Timbuktu: How its residents saved hundreds of thousands of manuscripts

Timbuktu, in Mali, is known as a city of knowledge. In its libraries, often family-owned, manuscripts have been passed down from generation to generation: mathematics, astronomy, medicine, law, theology, and commercial contracts. Estimates of their number vary enormously, from a few tens of thousands to several hundred thousand, depending on whether one counts only the city or the entire region.

A heritage guarded by families

Many of these texts date primarily from the 17th to the 19th centuries. They are kept in private libraries, such as the Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library, and in institutions like the Ahmed Baba Institute, created in 1973 with the support of UNESCO, which houses approximately 30,000 texts.

2012: The threat

In 2012, the city fell under the control of Islamist armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Manuscripts were burned. Faced with the danger, Abdel Kader Haidara, guardian of the Mamma Haidara family library, organized with librarians, families, and volunteers the clandestine evacuation of the manuscripts to Bamako, the capital, several hundred kilometers to the south.

For several months, the boxes of manuscripts traveled by night, from hiding place to hiding place, on the backs of donkeys or by pirogue on the Niger River. The transporters risked being arrested, and several incidents were reported, such as a boat loaded with books being held for ransom.

How many were saved?

The figures vary according to the sources: between 160,000 and 350,000 manuscripts were reportedly brought to safety, coming from about 45 libraries. Specialist Shamil Jeppie estimates that more than 90% of the manuscripts survived. A portion was destroyed nonetheless. Once in Bamako, the manuscripts were gathered, then digitized and restored when they had suffered from the transport.

Key takeaways

The rescue of Timbuktu is primarily the work of ordinary people who protected a heritage that the entire world considers precious. It is further proof that the history of African knowledge is written, and that it nearly disappeared.