# Borama Script Created (c. 1933)

URL: https://allhistories.com/somalia/timeline/1933-borama-script-created
Location: Borama, Awdal, Somaliland
Themes: main-event

Following the creation of Osmanya in the south, other Somali scholars sought to give their language its own writing system. In the north-west of British Somaliland, the town of Borama in the Awdal region was an important centre of Islamic learning among the Gadabuursi clan. Around 1933 Sheikh Abdurahman Sheikh Nur, a religious scholar and later a qadi, devised a new alphabet known as the Borama or Gadabuursi script. Written left to right, it has distinctive letter shapes and represents Somali vowels systematically. It was used to record religious poetry, including the sheikh's own verses, and some correspondence, but its use remained largely local. The Borama script was one of several competing proposals for writing Somali, alongside Osmanya, Arabic-based schemes, the Kaddare script of 1952 and the Latin alphabet. The debate over which to adopt became politically charged after independence, until the Latin script was chosen in 1972. The Borama script remains an important example of indigenous innovation in the Horn of Africa and has been proposed for Unicode encoding. At this point in the timeline (c. 1933), the Governor of Italian Somaliland was Maurizio Rava (1 July 1931 – 6 March 1935); the Commissioner, then Governor of British Somaliland was Arthur Salisbury Lawrance (18 June 1932 – 2 March 1939); the Sultan of the Isaaq was Deria Hassan (1870 – 1939).

## Why it matters
The Borama script showed the vitality of local efforts to write the Somali language before an official script was chosen.

Ruler at the Time: [Maurizio Rava](https://allhistories.com/somalia/rulers/maurizio-rava)

Commissioner, then Governor: Arthur Salisbury Lawrance
Sultan of the Isaaq: Deria Hassan

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Gadabuursi Somali Script](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadabuursi_Somali_Script)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Somali language](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Somali+language)
- [Library of Congress — Somalia: A Country Study](https://www.loc.gov/item/93003954/)
- [Wikipedia — Dervishes And Colonial Rule (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dervish_movement_(Somali))