Kanté created N’Ko in response to erroneous beliefs that no indigenous African writing system existed, as well as to provide a better way to write Manding languages, which had for centuries been written predominantly in
Ajami script, which was not perfectly suited to the
tones unique to Mandé and common to other
West African languages. An anecdote popular with N'Ko proponents is that Kanté was particularly challenged to create the distinct system when, while in
Bouake, he found a book by
Kamel Mrowa who dismissed African languages as “like those of the birds, impossible to transcribe” despite said Ajami history. Kanté then devised N’Ko while he was in
Bingerville,
Côte d'Ivoire, and later brought it to his native
Kankan,
Guinea. N’Ko began to be used in many educational books, and the script is believed to have been finalized on April 14, 1949 – a date now celebrated as N’Ko Alphabet Day. Kanté initially used the system to transcribe religious, scientific, and philosophical literature, and even a dictionary. These texts were then distributed as gifts across the Manding-speaking parts of West Africa. The script received its first dedicated
typewriter from
Eastern Europe as
Guinea had ties to the
Soviet Union in the 1950s. This introduction of the script led to a movement promoting N’Ko literacy among Mandé speakers in both Anglophone and Francophone West Africa. N’Ko literacy was thus instrumental in shaping Maninka cultural identity in Guinea, and strengthened Manding identity in wider West Africa. On June 27, 2024, the
N’Ko literary standard was added to
Google Translate. ==Current use==