Can an alphabet save a culture?

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A new alphabet for an ancient people promises to preserve their culture and connect their community.

What does it mean to lose a language? Deep knowledge, passed down over millennia—gone. Ways of thinking about the land, the sea, the sky, and the flora and fauna that inhabit them. Rituals and recipes. Myths and memories, erased. And for those who spoke the language, it means losing a part of themselves.

Despite the Barry Brothers’ life-long commitment to spreading literacy through ADLaM—only text fonts for the alphabet existed, making it difficult for people to use the alphabet to communicate on social media platforms, which is now the most important means of communication for the Fulani people.

To help remedy this, we commissioned three renowned type designers Neil Patel, Mark Jamra, and Andrew Footit to create a new display font which specifically caters to these platforms.

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