Mandombe

Mandombe
Type	Alphabet organized into syllabic blocks
Languages	Kikongo, Lingala, Tshiluba, Swahili
Creator	Wabeladio Payi
Time period	1978–present
Parent systems	Artificial script Mandombe

Mandombe or Mandombé is a script proposed in 1978 in Mbanza-Ngungu in the Bas-Congo province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by Wabeladio Payi, who related that it was revealed to him by Simon Kimbangu, the prophet of the Kimbanguist Church, in a dream. It is based on the sacred shapes and , and intended for writing African languages such as the four national languages of the Congo, Kikongo, Lingala, Tshiluba and Swahili, though it does not have enough vowels to write Lingala fully. It is taught in Kimbanguist church schools in Angola, the Republic of the Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is also promoted by the Kimbanguist Centre de l’Écriture Négro-Africaine (CENA). The Mandombe Academy at CENA is currently working on transcribing other African languages in the script. It has been classified as the third most viable indigenous script of recent indigenous African scripts, behind only the Vai syllabary and the N'Ko alphabet.