Good Reads / Community Library Notes
The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu
Joshua Hammer
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu
Joshua Hammer
Review by Priscilla Comen
The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer is a fascinating account of a man, Abdel Kader Haidera, who was a collector of ancient manuscripts for a government library in Mali. It is the story of thousands of manuscripts he found and saved. Many of these, printed in gold leaf, were hidden in old trunks or in caves along the Niger River. Haidera paid poor farmers more than they asked for and even built an elementary school as payment for the valuable texts. One farmer was shocked to discover termites had eaten the pages he had hidden. He had not opened the trunk for twenty years.
Author Hammer was a bureau chief for Newsweek and has written this interesting documentary of Haidera’s mission to acquire these ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts. By 1993, Haidera had acquired 16,500 manuscripts, and was engaged and ready to settle down with a family. He wants to create a private library and needs funding. Despite what David Hume and Immanuel Kant said in the 1760s about Africans being “Inferior to whites and producing no arts and no sciences,” Haidera revealed to the world the roster of biographers, jurists, and historians as described in the manuscripts of Timbuktu during its golden age. These books had been protected for 400 years.
The author then delves into the radical Islamists and terrorists who began a period of smuggling and terror in the Nigerian region. In the evenings, the rebels gathered and listened to guitar playing rebel leaders. By 2007, the rebel group had turned into the most lethal terrorist group in the world. Meanwhile, Haidera became an international man of letters, speaking at academic panels and acting as master of ceremonies. Because he was remunerated for many years by the Almed Baba Institute, he was able to expand his manuscript collection. When he decides to return to Timbuktu his friends advise him against it. Violence has erupted everywhere in and around his city. The rebels forbade everything joyful: marriage, music, and all festive events.
Because Haidera is convinced the Islamic extremists have eyes on the manuscripts with the intent of destroying them, he asks his friends and colleagues to buy up every metal and wooden trunk in the city. Then, in the middle of the night, with only flashlights, they empty the library‘s shelves and carry the books in donkey carts to hiding places in houses over the city.
Were they all saved? There were 377,000 manuscripts. Author Hammer was supported and encouraged by Smithsonian Magazine as he went to Timbuktu and interviewed hundreds of people. Find this fascinating book on the new non-fiction shelf of your community library.
Author Hammer was a bureau chief for Newsweek and has written this interesting documentary of Haidera’s mission to acquire these ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts. By 1993, Haidera had acquired 16,500 manuscripts, and was engaged and ready to settle down with a family. He wants to create a private library and needs funding. Despite what David Hume and Immanuel Kant said in the 1760s about Africans being “Inferior to whites and producing no arts and no sciences,” Haidera revealed to the world the roster of biographers, jurists, and historians as described in the manuscripts of Timbuktu during its golden age. These books had been protected for 400 years.
The author then delves into the radical Islamists and terrorists who began a period of smuggling and terror in the Nigerian region. In the evenings, the rebels gathered and listened to guitar playing rebel leaders. By 2007, the rebel group had turned into the most lethal terrorist group in the world. Meanwhile, Haidera became an international man of letters, speaking at academic panels and acting as master of ceremonies. Because he was remunerated for many years by the Almed Baba Institute, he was able to expand his manuscript collection. When he decides to return to Timbuktu his friends advise him against it. Violence has erupted everywhere in and around his city. The rebels forbade everything joyful: marriage, music, and all festive events.
Because Haidera is convinced the Islamic extremists have eyes on the manuscripts with the intent of destroying them, he asks his friends and colleagues to buy up every metal and wooden trunk in the city. Then, in the middle of the night, with only flashlights, they empty the library‘s shelves and carry the books in donkey carts to hiding places in houses over the city.
Were they all saved? There were 377,000 manuscripts. Author Hammer was supported and encouraged by Smithsonian Magazine as he went to Timbuktu and interviewed hundreds of people. Find this fascinating book on the new non-fiction shelf of your community library.