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The Gambian advocates of Nko, which was developed by a Guinean seventy-seven years ago, gathered in Brikama to celebrate decades of literary development of the African alphabet. Nko is a twenty-seven-letter alphabet developed by Sulayman Kanteh, who went on to write close to two hundred books in literature, Islam, and the sciences, among other subjects.
The past few years have seen significant development in Nko education in The Gambia, leading to the construction of at least ten schools, with at least one in each of the eight regions.
“The minds of Africans have become a graveyard for ideas because of the lack of an alphabet to write our languages,” said Yahya Suware, the vice president of Faasuka nu Yiriwa Kaafo, the association leading the development of Nko in The Gambia.
“Other societies developed their own writing systems through which ideas are recorded and refined through generations of intellectual work. Mr. Kanteh developed Nko to respond to this need.” The alphabet, currently taught in several African countries—including Egypt, Mali, Guinea, Senegal, and the Ivory Coast—has been used to reproduce the Quran, all Hadith books, literature, philosophy, and the sciences.
The event, attended by dozens of Nko students from across the country, featured demonstrations of various items made by the children, such as a fridge, air conditioner, electric kettle, and fertilizer. They read poetry and sang songs.
The event was attended by the King of Kora, Jaliba Kuyateh, and a number of dignitaries, including teachers and advocates of the Nko alphabet from across the regions. The Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education was represented by Alpha Khan, an official from the directorate of curricula.
