Tag: Africa

French incursion may be saving Mali’s cultural heritage

The presence of French troops in Mali may help to protect a priceless cultural legacy which has been under siege by Islamist fighters. The BBC reports on the fate of the ancient city of Timbuktu:

The historic city is a World Heritage site, renowned for its architecture, manuscript libraries and centuries-old shrines to Islamic saints – revered by Sufi Muslims but which the Salafi militants consider idolatrous.

Many of these shrines, mausoleums, and other treasures have been destroyed just as the Taliban waged war against Afghanistan’s Buddhist monuments.

Mali crisis: ‘Timbuktu joy after life of fear’
Following France’s intervention in Mali last week, a Timbuktu resident, who asked to remain anonymous, tells the BBC about reaction in the city to the Islamist fighters’ apparent withdrawal.

Sadly, in other areas they control, Islamists continue to silence Mali’s vibrant musical culture.

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Update:

Sounds like a lot more damage has already been done: Timbuktu mayor says Islamists burned texts (AP)

The Arab as “white foreigner” – the contested heritage of Timbuktu

Manuscripts of Timbuktu
A Treasure of Timbuktu

The legendary city of Timbuktu – a center for trade and learning for centuries and is the home of the oldest library south of the Sahara. Now, African and Saudi donors are joined in a contest to reframe the cultural heritage of a continent:

No one in Timbuktu has forgotten how the Moroccans conquered the city, plundered the libraries and dragged off the best scholars to Fes. Ahmed Baba, the philosopher, in chains! This is a source of embarrassment in Morocco today but the stolen manuscripts have yet to be returned to Timbuktu.

‘We were also colonised by the Arabs,’ says Mohamed Dicko, director of the Ahmed Baba Institute. ‘It was an intellectual, cultural colonisation and it is still at work today in the notion that everything good about Islam came from the Arabs. It is like during the French colonial era when school children were taught only French writers.’ Soon, for the first time, texts in Arabic by native Mali authors will be appearing in textbooks, he says.

Read more about the manuscripts, architecture, and cultural legacy of Timbuktu at Sign and Sight.