Bamaanna Cìw (Idéogrammes bamb

Issiaka BALLO

About this app

Bamaanna Cìw is an application designed and published by the Fàkan Kanbaaraso Language Center. The app contains 245 Bamanan (Bambara) ideograms. This is the Bamanan version adapted from one of the works in French by Dieterlen and Cissé (1972) for the benefit of the bamananphone community.
In this android application in bamanankan, the names of the ideograms are listed in bamanan alphabetical order. The first two signs that have not yet had a name bear the characteristic question marks.
By clicking on a name, a page opens to you containing the image of the respective sign and its name at the bottom. Below the image are options to check off as needed. The content of the checked option is then displayed at the bottom of the image. Navigation between the different signs is not only ensured by the directional arrows at the top of the screen but also by the manual swipe of the present display. At the bottom of the screen, there is the option "Dùrusili (cheating)". A click on this option allows you to make a full screen display of the corresponding image and the same navigation techniques apply in this mode. Devoid of any writing, the image alone is displayed in front of you so you can learn the names of the different signs by heart. You are only guided by the number of the sign that appears between the two directional arrows at the top of the screen. The return from "Dùrusili" mode to legend mode is done by clicking on the back arrow positioned at the bottom in the right corner of the screen.
To consult the "About" menu for this work, click on the three lines aligned in the left corner and at the top of the screen when you are already in the list of signs page. The page that appears provides information on several particularities (Dànmanakow): Tènnama (Default mode), Sugandilen (Customize mode), Kunnafoniko (Copyright page), Bamaannaciw ɲɛfɔli (About signs), Cìw gafe sunkofɔ (Bibliography).
These ideograms, also called sacred signs, are an irrefutable contribution of the Bamanan people in the great site of world construction. The ideograms are palpable proof that there is a Malian civilization which has contributed to the building of a literate world, albeit rudimentary. Humanity can therefore rejoice in these 245 ideograms. Had it not been for the arbitrary invasions (Islamic, Christian invasion, colonial penetration) which slowed down the natural course of the evolution of these signs through the efforts of the colleges named as such, the ideograms would surely be constantly revised and improved. to reach the most developed forms of the forms of writing that we know today: successively from ideograms to pictograms, and from pictograms to syllabic and then alphabetical systems. We would like to say this because the colleges responsible for sign issues met in congress every 7 years to review and improve existing practices in this area. But Islamization, evangelization and colonial penetration forced a "sublimation" in this normal course of the evolution of an indigenous and original writing by bringing with them the Arabic and Latin alphabets which we use today for our. writing needs.
However, we do not regret anything if we stick to the current uses of signs. To this end, the advent of digital technology has revived needs in ideograms. They are highly sought after in the design of digital product icons. Also, one of their current applications happens to be the patterns on the different supports: clothes, pictorial painting ... It is therefore advisable to dust off its few Bamanan ideograms through these respective activities. So we say: painters, decorators, programmers, to your brushes and mice, all provided with this deposit of free searchable Bamanan ideograms.