Ahmed Baba was a famous 15th-century Timbuktu scholar. The Ahmed Baba Institute is an institution of learning founded in 1974 with the help of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco). It was the first time the documents, which are now held at the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Learning and Islamic Research in Timbuktu, had ever appeared in public. The exhibition was opened by Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure. “Various writing materials and subjects are included, revealing a multifaceted history of reading and writing in Africa.”Įxamples from the collection have been seen in South Africa before – in 2005 the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg hosted an exhibition of 16 manuscripts, which included a biography of the Prophet Muhammad and treatises on music, astronomy, physics and traditional pharmacy, as part of a fundraising drive for the project. “It is very important for our people to be given the opportunity to view a diversity of manuscripts from Timbuktu,” Jordan said. While Africa is known for its rich oral history, the exhibition will also help to raise awareness of the continent’s centuries-long association with the written word. As the exhibition travels through major South African cities many of our people will now also be able to see the rich diversity of written materials from Timbuktu.” “While we had always heard of the legendary tradition of learning of that city it was a revelation to lay eyes on such a dense and distinctive range of written materials. We are, of course, also nearing completion of a new home for the manuscripts in Timbuktu, which will be a state-of-the art archive. “South Africa is also taking the lead in various aspects of the conservation and research on the manuscripts. “I consider our having this body of materials here to be a great privilege and of historic importance, and is a clear indication of our vision of consolidating historical ties with the rest of the African continent. “This exhibition of a representative selection of manuscripts from the Ahmed Baba Institute is partly a consummation of the process started in 2001, when the governments of Mali and South Africa committed themselves to the preservation of the great written heritage of Timbuktu,” said the president in his address. Minister of Arts and Culture Pallo Jordan opened the Timbuktu script and scholarship exhibition on 7 August 2008, where Mbeki delivered a keynote address. It is also the flagship cultural project of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad). The collaboration is a key element of the South Africa-Mali project, initiated personally by South African President Thabo Mbeki in 2002. While its golden days as a busy caravanserai and a hub of Islamic learning are gone, it still remains in high regard because of its role as guardian of the manuscripts. The city lies on the southern edge of Africa’s vast Sahara desert, where it is subjected to the relentlessness of the climate. Once the site of the world’s southernmost Islamic university, Timbuktu is the legendary Malian city that sprang up as an important commercial centre 900 years ago. More than 100 000 manuscripts are still in existence, some dating back to the 13th century. South Africa and Mali, one of the world’s poorest countries, are working together to preserve the priceless collection of thousands of documents once held in Timbuktu’s ancient libraries and universities. From August 2008 South Africans will get the chance to see a precious piece of African history, when 40 documents from the vast collection of Timbuktu Manuscripts go on exhibition around the country.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |