Education in Africa 
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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | A Cultural Revolution in Africa: Literacy in the Republic of Guinea since Independence |
| Author: | Oyler, Dianne White |
| Year: | 2001 |
| Periodical: | International Journal of African Historical Studies |
| Volume: | 34 |
| Issue: | 3 |
| Pages: | 585-600 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Guinea |
| Subjects: | alphabets writing systems Manding literacy Mande languages Development and Technology Education and Oral Traditions |
| About person: | Souleymane Kanté |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/3097555 |
| Abstract: | This article addresses Guinea's revolt against European cultural imperialism as evidenced in the issues of language and literacy that have dominated the political landscape in post-1958 Guinea. It further addresses the concept of maternal language learning that became central to decolonization, and the policy Sékou Touré developed and implemented with the support of UNESCO - the National Language Programme (1968-1984). In particular, the article documents one result of Touré's programme that has acquired a life of its own outside government control, a grassroots literacy movement that centres on an alphabet called N'ko. A salient aspect of the issue of language and literacy was the involvement of Souleymane Kanté (1922-1987), a Maninka-speaking 'vernacular intellectual' who invented the N'ko alphabet in 1949. The dissemination of N'ko shows the growth of a literacy movement that is currently spreading across international boundaries throughout West Africa. Being literate in N'ko has become an important part of the current Mande cultural revival. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |
