- Solomana Kante
Soulemayne Kante or Solomana Kante (1922-1987) was an African writer and inventor of the
N'Ko alphabet for theMande languages ofWest Africa . 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. N'ko came first into use inKankan ,Guinea as a Maninkaalphabet and was disseminated from there into other Mande-speaking parts of West Africa.ources
*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.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
