index.
In French with 2 contributions in English; abstracts in French and English.
L'écriture du roi Njoya : une contribution de l'Afrique à la culture de la modernité = Njoya's alphabet: the Sultan of Bamum and French colonial reactions to the A ka u ku script.
Call Number: DT1 .C3
Published/Created: Began in 1960
English and French, with summaries in English.
Issued by: Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales.
Note sur l'écriture inventée par Njoya, sultan du Bamoum
Call Number: GN1 .A77
Published/Created: Frequency varies, 1914-1970; Annual, 1971-1973; Semiannual, 1974-1984
Archives suisses d'anthropologie générale : anthropologie, archéologie, ethnographie 1928-29, t. 5, no 2, p. 243-247.
The alphabet of Njoya.
Call Number: DT491 .W47
West African review.
London : West African Graphics Co., [-1962] -Nov. 1962.
The writing of Njoya.
Antiquity. v. IX, p. 435-442, 2 illus., pl.
Une nouvelle écriture nègre: sa portée théorique.
Call Number: GN1 .R5
Revue des études ethnographiques et sociologies. Paris 1 (3) mars 1908, pages 129-139.

Full Text Reports

Report on work with the Bamum script in Cameroon. Bamum Scripts and Archives Project. (PDF, 4.5 MB) by Charles Riley
Published/Created: 21 September 2006
4 pages.
Proposal for encoding the Old Bamum script in the SMP of the UCS (PDF, 4.6 MB) by Michael Everson, Charles Riley, Konrad Tuchscherer
Published/Created: 27 January 2009
Bamum Scripts and Archives Project in the Palace of Bamum Kings, & the UC Berkeley Script Encoding Initiative (Universal Scripts Project).
30 pages.
Towards the Encoding of the Bamum Script in the UCS (PDF, 947 KB) by Charles Riley
Published/Created: 08 January 2006
Bamum Scripts and Archives Project.
6 pages.

British Library: Endangered Archives Programme, Bamum
Archival records from Bamum script and archives project: saving Africa's written heritage (EAP051)

Bamum Script: An African Writing System

African & Middle Eastern Studies: Ask a Librarian

About Bamum Script

Bamum Script Research Materials

Full Text Reports