Osman Yusuf Kenadid (Cismaan Yuusuf Keenadiid)

Who was he?

Osman Yusuf Kenadid was a Somali poet, writer and teacher. Around 1920 he invented a Somali alphabet and script, called Osmanya (Castagno, Historical Dictionary of Somalia, 1975, "Osman Yusuf Ali Bah Yaqub"). It was the first script designed only for the Somali language. Its letters look like neither Arabic nor Latin (Wikipedia, Osman Yusuf Kenadid).

Family and early life

He was born in 1889 at Ceel Huur, on the coast of today's Mudug region, and grew up in Gaalkacyo (Wikipedia). He was a son of Sultan Yusuf Ali Kenadid, founder of the Hobyo Sultanate. He was a brother of Ali Yusuf, the last sultan of Hobyo (Castagno 1975). His family is part of the Majeerteen (Darood) (Wikipedia).

Why he made a script

Somali had long been written, when at all, in Arabic letters, which do not fit all its sounds. Wikipedia records a family story. While writing letters home in Arabic script, he asked himself why Somalis, who speak Somali, had no Somali letters (Wikipedia). He then built a script that matched the sounds of Somali.

He taught Osmanya in schools of the Hobyo Sultanate. Italian officials saw the script as nationalist and a threat to their rule. They stopped its use and imprisoned him for a time (Castagno 1975).

The Youth League years

He was a founding member of the Somali Youth League (Castagno 1975). In the late 1940s the League favoured Osmanya as the national script. A newspaper column was printed in it in the late 1950s (Castagno 1975). Castagno records that the script was little known in the north, was seen by some as linked to one community, and was never adopted for the whole country (same source).

In 1972 the government chose the Latin-based script of Shire Jama Ahmed as the official way to write Somali (Wikipedia). Osman Yusuf Kenadid died in Mogadishu that same year (same source).

His writing

He wrote on Somali history and science, and textbooks on the Somali language, astronomy, geography and philosophy (Wikipedia). His son, Yasin Osman Kenadid, later helped found the Society for Somali Language and Literature and wrote a Somali dictionary (Wikipedia, Yusuf Ali Kenadid).

Osmanya today

Osmanya is in the Unicode standard, so it can be typed and shown on computers and phones (Unicode, Osmanya code chart). Some Somalis still use it as a mark of heritage. See also the Somali language written in 1972.

In short

Creator of the Osmanya script for Somali in the 1920s.