The Nigerian Qur'anic Manuscript Project: retrieving a unique resource on the Kanuri language and culture

Abstract

“Many African languages have a long written tradition, e.g. Ge'ez, Kiswahili, Hausa, etc.” reads the summary of panel 21 of the AEGIS conference “African Manuscripts and Museum Collections in Europe”. The list could be extended to include other names familiar to a wider audience, e.g., Fula(ni) (Fulfulde), Manding (Mandenkan, Bambara, Dyula, Mandinka), Wolof, Asante (Akan), Songay. The Kanuri language however, needs some introduction. This is to a certain extent a historical paradox, because Kanuri was in fact the first African language to be extensively documented in the middle of the 19th century by Sigismund Koelle. In 1854 Koelle published two large volumes on Kanuri grammar and an anthology of oral narratives (1854a, 1854b). Remarkably, four tales from the Koelle's Kanuri anthology found their way into Volume 3 of the 3rd edition of the Grimm Brothers’ Children and Household Tales (1856).