TED2013
Saki Mafundikwa: Ingenuity and elegance in ancient African alphabets
古非洲文字的智慧与优雅
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从一个单一字母到神秘的符号语言，平面设计者Saki Mafundikwa 展示了跨越非洲大陆的多种书写文字，他特別强调了这些书写文字和符号所隐含的历史与文化遗产意义，并力劝非洲的设计者们从这些图形文字上获得新的灵感。全讲可以总结为他最爱的加纳文字， Sankofa，意思是“返回并获得”，也就是“以古为鉴”。
Saki Mafundikwa - Graphic designer
Saki Mafundikwa wrote the book on Africa’s graphic design heritage -- then opened a school of graphic arts in his native Zimbabwe. Full bio
Saki Mafundikwa wrote the book on Africa’s graphic design heritage -- then opened a school of graphic arts in his native Zimbabwe. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:12
I moved back home 15 years ago
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15年前，我回到家乡
00:16
after a 20-year stay in the United States,
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那时已经在美国呆了20年
00:19
and Africa called me back.
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是非洲召唤我回去
00:21
And I founded my country's first
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我建立了祖国的第一个
00:25
graphic design and new media college.
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平面设计新媒体学院
00:27
And I called it the Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts.
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被我命名为数位视觉艺术津巴布韦研究院
00:32
The idea, the dream, was really for a sort of Bauhaus
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创校理念是建成包豪斯风格的设计学院
00:36
sort of school where new ideas were interrogated
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在这里，我们审视
00:41
and investigated,
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调研新的创意
00:44
the creation of a new visual language
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创造基于非洲善于创造的传统
00:47
based on the African creative heritage.
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的新视觉语言
00:52
We offer a two-year diploma
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我们为有天赋的
00:55
to talented students who have successfully completed
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高中毕业生提供一个
00:59
their high school education.
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两年的资格教育
01:01
And typography's a very important part of the curriculum
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字体排印学是我们课程中很重要的一部分
01:04
and we encourage our students to look inward for influence.
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我们鼓励学生深入其中获得灵感
01:09
Here's a poster designed by one of the students
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这是其中一个学生设计的海报
01:11
under the theme "Education is a right."
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主题为“教育是一项权利”
01:16
Some logos designed by my students.
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这些是我的学生设计的商标
01:20
Africa has had a long tradition of writing,
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非洲有历史悠久的书写传统
01:24
but this is not such a well-known fact,
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但鲜为人知
01:26
and I wrote the book "Afrikan Alphabets" to address that.
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为此，我写了“非洲字母表”来阐述这点
01:30
The different types of writing in Africa,
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非洲有多种文字系统
01:34
first was proto-writing,
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第一种是原始文
01:36
as illustrated by Nsibidi,
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比如Nsibidi文
01:38
which is the writing system of a secret society
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是尼日利亚南部的Ejagham人的一个
01:41
of the Ejagham people in southern Nigeria.
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隐秘部落使用的文字
01:45
So it's a special-interest writing system.
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所以是一个特殊群体的专用文字
01:49
The Akan of people of Ghana and [Cote d'Ivoire]
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约400年前，加纳和科特迪瓦（象牙海岸）的
01:52
developed Adinkra symbols some 400 years ago,
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阿肯人发明了Adinkra符号
01:56
and these are proverbs, historical sayings,
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这些（Adinkra符号）代表谚语，古格言，
02:00
objects, animals, plants,
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实物，动物，植物，
02:03
and my favorite Adinkra system
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其中我最喜欢的
02:05
is the first one at the top on the left.
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是左上方的第一个
02:07
It's called Sankofa.
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叫做Sankofa
02:08
It means, "Return and get it." Learn from the past.
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意思是，“返回并获得”，以古为鉴。
02:14
This pictograph by the Jokwe people of Angola
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这个安哥拉Jokwe人用的象形文字
02:17
tells the story of the creation of the world.
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讲了创世界的故事
02:21
At the top is God, at the bottom is man, mankind,
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最上面是上帝，最下面是人类
02:26
and on the left is the sun, on the right is the moon.
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左边是太阳，右边是月亮
02:31
All the paths lead to and from God.
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所以的路径都连通上帝
02:35
These secret societies of the Yoruba, Kongo
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分布在尼日利亚、刚果和
02:40
and Palo religions
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安哥拉的
02:42
in Nigeria, Congo and Angola respectively,
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的约鲁巴人、刚果人及Palo教徒的神秘部落
02:46
developed this intricate writing system
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分别创建了这复杂的文字
02:49
which is alive and well today in the New World
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这种文字现在依然在古巴、
02:53
in Cuba, Brazil and Trinidad and Haiti.
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巴西、特立尼达岛和海地的新世界中使用
02:59
In the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo,
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在刚果民主共和国的雨林
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in the Ituri society,
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在伊图利部落
03:06
the men pound out a cloth out of a special tree,
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男人猛击一种特殊树木制成这布料
03:09
and the women, who are also the praise singers,
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然后由女人，一边唱赞美诗，
03:12
paint interweaving patterns
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一边画出这些交织的图形
03:15
that are the same in structure
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这图形的结构就像她们
03:18
as the polyphonic structures that they use in their singing --
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歌中用的复调结构
03:23
a sort of a musical score, if you may.
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你可以称它为一种乐谱
03:27
In South Africa, Ndebele women
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在南非，恩德贝勒族的女人
03:29
use these symbols and other geometric patterns
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把这些符号和几何图形
03:33
to paint their homes in bright colors,
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亮丽地涂在她们的家里
03:36
and the Zulu women use the symbols
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祖鲁女人把这些符号
03:39
in the beads that they weave
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用在她们串
03:41
into bracelets and necklaces.
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手镯和项链的珠子里
03:44
Ethiopia has had the longest tradition of writing,
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埃塞俄比亚曾拥有最悠久的文字传统
03:48
with the Ethiopic script that was developed
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埃塞俄比亚语的文字体系
03:50
in the fourth century A.D.
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在公元四世纪就形成
03:52
and is used to write Amharic,
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现在还在用来写
03:55
which is spoken by over 24 million people.
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逾2400万人使用的阿姆哈拉语
03:58
King Ibrahim Njoya of the Bamum Kingdom of Cameroon
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喀麦隆前巴姆穆(Bamum)王国的国王Ibrahim Njoya
04:03
developed Shü-mom at the age of 25.
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在25岁的时候发明Shü-mom
04:06
Shü-mom is a writing system.
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Shü-mom是一种文字
04:08
It's a syllabary. It's not exactly an alphabet.
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它是一种音节文字，不完全是符号系统
04:11
And here we see three stages of development
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这是它30年中经过的
04:15
that it went through in 30 years.
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三个发展阶段
04:19
The Vai people of Liberia had a long tradition of literacy
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在19世纪利比里亚的Vai人与欧洲人接触前
04:25
before their first contact with Europeans in the 1800s.
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他们就已经有很长的文字史
04:29
It's a syllabary and reads from left to right.
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它是一种从左读的音节文字
04:33
Next door, in Sierra Leone, the Mende
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在邻近的塞拉利昂共和国，曼地人
04:37
also developed a syllabary,
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也发明了一种音节文字
04:39
but theirs reads from right to left.
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但他们的是从右读
04:43
Africa has had a long tradition of design,
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非洲曾有很长的设计文化
04:46
a well-defined design sensibility,
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具有非常清晰的设计感
04:50
but the problem in Africa has been that,
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但是，尤其是在当今，非洲的问题是
04:52
especially today, designers in Africa
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非洲的设计者
04:55
struggle with all forms of design
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在各种设计形式中挣扎
04:57
because they are more apt to look outward
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因为他们更倾向于追求外界（非洲以外）
05:02
for influence and inspiration.
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的影响潮流和灵感
05:04
The creative spirit in Africa, the creative tradition,
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如果设计者可以认真审视
05:08
is as potent as it has always been,
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他们会发现非洲一直都拥有自己的创新精神，
05:11
if only designers could look within.
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并且这种创新的力量和精神可以像过去一样有影响力
05:15
This Ethiopic cross illustrates
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这个埃塞俄比亚图腾便阐释了
05:18
what Dr. Ron Eglash has established:
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Ron Eglash 博士曾经提出的观点：
05:21
that Africa has a lot to contribute to computing
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非洲对于分形的直观理解
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and mathematics through their intuitive grasp of fractals.
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对计算数学有很大贡献
05:30
Africans of antiquity created civilization,
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古代非洲人创造了人类文明
05:34
and their monuments, which still stand today,
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他们现存的遗迹
05:38
are a true testimony of their greatness.
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就是他们伟大贡献的见证
05:41
Most probably, one of humanity's greatest achievements
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字母表的发明可以说是
05:45
is the invention of the alphabet,
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人类最伟大的发明之一
05:48
and that has been attributed to Mesopotamia
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这要归功于美索不达米亚
05:51
with their invention of cuneiform in 1600 BC,
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他们在公元前1600年发明了楔形文字
05:57
followed by hieroglyphics in Egypt,
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然后是埃及的象形文字
06:01
and that story has been cast in stone as historical fact.
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这个故事作为历史真相被刻在石头上
06:06
That is, until 1998,
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直到1998年，
06:09
when one Yale professor John Coleman Darnell
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耶鲁教授John Coleman Darnell
06:14
discovered these inscriptions in the Thebes desert
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在埃及西部底比斯沙漠
06:17
on the limestone cliffs in western Egypt,
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石灰岩悬崖上发现了这些碑文
06:21
and these have been dated at between 1800 and 1900 B.C.,
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它们被确认为是公元前18到19世纪
06:27
centuries before Mesopotamia.
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在美索不达米亚文明之前的古迹
06:30
Called Wadi el-Hol
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被叫做恐怖峡谷字母
06:33
because of the place that they were discovered,
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由他们被发现的地方命名
06:36
these inscriptions -- research is still going on,
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关于这些碑文的研究还在进行
06:39
a few of them have been deciphered,
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一小部分已经被解码
06:42
but there is consensus among scholars
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但研究者已达到共识
06:45
that this is really humanity's first alphabet.
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这确实是人类第一个字母表
06:50
Over here, you see a paleographic chart
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这是一个古体文字表
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that shows what has been deciphered so far,
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显示了至今已经被解码的文字
06:56
starting with the letter A, "ālep," at the top,
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从字母A，最上面的“ālep”，开始
06:59
and "bêt," in the middle, and so forth.
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B，中间的 “bêt”，依此类推。
07:03
It is time that students of design in Africa
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现在非洲的设计学学生应该要
07:07
read the works of titans like Cheikh Anta Diop,
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读这些伟人的作品，像Cheikh Anta Diop（人名），
07:11
Senegal's Cheikh Anta Diop,
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塞内加尔的Cheikh Anta Diop，
07:13
whose seminal work on Egypt is vindicated
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他关于埃及的开创性的研究就是
07:16
by this discovery.
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被这一发现证实。
07:19
The last word goes to the great Jamaican leader
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最后来说一下伟大的牙买加领导人
07:22
Marcus Mosiah Garvey
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马科斯·加维（Marcus Mosiah Garvey）
07:24
and the Akan people of Ghana
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和加纳的阿肯人
07:28
with their Adinkra symbol Sankofa,
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他们的Adinkra文字Sankofa
07:30
which encourages us to go to the past
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鼓励我们以古为鉴
07:32
so as to inform our present
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用之于今
07:34
and build on a future for us and our children.
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来为我们和我们的孩子建立未来
07:39
It is also time that designers in Africa
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非洲的设计者也
07:43
stop looking outside.
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不该再只向其他文化借鉴
07:46
They've been looking outward for a long time,
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他们已经向外学习很长时间了
07:48
yet what they were looking for
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然而他们要从找寻的
07:51
has been right there within grasp, right within them.
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其实就在触手可及的地方，就在他们自己身上
07:55
Thank you very much.
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非常感谢
07:57
(Applause)
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（掌声）
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Saki Mafundikwa - Graphic designerSaki Mafundikwa wrote the book on Africa’s graphic design heritage -- then opened a school of graphic arts in his native Zimbabwe.
Why you should listen
In his book Afrikan Alphabets, Saki Mafundiwaka includes a Ghanaian pictograph meaning “return to the past” This is exactly what he did in 1997 when he cashed in his publishing job 401(k) and left New York to open the Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts (ZIVA) in Harare. (“Vigital” denotes visual arts taught using digital tools.)
As a kid growing up in Zimbabwe, Mafundiwaka loved to sketch letterforms he saw in books and magazines, but he didn’t know graphic design was a career option until he arrived in America. "Sometimes you have to leave home,” he says, “to discover yourself.” He opened ZIVA to pay it forward. “The dream,” he says, “is for something to come out of Africa that is of Africa."
In 2010, he made the film Shungu: The Resilience of a People, a compelling narrative of the strategies ordinary people use to survive in Zimbabwe today.
Saki Mafundikwa | Speaker | TED.com