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David Wabeladio Payi from Congo-Kinshasa is the inventor of the Mandombe script or writing system. The word Mandombe means "that which is Black" in Kongo language. The script is read from left to right, but can also be read from top to bottom.
The invention started in 1978 and, in 1982, Wabeladio Payi received patent No. 2505/82 for his writing system from the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Republic of Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo). However, it is only in 1994 that the writing system was officially presented to the general public. On April 4, 2013, Wabeladio Payi passed away. However, he has bequeathed to Africa a powerful “weapon” used by about one million people in Africa, Europe and the Americas.
The Mandombe script can be used to transcribe languages such as Kikongo, Lingala, Swahili and Tshiluba, as well as several other Bantu languages in West, Central, East and Southern Africa. An operating system conceived in Mandombe script was therefore developed and is called Nzitani (formerly Lundombe) which gives the possibility to use a software to write, compute, etc. in Mandombe electronically.
Source: Nzitani
Source: Nzitani
Below is the Mandombe version of the Lord’s Prayer in Swahili. As one can see, the letters are electronically generated, thanks to the Nzitani Operating System.
Source: blackorwa.com