 The language has status as an official language in Senegal, and an orthography has recently been developed for writing it.Mankanya is known as "Uhula" by the people themselves (the Mankanya people, or "Bahula").The name 'Mankanya' ('Mancagne' in French) is thought to have been conferred upon the people and their language by colonialists who mistook the name of their chief at the time of colonisation for the name of the people-group itself.