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

Guinean Demographics of Guinea describes the condition and overview of Guinea's peoples. Demographic topics include basic education, health, and population statistics as well as identified racial and religious affiliations. Population According to t ...

writer, neographer, and educator, best known as the inventor of the

N'Ko alphabet NKo (ߒߞߏ), also spelled N'Ko, is an alphabetic script devised by Solomana Kanté in 1949, as a modern writing system for the Manding languages of West Africa. The term ''NKo'', which means ''I say'' in all Manding languages, is also used fo ...

for the Manding language varieties of Africa. Kanté created N'Ko, a modern script for, as he saw it, the Manding 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 198,013 people as of 2020. The city is located in eastern Guinea about east of the ...

Guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...

and was disseminated from there into other Manding-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 Creators of writing systems Quran translators 20th-century translators 20th-century Guinean male writers {{writingsystem-stub Language reformers