THE MEANINGS OF TIMBUKTU

Jeppie, Shamil & Diagne, Souleymane Bachir (Eds.)

In a joint project between South Africa and Mali, a library to preserve more than 200 000 Arabic and West African manuscripts dating from the 13th to the 19th centuries is currently under construction. It is the first official cultural project of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad), the socio-economic development plan of the African Union, and when the library is built, the cultural role of Timbuktu will be revived, as it becomes the safe haven for the treasured manuscripts. The manuscripts prove that Africa had a rich legacy of written history, long before western colonisers set foot on the continent. This volume, authored by leading international scholars, begins to sketch the 'meaning' of Timbuktu within the context of the intellectual history of West Africa, in particular, and of the African continent, in general.

416pp, SOUTH AFRICA. HUMAN SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL.
2008 0796922047 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 2008 0796922047 end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 2008 0796922047 end_of_the_skype_highlighting Hardback

[bigger story - African knowledge]

Africa ink road - history of educational institutions
flows of knowledge
exchange
islamisation as self-rewriting
current “ink roads”

Update:
Islamisation as self-rewriting
tarikh - literary genre overarching narrative of a period
chroniclers
historians - self rewriting history from specific social political perspective
rewriting of history in continuity with a scared narrative

history of philosophy outside of ethno/ oral traditions

rereading Islam via Timbuktu
knowledge as a way of life: beyond science towards good life

Africa ink road - history of educational institutions
flows of knowledge
exchange
current “ink roads”

families as institutions of knowledge / higher learning

political propaganda

books as objects

trade of books > role in politics

bookish culture - role in politics

travel, nomadic, hardship, closed community = Islamic political radical


book trade define Nigerian Islamic tradition

education system centred around rare, much cherished books, apprenticeship, travelling to read books, network of scholars and friends

woman scholars

books divided into parts - books need not be whole

community authorship

poetry for everyday books written in indigenous languages

contemporary situation - scholars as travellers

value - trade