Ancient Writing Systems. Some nineteenth- and earlytwentieth- century scholars believed that the ancient kingdoms of West Africa came into being because of invaders from the north and that West African culture developed because of Arab and Muslim influences. Later scholars, however, have demonstrated that West African kingdoms were developed by Africans and that some of their writing systems predate the arrival of the Muslims while others developed independently from Arabic influence. One indigenous writing system was the script invented by the Akan peoples, who lived in what is now south-central Ghana. During the fourteenth century, the Akan group controlled the gold trade and introduced standard gold weights made of brass for use in measuring gold dust. (These gold weights are sometimes called Ashanti gold weights after one of the best known of the Akan peoples.) The Akan kingdom grew during the...