Prior to 1956, the only deaf schools in Africa were in Egypt and South Africa. Andrew Foster brought

American Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual lang ...

(ASL), and deaf schools to Africa in 1956. After Andrew Foster's death in 1986, deaf schools have continued to vary and spread across Africa.

Ghana

Deaf education was first introduced by Andrew Foster in 1957, there was no deaf education or organizations prior to that. Andrew Foster introduced

Ghanaian Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) developed in the United States and Canada, but has spread around the world. Local varieties have developed in many countries, but there is little research on which should be considered dialects of ASL (such as Bolivia ...

, a variety of

. Ghanaian Sign Language is the national

sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...

of deaf people in

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

. However Ghanaian Sign Language threatens indigenous sign languages, such as Adamorobe Sign Language and

Nanabin Sign Language Nanabin Sign Language is a family sign language of the coastal Fante village of Ekumfi Nanabin in the Central Region of Ghana, ca. 8 km east of Mankessim. It is used by three generations of a single family which is mostly deaf. The secon ...

. There are researchers working to document Adamorobe Sign Language, most indigenous, or

village sign language A village sign language, or village sign, also known as a shared sign language, is a local indigenous sign language used by both deaf and hearing in an area with a high incidence of congenital deafness. Meir ''et al.'' define a village sign languag ...

s are not documented. There are nine schools for the deaf in Ghana.

Kenya

Deaf education in Kenya Deaf Education in Kenya is a constantly changing section of the Kenyan education system that is focused on educating deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing-impaired Kenyan students. There are many organizations in Kenya made to protect the rights of Dea ...

Nigeria

Deaf education was first introduced by Andrew Foster in 1957, there was no deaf education or organizations prior to that. He introduced

, a dialect of ASL. In 1960

Nigerian Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) developed in the United States and Canada, but has spread around the world. Local varieties have developed in many countries, but there is little research on which should be considered dialects of ASL (such as Bolivia ...

was introduced, also as dialect of ASL and it is the national sign language of Nigeria. Local sign languages existed prior to these introduced languages, such as

Bura Sign Language Bura Sign Language is a village sign language used by the Bura people around the village of Kukurpu, 40 km (25 miles) south-east of Biu, Nigeria, an area with a high degree of congenital deafness. What little is known about it is due to a brief ...

which is used by the Bura people in a very remote area. Chadian teachers for the deaf are trained in Nigeria. There are deaf schools in N’Djamena, Sarh, and Moundou.

South Africa

As early as 1863, Irish nuns taught the deaf Irish Sign Language in South Africa.

Tunisia

The January 2012 Tunisian Revolution had positive results for the deaf population of Tunisia. Deaf people were allowed to vote for the first time in 50 years.{{Cite web, url=http://deafunity.org/article-interview/deaf-in-tunisia/, title = Deaf in Tunisia | Deaf Unity There are also studies in Italian Sign Language.

References