African Arabic-Script Languages Title: From the ‘Sacred’ to the ‘Profane’: the Yoruba Ajami Script and the Challenges of a Standard Orthography. Amidu Olalekan Sanni, Fountain University, Osogbo Nigeria The Yoruba (southwest Nigeria) constitute the second largest ethnic group in Nigeria. The earliest evidence of the presence of Islam and literacy goes back to the 16th/17th century. The earliest documented history of the people, which is traced to the latter part of the 17th C, was in Yoruba language but in the Arabic script (Ajami). This makes Yoruba one of the oldest African languages with an attested history of Ajami. (Cf. Mumin & Versteegh 2014; Hofheinz 2018). However, the oldest, extant Yoruba Ajami exemplar is a 19th C Islamic verse (waka) by Badamasi Agbaji (d. 1895- Hunwick 1995). There are several items of Yoruba Ajami in poetry, personal notes, esoteric knowledge (Cf. Bang 2019), among others. Nevertheless, Yoruba Ajami remained idiosyncratic and not socially diffused, as there was no standardized orthography. The plethora of dialects, the absence of a central promotional institution, among others, are responsible. My paper will examine the efforts (Abdussalām (1992), Yūsuf (1997), Amīn (1998, 2000), Abdulhameed (2008, 2013), and ISESCO (2014f) towards the establishment of a standard Yoruba Ajami orthography for sacred and mundane usages among the locals, sufi orders, and educational institutions. It will analyze the obstacles that impeded the success of the efforts and how to overcome them. How a standard Ajami orthography can popularize the diffusion of knowledge and information in a digital scholarly and social milieu is examined.

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This is amazing

Writing and reading has nothing to do with religion it's all about coming from the place where civilization has reached. The Arabs carry their religion everywhere they go so adherents of the religion have no option than to know the writing and reading thing.
If our people were fortunate to have been with the civilized world first the Ifá oracle would have been in written forms like the Bible and Qur'an thereby leading adherents to reading and writing skills.

MaxInDHouse:
Writing and reading has nothing to do with religion it's all about coming from the place where civilization has reached. The Arabs carry their religion everywhere they go so adherents of the religion have no option than to know the writing and reading thing.
If our people were fortunate to have been with the civilized world first the Ifá oracle would have been in written forms like the Bible and Qur'an thereby leading adherents to reading and writing skills.

That doesn't affect the fact that it was due to the arrival of Islam that we in Yoruba land can write and read

BeautyOfIslam:

That doesn't affect the fact that it was due to the arrival of Islam that we in Yoruba land can write and read

Well you're entitled to your personal opinion but if you ask me i will say the language that's generally spoken today by everyone in Nigeria is English not Arabic and to confirm that you are also here typing in English not Arabic which means English actually taught us how to read and write that's why you and i are chatting in their language.
Do you think Nairalanders (including most of your Muslim people) will understand anything if it's typed in Arabic?