Soulemayne Kante or Solomana Kante (1922-1987) was an African writer and inventor of the N'Ko alphabet for the Mande languages of West Africa. Year 1922 ( MCMXXII) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar) N'Ko (ߒߞߏ is both a script devised by Solomana Kante in 1949 as a writing system for the Mande languages of West Africa, and the name of The Mande languages are spoken in several countries in West Africa by the Mandé people and include Mandinka, Soninke, Bambara West Africa or Western Africa is the Westernmost Region of the African Continent. N'Ko means 'I say' in all Mande languages.
Kante created N'Ko in 1949 after a night of deep meditation, in response to what he felt were beliefs that Africans were a "cultureless people", and since there was, prior to this time, no indigenous African writing system for his language. Year 1949 ( MCMXLIX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. A writing system is a type of Symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in Language. N'ko came first into use in Kankan, Guinea as a Maninka alphabet and was disseminated from there into other Mande-speaking parts of West Africa. Kankan is the second largest city in Guinea, located on the River Milo in eastern Guinea and lying about 300 Miles east of the nation's Guinea, officially Republic of Guinea (pronounced /ˈgɪni/ République de Guinée is a country in West Africa, formerly known as French Guinea An alphabet is a standardized set of letters basic written symbols each of which roughly represents a Phoneme, a Spoken language, either
Sources
- Conrad, David C. (2001). Reconstructing Oral Tradition: Souleymane Kanté’s Approach to Writing Mande History. Mande Studies 3, 147-200.
- Kaba, Diaka Laye (1992). Souleymane Kanté: l’inventeur de l’alphabet N’ko. L’Educateur: Trimestriel Pédagogique des Enseignants de Guinée 11-12, 33
- Kanté, Bourama (1996). Souvenir de Kanté Souleymane. Somoya Sila: Journal Culturel de l'Association ICRA-N'KO 19.
- Kanté, Souleymane (1961). Alphabet de la langue N’ko ‘n’ko sebesun. ’ In Méthode pratique d’écriture N’ko. Kankan, reprinted by Mamady Keita (1995), Siguiri.
- Vydrine, Valentin, ed. (2001). Lettres de Souleymane Kanté et Maurice Houis. Mande Studies 3, 133-146.
External links
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