(Name-mce) ListServ Page 2: 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

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.