(Name-mce) ListServ Libraries in the Sand Reveal Africa's Academic Past

[KispokoT at aol.com]

Libraries in the Sand Reveal Africa's Academic  Past

By Nick Tattersall,  Reuters
TIMBUKTU,  Mali (Nov. 10) - 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. 
_http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/libraries-in-the-sand-reveal-africas/200
61110045409990012?ncid=NWS00010000000001_ 
(http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/libraries-in-the-sand-reveal-africas/20061110045409990012?ncid=NWS0001000000
0001)