Momolu Duwalu Bukele

Background

Momolu Duwalu Bukele, sometimes known as Momolu Duala Bukare, lived in the 19th century and was the proliferator of the Vai syllabary, a script derived from the Poro Society used for writing the Vai language of Liberia. Some foreign to the Poro thought he invented it around 1833, though dates as early as 1815 have been alleged. According to Ayodeji Olukoju, the script certainly dates from after 1819, when Bukele returned to the interior of Liberia after a period of residence on the coast.

The syllabary is supposed to have been revealed to him in a dream and communicated to friends and tribal elders. Olukoju argues that the original idea must have arisen from his experience of literacy in coastal Liberia during his sojourn there, and that the visionary experience described may have followed from a period of work on the idea. Tuchscherer and Hair (2002) presented evidence that exposure to the Cherokee syllabary was part of the process, as part-Cherokee migrants from the US lived in coastal Liberia. After his creation of the syllabary, Bukele and his supporters set up a school in Dshondu to teach the system, and other schools soon followed at Bandakoplo, Mala, and other locations.