![]() The 1,200 year-old manuscripts include works on alchemy, astrology, medicine, the Koran and history.īrozowsky believes this collection is comparable in significance to the contents of all of the libraries in the whole of Germany. Timbuktu, which lies some 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) to the north of Bamako, was one of the spiritual centers of Islam in the Middle Ages. These documents are among the most historically important in West Africa and have been listed as part of UNESCO's World Cultural Heritage since 1988. The 34-year-old restorer of historical artefacts and specialist in paper is a member of a team of German scientists who are working to save ancient manuscripts from the library in Timbuktu from the ravages of time. The Malian capital has been her place of work for the last year. But all this work has to be done in the face of continuing violence in the region (with a local mayor, his son and their driver killed on New Year's day) and now with virtually no funding/resources.Eva Brozowsky is on her way back to Bamako. Good work is still being done despite the lack of funding - see the manuscript recovered from Bamako, Mali by ‘Timbukto Renaissance’ curator Abdel Kader Haidara ( image via the Prince Claus Fund). "Those ancient documents tell us that a thriving book trade existed, and that local scholars studied and published books about the Koran, medicine, astronomy, mathematics and more," Medupe said. Thebe Medupe, an astronomer at North-West University, viewed the manuscripts as helping to debunk the myth that Africa had only an oral tradition. Dr Motshekga, the chairman of the Kara Heritage Institute, said about it: “We need to decolonise the African mind and Timbuktu is one of the places that one can use to show to our children that they were civilised before the so-called Western civilisation, and what is claimed to be Western is stolen knowledge from Africa.” ![]() The Fund and the Ahmed Baba Institute gave a place where South African experts trained local Malians in the restoration and preservation of their manuscripts. ![]() In 2009, the north-western African head of state, Amadou Toumani Toure, hosted the opening of a new state-of-the-art facility built with aid from the southernmost neighbours to house and preserve Timbuktu literary riches - the Ahmed Baba Institute. As Africans were among the first to develop writing and maths the Timbuktu manuscripts are a rich source of Africa’s cultural heritage. In 2001, Thabo Mbeki visited Timbuktu and as a result spearheaded the founding of a multi-million Rand trust fund for the purpose of preserving Timbuktu’s historically unique, important ancient manuscripts. ![]() But there has been no government support (from South Africa or elsewhere) for the initiative since 2009 and now the SA Timbuktu trust fund is going to close. It is reported that ANC former chief whip Mathole Motshekga is saying that the African Union has to take responsibility for preserving the Timbuktu manuscripts. ![]() Now, at the end of 2014, South Africa is formally withdrawing its financial support by closing its Timbuktu trust fund and thus clearly putting those rare manuscripts back at risk. I was thankful then to eventually find they had been secured and saved by the heroic efforts of the local people and the (partially South African funded) Ahmed Baba Institute. In January 2013 I reported on the war driven disaster in Mali that was putting at huge risk rare manuscripts in the Timbuktu region. ![]()
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