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<DIV><TT>Ancient astronomical research available at the Timbukutu manuscripts
(some 1000 years old) touring the country. Currently on at The Castle in Cape
Town until September 3.</TT></DIV>
<DIV><TT>Check out <A class=moz-txt-link-freetext
href="http://www.southafrica.info/africa/timbuktu-exhibition.htm">http://www.southafrica.info/africa/timbuktu-exhibition.htm</A>
<H1 class=art>Timbuktu Manuscripts on show</H1>
<P><EM></EM></P>
<P><I>12 August 2008</I></P>
<P>"Timbuktu: script and scholarship", an exhibition of around 40 ancient
manuscripts from the collection of Mali's Ahmed Baba Institute, has opened in
Cape Town - marking the first time these priceless, delicate manuscripts have
left the windy sands of Mali.</P>
<P>The exhibition runs at Cape Town's Castle of Good Hope until 3 September
before travelling to Grahamstown, Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Durban and
Johannesburg (full schedule below).</P>
<H4>Ancient African texts</H4>
<P>The Timbuktu Manuscripts - or Mali Manuscripts - some of which date back to
the 13th century, are Arabic and African texts that hark back to city's glorious
past, when Muslim merchants traded gold from West Africa to Europe and the
Middle East in return for salt and other goods.</P>
<P>South Africa has thrown its weight behind efforts to preserve the ancient
documents, which are thought to hold the key to some of the secrets of Africa's
history and cultural heritage.</P>
<P>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,
the manuscripts have shattered the historical view of Africa as a purely "oral
continent", pointing to the fact that Africa has a rich legacy of written
history.</P>
<P>While most are in Arabic, some are in indigenous languages such as Songhai
and Hausa, written using Arabic script.</P>
<P>The largest collection of manuscripts, numbering about 30 000, is housed in
the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Islamic Studies, named after the famous 15th
century Timbuktu scholar Ahmed Baba. The rest of the texts are housed in the
private libraries of families in and around the city.</P>
<P>Some of the manuscripts are beautifully decorated with gold illumination and
kept in finely tooled leather covers.</P>
<P>The exhibition includes manuscripts ranging in subject matter from religion
to astronomy and mathematics, as well as history and literary forms. It also
includes manuscripts covering legal judgements and commercial transactions that
give a sense of the daily life of the citizens of Timbuktu.</P>
<H4>South African involvement</H4>
<P>The exhibition is part of the South Africa-Mali project initiated by
President Thabo Mbeki in 2002, following a visit to Timbuktu in 2001.</P>
<P>The project, a flagship cultural initiative of the New Partnership for
Africa's Development (Nepad), aims to conserve the collection at the Ahmed Baba
Institute by building a state-of-the-art archive to house the manuscripts and
training staff in their conservation.</P>
<P>The archive, being built with South African assistance, is nearing
completion.</P>
<P>Speaking at the exhibition opening in Cape Town last week, Professor Toure,
Mali's higher education minister, said the "vast and functional" building would
have the temperature and humidity controls necessary to provide the correct
conditions for preserving the manuscripts.</P>
<P>Long-since a symbol in Western popular imagination for remote and exotic
destinations, Timbuktu 500 years ago was not only a wealthy trading port, but
also a centre for academics and scholars of religion, literature and
science.</P>
<H4>'Sophisticated reading and writing'</H4>
<P>The documents chosen for the exhibition date back to around the 16th century
and cover a range of disciplines, including medicine, philosophy, mathematics,
astrology and Islamic studies.</P>
<P>Mbeki, also speaking at the opening of the exhibition, said that "various
kinds of writing materials and subjects" were covered by the documents on
display, "revealing a multifaceted past of sophisticated reading and writing in
West Africa, and reflecting a tradition of prodigious intellectual
production."</P>
<P>South African academics, led by Shamil Jeppie of the University of Cape Town,
are also involved in studying and deciphering the documents as they build a
digital archive to complement the manuscript collection.</P>
<P>Dr Eltie Links, chairperson of the board of South Africa's Iziko museums –
which helped to organise the exhibition along with Mali's Ministry of Higher
Education - called the project the "real implementation" of the vision of
someone who could see "far-off".</P>
<P>As a result, the world, its readers and its thinkers were now endowed with a
largely unexplored intellectual legacy.</P>
<P>Links thanked the Malian authorities for allowing the precious manuscripts to
come to South Africa, in an exhibition that will travel across the country,
allowing South Africans to continue what Mbeki called a "trans-African
engagement and conversation".</P>
<H4>Exhibition tour schedule</H4>
<UL>
<LI>Cape Town: Granary, Iziko at the Castle of Good Hope - 8 August to 3
September
<LI>Grahamstown: Albany Museum - 9 to 15 September
<LI>Pretoria: National Library of South Africa - 23 September to 8 October
<LI>Bloemfontein: Oliewenhuis Art Museum - 15 to 29 October
<LI>Durban: Durban Art Gallery - 5 to 16 November
<LI>Johannesburg: Standard Bank Gallery - 21 November – 1 December
</LI></UL><BR></TT></DIV></BODY></HTML>