Somali Sign Language (SSL) is a

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 ...

used by the

deaf community Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...

Somaliland Somaliland,; ar, صوماليلاند ', ' officially the Republic of Somaliland,, ar, جمهورية صوماليلاند, link=no ''Jumhūrīyat Ṣūmālīlānd'' is a ''de facto'' sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, still conside ...

and

Djibouti Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red ...

. In the 1980s a school for the deaf was established in the Somali Kenyan town of

Wajir Wajir ( so, Wajeer) is the capital of the Wajir County of Kenya. It is situated in the former North Eastern Province. History A cluster of cairns near Wajir are generally ascribed by the local inhabitants to the Maadiinle, a semi-legendary peo ...

Annalena Tonelli Annalena Tonelli (2 April 1943 – 5 October 2003) was an Italian Catholic lay missionary and social activist. She worked for 33 years in East Africa, where she focused on tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, campaigns for erad ...

. Students there became fluent in Kenyan Sign Language. In 1997, three graduates from Wajir helped establish the first school for the deaf in Somaliland called the Annalena School for the Deaf named after the late Annalena Tonelli, in

Borama Borama ( so, Boorama, ar, بورما) is the Second capital city of Somaliland and the largest city of the northwestern Awdal region of Somaliland The commercial seat of the province, it is situated near the border with Ethiopia. During the Mid ...

. One of the teachers at Boroma soon founded a school in Djibouti, and, with a bit more difficulty, another was established in

Hargeisa Hargeisa (; so, Hargeysa, ar, هرجيسا) is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Somaliland. It is located in the Maroodi Jeex region of the Horn of Africa. It succeeded Burco as the capital of the British Somaliland Protector ...

References

{{Languages of Somalia Languages of Somaliland Languages of Djibouti

See also

References