Solomana Kanté (also written as Sùlemáana Kántε, Souleymane Kanté or Sulemaana Kantè; , 1922 – November 23, 1987) was a

Guinean 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 ...

writer and educator, best known as the inventor of the

N'Ko alphabet N'Ko () is a script devised by Solomana Kante in 1949, as a modern writing system for the Mandé languages of West Africa. The term ''N'Ko'', which means ''I say'' in all Mandé languages, is also used for the Mandé literary standard written ...

for the Mandé languages 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 Kankan ( Mandingo: Kánkàn; N’ko: ߞߊ߲ߞߊ߲߫) is the largest city in Guinea in land area, and the third largest in population, with a population of 1 980 130 people as of 2020. The city is located in eastern Guinea about east of the ...

, Guinea as a

Maninka Maninka (also known as Malinke), or more precisely Eastern Maninka, is the name of several closely related languages and dialects of the southeastern Manding subgroup of the Mande language family. It is the mother tongue of the Malinké peopl ...

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