Solomana Kanté (also written as Sùlemáana Kántε, Souleymane Kanté or Sulemaana Kantè; , 1922 – November 23, 1987) was a Guinean writer and educator, best known as the inventor of the N'Ko alphabet for the

Mandé languages The Mande languages are spoken in several countries in West Africa by the Mandé peoples and include Maninka, Mandinka, Soninke, Bambara, Kpelle, Dioula, Bozo, Mende, Susu, and Vai. There are "60 to 75 languages spoken by 30 to 40 million ...

of Africa. Kanté created N'Ko, a modern script for the Mandé language in 1949 after five years of experimentation with various writing systems. The script first came into use in Kankan,

Guinea Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...

as a Maninka alphabet and was disseminated from there into other Mandé -speaking parts of West Africa.

References

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. 1922 births 1987 deaths Guinean writers Guinean male writers Creators of writing systems Quran translators 20th-century translators 20th-century male writers {{writingsystem-stub Language reformers