Tweet
<DIV class=articleHeadline>Libraries in the Sand Reveal Africa's Academic Past</DIV><DIV class=smallText id=grayText style="MARGIN-TOP: 5px">By Nick Tattersall</DIV><DIV class=towerAd><NOSCRIPT></NOSCRIPT></DIV><P class=articleText>(Page 2 of 2)<P class=articleText>HEAT, DUST AND TERMITES<P class=articleText>Experts believe the 150,000 texts collected so far are just a fraction of what lies hidden under centuries of dust behind the ornate wooden doors of Timbuktu's mud-brick homes.<P class=articleText>"This is just 10 percent of what we have. We think we have more than a million buried here," said Ali Ould Sidi, a government official responsible for managing the town's World Heritage Sites.<P class=articleText>Some academics say the texts will force the West to accept Africa has an intellectual history as old as its own. Others draw comparisons with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.<P class=articleText>But as the fame of the manuscripts spreads, conservationists fear those that have survived centuries of termites and extreme heat will be sold to tourists at extortionate prices or illegally trafficked out of the country.<DIV class=widgetleft style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"></DIV><P class=articleText>South Africa is spearheading "Operation Timbuktu" to protect the texts, funding a new library for the Ahmed Baba Institute, named after a Timbuktu-born contemporary of William Shakespeare.<P class=articleText>The United States and Norway are helping with the preservation of the manuscripts, which South African President Thabo Mbeki has said will "restore the self respect, the pride, honor and dignity of the people of Africa."<P class=articleText>The people of Timbuktu, whose universities were attended by 25,000 scholars in the 16th century but whose languid pace of life has been left behind by modernity, have similar hopes.<P class=articleText>"The nations formed a single line and Timbuktu was at the head. But one day, God did an about-turn and Timbuktu found itself at the back," a local proverb goes.<P class=articleText>"Perhaps one day God will do another about-turn so that Timbuktu can retake its rightful place," it adds.
