Ibrahim Njoya was the ruler of the Bamum Kingdom in present-day Cameroon. Around 1896, he began inventing a writing system for the previously unwritten Bamum language, refining hundreds of pictograms into an 80-character syllabary used in schools, histories, maps and court records. He also built a palace, established a printing press and exchanged a spectacular beaded throne with Kaiser Wilhelm II, who sent him a German Imperial Guard uniform in return.
Ibrahim Njoya
