Hello, Salut! I am an American Israeli studying Political Science and International Relations with a focus on Subsarahan Africa. I lived in Sierra Leone for a year working for a humanitarian aid organization during the West African Ebola Epidemic from 2015 to 2016. I have a love and deep interest in the culture of Mali and Burkina Faso. I came across Coleman’s videos on Youtube when one was put into my feed while I was watching music videos of Fatoumata Diawara and Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba. I was very intrigued by the level of Manding Coleman spoke and as I learned about what he does, I became an avid supporter.
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Shaya! I dansɛ! 
Thanks for joining the Forum and introducing yourself here! When you were in Sierra Leone, did you work with in Mandinka/Mandingo-speaking people or communities?
Interesting to hear that music is what led to you find AKT; I think it’s one of the major ways that people get interested in the language. @OdhranMullan has also posted about some Manding words coming from songs. Don’t hesitate to the do the same!
Coleman, Aw ni ce… When I lived in Sierra Leone I spent much time with Mendé people and at some point had wanted to ask you if Mendé is related to the Manding family? I find writing systems very interesting and really liked your video on N’ko. I saw a video that said that actually, West Africa is a hot bed of revived and created writing systems for African languages. It made me think of the written language of Wakanda in Black Panther. Do you happen to know if it was inspired by N’ko?
Have a great week, Shaya
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Nba! I ni ce!
Ah, I see. Mendé is related to Manding because it is part of the larger “Mande” language family, but it’s not mutually intelligible. The Mande language family is very big though with some languages separated by thousands of years (just like English, French, German and Russian are all in the same larger family).
I can’t say that I know much about the historical tradition or anthropological scholarship on that part of West Africa, so I am not sure what immigration patterns and social connections might be at play. The only scholar that I personally know that has mentioned working in Mendé-speaking areas is Peter Mark at Wesleyan.
(Note that that linguists use Mande as a term for the broader family and Manding for the generally mutually intelligible varieties of Bambara/Jula/Maninka/Mandinka, but that in other literatures you’ll see “Mande” used in place of Manding. Confusing, I know! 
)
I saw that video on YouTube too, I think. As for Black Panther, I can’t say that I have any idea what their inspiration was!