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Libraries in the sand reveal Africa's academic past
Reuters ^ | 11/10/06 | Nick Tattersall

Posted on 11/12/2006 7:03:58 AM PST by Valin

TIMBUKTU, Mali (Reuters) - Researchers in Timbuktu are fighting to preserve tens of thousands of ancient texts which they say prove Africa had a written history at least as old as the European Renaissance. Private and public libraries in the fabled Saharan town in Mali have already collected 150,000 brittle manuscripts, some of them from the 13th century, and local historians believe many more lie buried under the sand.

The texts were stashed under mud homes and in desert caves by proud Malian families whose successive generations feared they would be stolen by Moroccan invaders, European explorers and then French colonialists. Written in ornate calligraphy, some were used to teach astrology or mathematics, while others tell tales of social and business life in Timbuktu during its "Golden Age", when it was a seat of learning in the 16th century. "These manuscripts are about all the fields of human knowledge: law, the sciences, medicine," said Galla Dicko, director of the Ahmed Baba Institute, a library housing 25,000 of the texts. "Here is a political tract," he said, pointing to a script in a glass cabinet, somewhat dog-eared and chewed by termites. "A letter on good governance, a warning to intellectuals not to be corrupted by the power of politicians."

Bookshelves on the wall behind him contain a volume on maths and a guide to Andalusian music as well as love stories and correspondence between traders plying the trans-Saharan caravan routes. Timbuktu's leading families have only recently started to give up what they see as ancestral heirlooms. They are being persuaded by local officials that the manuscripts should be part of the community's shared culture. "It is through these writings that we can really know our place in history," said Abdramane Ben Essayouti, Imam of Timbuktu's oldest mosque, Djingarei-ber, built from mud bricks and wood in 1325.

HEAT, DUST AND TERMITES

Experts believe the 150,000 texts collected so far are just a fraction of what lies hidden under centuries of dust behind the ornate wooden doors of Timbuktu's mud-brick homes. "This is just 10 percent of what we have. We think we have more than a million buried here," said Ali Ould Sidi, a government official responsible for managing the town's World Heritage Sites.

Some academics say the texts will force the West to accept Africa has an intellectual history as old as its own. Others draw comparisons with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. But as the fame of the manuscripts spreads, conservationists fear those that have survived centuries of termites and extreme heat will be sold to tourists at extortionate prices or illegally trafficked out of the country.

South Africa is spearheading "Operation Timbuktu" to protect the texts, funding a new library for the Ahmed Baba Institute, named after a Timbuktu-born contemporary of William Shakespeare. The United States and Norway are helping with the preservation of the manuscripts, which South African President Thabo Mbeki has said will "restore the self respect, the pride, honor and dignity of the people of Africa".

The people of Timbuktu, whose universities were attended by 25,000 scholars in the 16th century but whose languid pace of life has been left behind by modernity, have similar hopes. "The nations formed a single line and Timbuktu was at the head. But one day, God did an about-turn and Timbuktu found itself at the back," a local proverb goes. "Perhaps one day God will do another about-turn so that Timbuktu can retake its rightful place," it adds.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: africa; epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; islam; mali; muslim; muslims; operationtimbuktu; religionofpieces; timbuktu
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1 posted on 11/12/2006 7:04:01 AM PST by Valin
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To: Valin

Africa, home of the "Sun People", was once the lost continent of Atlantis where the Mother Wheel was built.


2 posted on 11/12/2006 7:15:36 AM PST by windsorknot
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To: Valin

Bump!


3 posted on 11/12/2006 7:28:43 AM PST by Spunky ("Everyone has a freedom of choice, but not of consequences.")
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Comment #4 Removed by Moderator

To: windsorknot

Africa, home of the "Sun People", was once the lost continent of Atlantis where the Mother Wheel was built.
- - - - - -

I think they have pretty much proven that Thera/Santarini has that distinction.


5 posted on 11/12/2006 7:33:10 AM PST by Dreagon
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To: aynrandfreak
.....ornate calligraphy....

Do you think anyone objective is going to translate these? We probably will end up an Ebonics form of picture writing now....

6 posted on 11/12/2006 7:33:40 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: windsorknot

Come on, be fair. What's wrong with admitting the facts presented clearly by this archaeology--that there was once a center of culture, art and learning in Africa? Certainly it no longer exists as such today, but remember that other great civilizations have turned to dust, and so might ours someday.


7 posted on 11/12/2006 7:35:01 AM PST by Fairview
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To: Fairview
and so mightWILL ours someday.
8 posted on 11/12/2006 7:39:24 AM PST by Valin (Rick Santorum 08)
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To: Valin
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said:—Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

9 posted on 11/12/2006 7:44:33 AM PST by Fairview
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To: Valin
For Mbeki to be taking credit for the achievements of Timbuktu, is like American Indians claiming that they were responsible for Harvard. Another laughable distortion of history. If anything Islam can crow about another accomplishment--except that they also have to face the fact that Moroccan hordes were also responsible for the demise.
10 posted on 11/12/2006 7:45:55 AM PST by giobruno
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To: Gaffer

and that new picture writing will be a PhD program at Harvard in 5 years.


11 posted on 11/12/2006 7:47:10 AM PST by aynrandfreak (I hate the Left)
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To: Valin

The story of Mali, Mansa Musa, etc. is no hidden secret.


12 posted on 11/12/2006 7:50:57 AM PST by P.O.E.
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To: P.O.E.; aynrandfreak

Apparently it is to some.


the texts will force the West to accept Africa has an intellectual history as old as its own


Yeah, right, and the dolphins are as smart as us too.


4 posted on 11/12/2006 9:31:22 AM CST by aynrandfreak (I hate the Left)


13 posted on 11/12/2006 7:57:54 AM PST by Valin (Rick Santorum 08)
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To: Fairview

Of course I was being facetious, but I was having fun at the expense of so-called scholars like Black Studies professor Leonard Jeffries who make all sorts of outlandish historical claims for Africa. For an interesting perspective on this, read "Not Out of Africa: How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History", by Mary Leftkowitz.


14 posted on 11/12/2006 8:00:42 AM PST by windsorknot
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To: Valin

I don't doubt there are texts there, and some intellectual history. My issue is when they try to make it seem like their intellectual history is as old as ours. That's just not accurate. Western civilization goes back to Ancient Greece at least. These texts are from the middle ages.


15 posted on 11/12/2006 8:16:27 AM PST by aynrandfreak (I hate the Left)
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To: windsorknot
Hello, windsorknot and Everyone:

For an interesting perspective on this, read "Not Out of Africa: How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History", by Mary Leftkowitz.

You took the thought right out of my head as I started reading this thread. Good suggestion.

16 posted on 11/12/2006 8:21:17 AM PST by drsbb
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To: Valin
Go here for a little background from Aug 03.
17 posted on 11/12/2006 8:21:39 AM PST by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: windsorknot

I absolutely agree with you about Leonard Jeffries. He's psychotic and does great damage. Black kids have enough to feel pride about in their own heritage without any political opportunist making stuff up. And if they don't have enough, then they should go to school, work hard, and become something great.


18 posted on 11/12/2006 8:36:41 AM PST by Fairview
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To: Dreagon
"I think they have pretty much proven that Thera/Santarini has that distinction."

Nah. It's in SE Asia.

Where Was Atlantis? Sundaland Fits The Bill, Surely!

19 posted on 11/12/2006 8:44:59 AM PST by blam
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To: Fairview

North Africa was unquestionably an important part of the Mediterranean world during the Hellenistic and Roman empires. Civilization seems to have continued there, after barbarians destroyed Rome and peaked in the 11th century, the golden age of Islam. However, this civilization was completely color blind and race did not mean what it does now. I just hope that they microfilm any documents that have value before Islamic militants bomb the library.


20 posted on 11/12/2006 8:49:35 AM PST by ClaireSolt (Have you have gotten mixed up in a mish-masher?)
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