BuaNews (Tshwane)
Lucille Davie
19 November 2008
Johannesburg — One of Africa's greatest intellectual legacies, 40 Timbuktu manuscripts from Mali in west Africa, is to go on exhibition this week in Johannesburg.
The exhibition is called Timbuktu Script & Scholarship, and will open at the Standard Bank Gallery on Friday, reports Joburg.org.
The manuscripts, which are 100's of years old, are from the Ahmed Baba Institute (IHERI-AB) in Timbuktu. They were written in a variety of styles of Arabic calligraphy by scholars and copyists who were part of an African Islamic intellectual tradition centred in Timbuktu.
Some of the manuscripts are beautifully decorated with gold illumination and kept in finely tooled leather covers.
The documents cover diverse subjects: mathematics, chemistry, physics, optics, astronomy, medicine, Islamic sciences, history, geography, government legislation, jurisprudence, writings of the Prophet, and more. They give an idea of the daily life of Timbuktu residents.
There are over 700 000 manuscripts in Mali, testimony to a thriving academic centre of learning in Timbuktu in the 14th century, contrary to the western belief that Africa was backward and "the dark continent".
According to the Timbuktu Educational Foundation, during the 14th century, Timbuktu flourished as the greatest academic and commercial centre in Africa even before the European Renaissance.
The foundation has as its mission to "resurrect to their rightful place the important contributions of early African scholars in the annals of world history".
It is intent on preserving, restoring, translating and publishing the manuscripts, which it is doing through a campaign called Preserve-a-Manuscript.
Donors can sponsor a document and its preservation with a $100 (about R1 025) donation.
At present the documents are extremely brittle, made fragile by improper handling and exposure to weather and insects like termites, causing them to disintegrate on handling.
Another concern is that they are being sold to tourists by local dealers, who don't understand their historic worth.
"All of these factors lend testimony to the desperate and critical need to restore and preserve these works immediately," indicates the foundation.
The exhibition comes out of the South Africa-Mali Project, which was initiated by former President Thabo Mbeki in 2002.
As a cultural initiative of the New Partnership for Africa's Development, the project aims to conserve the collection of manuscripts through the training of conservation staff and the construction of a building to house the whole collection.
"The translation and publication of the manuscripts of Timbuktu will restore self-respect, pride, honour and dignity to the people from Africa and those descended from Africa; it will also obliterate the stereotypical images of Tarzan and primitive savages as a true representation of Africa and its civilisation," says the foundation on its website.
The Timbuktu Script & Scholarship exhibition is complemented by a catalogue, edited by University of Cape Town historian Dr Shamil Jeppie. The exhibition is funded by the national Department of Arts and Culture.
The manuscripts have already toured to Cape Town, Grahamstown, Pretoria, Bloemfontein and Durban.
The exhibition is on until 1 December in Johannesburg. The gallery is open from 8am to 4.30pm on Mondays to Fridays and from 9am to 1pm on Saturdays.
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