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Address of the President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, at the
SA-Mali Project Fundraising Dinner, Cape Town International Convention Centre,
Cape Town: 8 April 2005. Premier of the Western Cape, Ebrahim Rasool,
Honourable
Minister and Chairperson of the Timbuktu Manuscripts Trust, Essop Pahad,
Honourable
Minister of Arts and Culture, Pallo Jordan,
Your Worship, Mayor of Cape Town,
Nomaindia Mfeketo,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen: I
am very pleased to be afforded this opportunity to address this distinguished
gathering of our social partners, who are here tonight to lend support to an important
project that brings together the governments and peoples of Mali and South Africa.
This dinner is one of many efforts to raise funds for the preservation
and promotion of a rich ancient legacy of African literary and scholarly heritage.
I trust that by the end of this dinner we would have given generously so that
we can preserve the important gift, the Timbuktu manuscripts, a gift which, in
reality, belongs to all of humanity. An ancient Tamacheq saying from Mali
still echoes amidst the sun-scorched mud houses and desert sands of Timbuktu: "Salt
comes from the north, gold from the south, and silver from the country of the
white men, but the word of God and the treasures of wisdom are only to be found
in Timbuktu." Extracted from website: www.chronicle.com
, 6 Sept. 2002) The ancient city of Timbuktu, with its impressive architectural
heritage such as the Jingere-Ber and Sankore mosques, which date from around 1325
to the late 15th century, was home to mosques that became the epicentre of scholarly
and religious instruction for which manuscripts were needed. At the south-end
of the vast shimmering sands of the Sahara Desert, Timbuktu emerged near the banks
of the Niger River, whose waters ensured that this great centre of learning also
became a great terminus of the trans-Saharan trade coming from all destinations
in Africa, Asia and Europe. Camel caravans, with their cargo of salt and
gold, gave rise to a flourishing and profitable intellectual exchange, best expressed
in the words of the great medieval author Leo Africanus who wrote in the 16th
Century that: "In Timbuktu there are numerous judges, scholars and
priests, all well paid by the king. Many manuscript books coming from Barbary
are sold. Such sales are more profitable than any other goods". (extracted
from Hunwick, J., "The Timbuktu Manuscript Tradition", Journal of African
National Affairs, Vol. 1n2, June 2003, p. 3) Those magnificent, illuminated
manuscripts were paid for in real gold nuggets, the cash of the day for the prosperous
and wealthy of Timbuktu. In August 2002, the Ink Road Symposium in Mali drew international
attention to the rich centuries-old legacy. Indeed, it was the ink, precious
imported paper and the creative expression of African thinkers and scholars who
produced and preserved for posterity manuscripts that they had written themselves,
in their mother tongues such as Tamacheq and Songhay as well as others in Arabic,
together with other writings that were collected from other places. These
manuscripts reveal the rhythm of daily life, from sophisticated jurisprudence,
trade transactions, philosophical and humanitarian thought, to the mundane life
of ordinary citizens as well. The marginal notes are rare descriptions of
astronomy, weather and other invaluable information. In one 16th century text,
Professor Hunwick came across a report of a meteor shower, which reads: "In
the year 991 [1583 A.D.] in God's month of Ragab the Goodly [August] after half
the night passed, stars flew around the sky as if fire had been kindled in the
whole sky - east, west, north and south. It became a mighty flame lighting up
the earth and people were extremely disturbed by that. It continued until after
dawn." (Extracted from an interview with Daniel Del Castillo, "Decaying
Manuscripts Reveal Africa's Literate History", www.chronicle.com , 6 Sept,
2002, p.3 of 4) Such is the richness of the texts that they would revolutionise
African Studies and our understanding and interpretation of African history. Yet,
the elements, the fine abrasive desert sand and termites are a serious threat
to the very survival of these manuscripts. For many decades, academic scholars,
including the pioneers such as Professor John Hunwick and Professor Sean O'Flahey,
have valiantly sought to preserve and promote the literary legacy of African and
Islamic manuscripts from Nigeria, Zanzibar, Mauritania and, most significantly,
Mali. UNESCO, the Ford Foundation and government agencies too have generously
supported these sterling efforts. Indeed, I am very pleased to welcome tonight,
Professor John Butler-Adam of the Ford Foundation. Our own humble initiative,
the SA-Mali Project, complements the on-going preservation and scholarly work
around the world to carry out a mammoth task involving several hundred thousand
manuscripts.
Our immediate priority is preservation or conservation. Another
is the academic research being conducted by Dr Shamil Jeppie, which, hopefully,
will be supported by other academic institutions and scholars. These manuscripts
must surely be regarded as the supreme depositary of written African indigenous
knowledge. In the words of Professors Hunwick and Henry Louis Gates, these manuscripts
will help erase the denial of the fundamental equality of intellect to Africans. One
of Africa's pioneering archaeologists, the late Professor Bassey Andah, gave an
important inaugural lecture in 1985 at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, in
which he championed the cause of our cultural history and African self-reliance
and proclaimed: "I suggest here (that) for the African man to fully
understand his present situation, he must trace his roots and course of his journey
to the present; and to make meaningful progress in the future he must not only
appreciate but also appropriate his cultural history." (extracted from
website of World Archaelogical Bulletin, from Shaw, T., Ucko, P, & MacDonald,
K., "A Tribute to the Life and Work of Professor Bassey Wai Andah",
p. 7 of 13) It is in this same spirit that Mali and South Africa have undertaken
this immense challenge so that those manuscripts may be optimally housed and preserved
in perpetuity to enable scholars to unlock the mystery and knowledge of our collective
past. As Africans we are engaged in the historic struggle to achieve Africa's
renaissance. Among other things this requires that we draw inspiration from such
treasures as the Timbuktu Manuscripts, which tell the story that we have the native
capacity, wisdom and intellect truly to determine our future. This is part
of what inspired the inter-governmental agreement between South Africa and Mali
signed in 2002, which has led to three major thrusts to the Timbuktu Manuscripts
project. First, we have implemented a conservation programme to protect
and improve the environmental storage conditions for the manuscripts. The first
phase of the project we undertook in this regard was the development of a training
programme for Malian conservators working at the Ahmed Baba Centre in Timbuktu. In
2003 and 2004 the South African National Archives hosted a group of Malian trainees
who spent time working in the conservation studios in Tshwane and at the National
Library here in Cape Town. This is clearly a mammoth work-in-progress. But
already, we have succeeded in storing the manuscripts individually in specially
designed boxes, which will, hopefully, extend the lifespan of these exquisite
and unique manuscripts. Secondly, the project intends to rebuild the Ahmed
Baba Centre to one of international stature while at the same time being mindful
of the need to ensure its architectural harmony with ancient Timbuktu. In short,
within our limited resources and with your support, we aim to provide world-class
facilities so that physical conservation, access and scholarship can all flourish
once more in Timbuktu. Recently, a team of engineers, architects and builders
from the Western Cape visited Timbuktu to assess the needs for the construction
of the new library. This is an excellent example of a public-private partnership
co-operating within the context of NEPAD. Hopefully, we will see other social
partners from across Africa and the rest of the world coming forward to join hands
in this very worthwhile cause. Thirdly, we hope to promote academic study
and public awareness of the magnificent and ancient African and Islamic heritage
at Timbuktu. The manuscripts vary in content from religious treatises and poems,
to documentary letters dealing with legal and commercial matters, and others that
relate to slavery, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, history - all of them subjects
of immense interest to scholars and the African population at large. Commenting
on these manuscripts, National Geographic News said: "These sacred manuscripts
covered an array of subjects: astronomy, medicine, mathematics, chemistry, judicial
law, government, and Islamic conflict resolution. Islamic study during this period
of human history, when the intellectual evolution had stalled in the rest of Europe
was growing, evolving, and breaking new ground in the fields of science, mathematics,
astronomy, law, and philosophy within the Muslim world." The SA-Mali
Project has much to offer all of us. Anyone who has visited Timbuktu will tell
you what an honour it is to be associated with such a treasure trove of ancient
manuscripts. As we know, the President of Mali, President AT Toure, and
I formally launched the project in Johannesburg, on Africa Day, in 2003. A
Trust Fund to raise funds from businesses and individuals for the conservation
of the manuscripts and the building of a new library has been established. The
Development Bank of Southern Africa is responsible for managing the funds. As
I said earlier and I repeat our plea, that as many of us as possible all of us
should make our humble contributions to this important project. Clearly,
the success of this project will inspire the conservation of other cultural treasures
in Africa. We hope that this will also assist with the development of mechanisms
within the African Union to protect Africa's intellectual property and indigenous
knowledge from exploitation for wrong purposes. I must express my appreciation
to the Premier and his technical team, to Minister Pahad and the inter-ministerial
committee, to the members of the Trust Fund and to the Ministry and Department
of Arts and Culture, especially to the National Archives and the National Library,
for all the sterling work they have done on the project so far. I re-affirm
our support for this important project and commend the Timbuktu Manuscripts Trust
Fund to you and all fellow South Africans for your financial and material support.
Thank you. Issued by The Presidency Communications: Media
Liaison
Private Bag X1000
PRETORIA
0001 Enquiries: Bheki Khumalo
083 256 9133 Brenda Nkosi
Communications Media Liaison
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