Linekela Paul speaking Namibian Sign Language

This video was recorded by Rossouw van Rooyen in Namibia and features speaker Linekela Paul Nanyeni. Namibian Sign Language, or NSL, is signed by approximately 8,000 people in Namibia and Angola, and in 1970 the first school for the deaf was established in the town of Helao Nafidi in the Ohangwena Region of Northern Namibia. Since its first teachers were trained in South Africa to use the Paget Gorman Sign System (PGSS), Namibian Sign Language is classified within the Paget Gorman language family, but students elaborated the PGSS signs to develop their own grammar. A new school was established at Eluwa in South Africa in 1975, bringing in students from the Elenga school in Helao Nafidi, and another was created in Angola in 1982. NSL is well documented and continues to grow with additions such as the Eluwa Sign Language Project.