Ancient manuscripts from Mali, Niger, Ethiopia, Sudan and Nigeria line storage cases at Abdel Kader Haidara’s home, the director of Bibliotheque Mama Haidara De Manuscripts, Timbuktu. Image by Brent Stirton, National Geographic, September 2009.
The libraries of Timbuktu (by the 1300s) in Mali contain over 400,000 manuscripts, mostly from the city’s glory days from the 1300s to the 1500s. The manuscripts range from contracts and sales receipts to books of religion, law, poetry, astronomy and history. Thanks to Timbuktu’s hot, dry weather (it stands at the edge of the Sahara), its deep love of books and its history as a seat of high learning, it has preserved an amazing treasure from Africa’s past.
In 2012, the Ahmed Baba Institute, the largest library, moved from Timbuktu to Bamako, the capital. The weather there is not as good for preserving books, but its current political climate is much better:
Ansar Dine, jihadist warlords with ties to Al Qaeda, ruled Timbuktu from 2012 to 2013. It put its own strict form of Islam into effect. While it was busy destroying the tombs of the city’s Sufi saints, the Institute was busy secretly getting its books to Bamako. When Ansar Dine at last discovered the books at the Institute’s Timbuktu building, it burned them – but did not think to look in the basement! In the end the Institute was able to save 95% of its manuscripts.
Timbuktu has been through this before – with the French. They ruled from 1893 to 1960. Like Ansar Dine, they thought they had all the answers and burned books, wanting everyone to forget the past and do things their way. So people hid their books from the French too.
And before that, the region went through jihads, holy wars, which are unkind to books.
And before that, in 1591, Morocco, armed by Queen Elizabeth I, destroyed the city and sold many of its people to work as slaves in the Americas. Among those sold were doctors, judges, writers, musicians and artists.
So a custom of hiding books took hold. Some of the older families have thousands of books. They are hidden not just in the city, but even out in the desert.
From the 1300s to 1500s, Timbuktu was part of the Mali and Songhay empires. Like Alexandria in its day, Timbuktu was a centre of international trade and a seat of high learning. The rich owned books to show off their wealth.
As a seat of learning, Timbuktu helped to interpret Islam for its part of Africa. Its sort of Islam was well-reasoned and moderate – which made its books dangerous to jihadists.
Most of the books are in Arabic, the Latin of West Africa. Most of the rest are in Songhai, but some are in Wolof, Hausa, Fulfulde (Fulani) and Tamasheq (Tuareg). There are books from Mali, Niger, Ethiopia, Sudan, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Spain – and even Greece: Plato, Aristotle, Ptolemy and Hippocrates.
The Ahmed Baba Institute has 400,000 manuscripts as of 2015. Most have yet to be translated or studied. The Institute is working to digitize its manuscripts, putting them on computer where they can be shared with the world and be harder to wipe out.
Beyond the Institute, there are maybe 300,000 manuscripts still in hiding.
– Abagond, 2015.
Sources: The New Republic (2013), “Intellectual Life and Legacy of Timbuktu” (2010) by Robin Walker, BBC (2009), “Mirrors” (2009) by Eduardo Galeano.
See also:
- Timbuktu
- Alexandria
- Arabic
- Greek authors: Plato, Aristotle, Ptolemy
- Islam
- “Go back to Africa”
579
Abagond 
This is wonderful news to a librarian!
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Oh yeah, thank you!
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They teach Black people that we were nothing until they came along. If they didn’t, we might end doing something radical…like start liking ourselves.
Love the whole blog but the African history posts are always my favorite
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I loved this post thank you please do more of these.
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Great article, I would only add that Ajami script is also used, which is a derivative of Arabic script, but has many differences.
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I heard of something similar happening inadvertently in New York City. Russell Shorto wrote a famous book about early Dutch New Amsterdam using the thorough records the Dutch had made. When the English came in and took over, they tried to wipe the Dutch history out. They successfully dislodged “New Amsterdam” for “New York,” but failed to put a dent in Dutch names like Brooklyn (“Kings”) or Staten Island (“Richmond.”) When a fire burned the archive, the supposedly worthless Dutch records were stored below the supposedly more valuable English ones. The latter burned. The former survived. Shorto was able to write his book with an abundance of primary source material that would be the envy of anyone trying to study NYC under English rule.
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The Library of Congress has an online collection of these manuscripts at: http://international.loc.gov/intldl/malihtml/malihome.html
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Please expand on the part about transporting slaves to the America’s. I believe that one of the uses of this city was the preparation of Eunuch for the Middle East.
It is quite a distance from there to the west coast of Africa.
http://www.pbs.org/wonders/Episodes/Epi5/roadto_2.htm
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Funny, I was just listening to a Nas song called “I Can” that mentions “Timbuktu, where every race came to get books to learn from black teachers who taught Greeks and Romans, Asian Arabs and gave them gold”
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Judging from the topic of this post, Abagond, it seems you did receive my comment to Mack Lyons on another thread.
Why didn’t you post it?
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[…] The libraries of Timbuktu (by the 1300s) in Mali contain over 400,000 manuscripts, mostly from the city’s glory days from the 1300s to the 1500s. The manuscripts range from contracts and sales receipts to books of religion, law, poetry, astronomy and history. Thanks to Timbuktu’s hot, dry weather (it stands at the edge of the Sahara), its deep love of books and its history as a seat of high learning, it has preserved an amazing treasure from Africa’s past.Continue reading […]
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@ Abagond
Great post – as usual.
Before high school I didn’t know Timbuktu was a real place. I’m quite sure many of us heard the old phrase: “From here to Timbuktu.” The phrase was meant for a far and distant land. Personally, I believe the phrase was hinting at Black people’s greatness.
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Allen Shaw @ Please expand on the part about transporting slaves to the America’s. I believe that one of the uses of this city was the preparation of Eunuch for the Middle East.
It is quite a distance from there to the west coast of Africa.
Linda says,
it wasn’t that far because the Tauregs of Mali were involved in the slave trade to the West and would kidnap and sell Africans of that region. That’s what happened to Abdu-l-Rahman Ibrahim Ibn Sori
A Fulani prince who had lived and studied in Timbuktu (Mali). He was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1788 by his enemies (who knew that he was Royalty).
He was recognized by an Irish doctor years later, who had actually met him in Africa, and the Prince was eventually released based on the fact that the Sultan of Morocco recognized him as a citizen of Moroccan territory.
The Kingdom of Songhai aka Mali, was invaded and taken over by Morocco in 1591
There was an agreement between the America and Morocco, that any citizens “captured” by either country, would be returned to their respective countries.
The Treaty of Friendship between United States and the Empire of Morocco
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/bar1786t.asp
Rahman Ibrahim petitioned for his freedom based on the fact that he was a Moor.
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Abdul Rahman’s Petition of Rights:
Abdul Rahman became aware of the existence of a Treaty of Friendship signed between the United States and the Emperor of Morocco the protector of all the Moors found on every shore of the globe, guaranteeing the sovereignty and the inviolability of any Moor within the realms of the United States of America.
Being a trained lawyer, and a seasoned observer of America socio-economic ties, he understood the significance of the treaty. Since he was a Moor by legal definition (a noble or subject of any of the ancient realms belonging to the Emperor of Morocco), who had been sold in slavery after the ratification of the Treaty, he understood immediately that he should have been a free man all along.
In 1826, Abdul Rahman wrote a letter to the President of the United States of America, the Secretary of States of the United States and copied the Emperor of Morocco the protector of the Moors seeking for the enforcement of his rights pursuant to Articles 2, 6, 16 and 20 of the Treaty of Friendship between United States and Morocco in 1776.
He argued that he was covered by this treaty since he, Abdul Rahman as a Moor (any noble or subject of any of the ancient realms belonging to the Emperor of Morocco including North and West Africa) could not be legally enslaved in the United States whether he was captured in a war by the United States or obtained by the odious instrumentality of the slave trade networks.
Moors as Freemen under the Constitution of the United States of America:
Under Article 2 of the treaty a moor captive who falls into the possession of United States was entitled to his freedom. Article 2 of the Treaty states as follows:
“2. If either of the Parties shall be at War with any Nation whatever and take a Prize belonging to that Nation, and there shall be found on board Subjects or Effects belonging to either of the Parties, the Subjects shall be set at Liberty and the Effects returned to the Owners. And if any Goods belonging to any Nation, with whom either of the Parties shall be at War, shall be loaded on Vessels belonging to the other Party, they shall pass free and unmolested without any attempt being made to take or detain them.”
By virtue of Article 16 of the Treaty, any Moor who was capture by any American in any war was entitled to his freedom.
http://www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-the-egyptian-hercules/father-abdul-the-rahman-the-moorish-prince-of-western-morocco-by-jide-uwechia/
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Sidenote:
Once the white man who bought the Prince, Thomas Foster, found out that Abdul Rahman was in fact, actual Royalty, Foster REFUSED to release him because it was the Princes valuable knowledge that helped Foster to become rich, and he did not want to give that up.
http://www.whyislam.org/muslim-world/prince-among-slaves/
“These qualities—his intelligence, experience, and self-discipline—served him (Abdul Rahman), and his purchaser(Foster) as well. Foster switched from tobacco to cotton, expanded his acreage, and became one of the area’s most prosperous planters.
In 1807, a weekend trip into Natchez changed Abdul Rahman’s life forever. While selling his produce by the road, he saw a familiar-looking white man in the streets. After a moment’s hesitation, the man asked where in Africa Abdul Rahman was from. When he replied that he was from Timbo, the man asked whether his name was Abdul Rahman. It was Dr. John Cox, the Irish ship’s surgeon who, marooned in Africa in the early 1770s, had been nursed back to health in Timbo by Abdul Rahman and his father.
Cox (Irish doctor) asked Foster to name a purchase price for Abdul Rahman. When Foster refused, Cox stated his own price, and raised it in one-sided bidding until it reached $1000, almost twice the market price for a male slave at the Natchez slave auctions. Foster still refused: the auction price could not come close to the value Abdul Rahman had added to Foster’s fortune.
Abdul Rahman wrote his “letter home” and gave it to publisher Andrew Marschalk in 1826, it was forwarded to Secretary of State Henry Clay. Clay then sent the documents to the U.S. Consul in Tangier, Morocco, who presented the case to the vizier of Moroccan Sultan Abd al-Rahman II.
The Sultan’s favorable response was duly returned to Clay. He read and passed it to President John Quincy Adams, who approved the purchase of Abdul Rahman from his owner.
President John Quincy Adams, sent Marschalk, to approach Thomas Foster.
For twenty years Foster had refused to sell this valuable slave at any price. By 1827, however, Abdul Rahman was well into his sixties and his economic value to Foster was considerably diminished. Foster now told Marschalk that if means were found by which Abdul Rahman could return to Africa, he would be released without payment. But one condition was demanded— he was only willing to release Abdul Rahman if he would leave the United States.”
Rahman had to spend many more years traveling to raise money to get his wife and children released by this white POS.
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there were many African Muslim slaves that were taken to the Americas.
and many of them were the leaders of the numerous revolts in the Caribbean and central America.
http://www.soundvision.com/article/servants-of-allah-african-muslims-enslaved-in-the-americas
The most famous was the Muslim slave Boukmen, who was sent from Jamaica to the island of Saint-Domingue (present day Haiti)
The Haiti revolution, however, succeeded. Macandel and Boukmen both were major leaders of that revolution and both were Muslims like most of the other leaders of the slave revolts. Muslims did not just lead Muslims; they were leaders of the struggle for freedom of all slaves.
The language of secret communication among the revolutionary leadership was Arabic. Many Arabic documents seized in the Bahia revolution of 1838 in Brazil have been translated. Slaves who escaped established free villages called maroon villages. In many of these maroon villages and in the slave quarters Muslims often developed their system of education and secret Masjids.
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For an old clip from the old days:
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUNX3LqfSXs)
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@ Allen Shaw
As Linda said, it was not far at all. There are known cases of people from Timbuktu winding up in Jamaica:
Source: “The Akan Diaspora in the Americas” (2010) by Kwasi Konadu.
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@ Fan of Mack, Origin, Kwamla, Matari, Franklin, Onitaset, Cooper
Who ARE you?
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Nice post Linda, however, “Boukmen” and “Macandel” should be Boukman and Macandal or Makandal.
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To Linda and others: The conversation was about Timbuktu not about Muslims.
No one stated where the gentleman was captured; just that he was from Timbuktu. Mali slave trading was to the North African nations.
Please review the following:
http://www.pbs.org/wonders/Episodes/Epi5/roadto_2.htm
http://www.pbs.org/wonders/Episodes/Epi5/5_wondr7.htm
It is 2784 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to Timbuktu. The Niger River runs from west to east.The Niger takes one of the most unusual routes of any major river, a boomerang shape that baffled European geographers for two millennia. Its source is just 150 miles (240 kilometers) inland from the Atlantic Ocean, but the river runs away from the sea into the Sahara Desert, then takes a sharp right turn and heads southeast to the Gulf of Guinea.
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Niger_River
Mali is North West of Timbuktu and in the Sahara Desert near the center of Africa.
There is no doubt that many Muslims were transported to the Americas. From 600 to 1500 (900 years) Muslims had been over a huge portion of Africa. The religion was not recognized by the slave owners in the Americas who wanted the Christian Religion to prevail.
New material is going to be presented going forward as more legitimate study of Africa history is conducted.
I am sure that examples of individuals that originated in Mali and the City of Timbuktu that were transported to the Americas will be found ; however I doubt that the term “many” can be used.
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Nice to know where the name of the famous messenger bag brand came from.
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Would these manuscripts be something “Isis” would destroy? Fucking Bastards.
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Hi agabond, do you have more details about what the french have burned? What sources did you use?
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Thanks for spotlighting this abagond. I’d be curious to see what the translated manuscripts uncover. Glad they’re being digitized to also share with the world.
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@Linda
That’s good information that is rarely taught in American schools. I gather a lot of blacks in North America are descendants of citizens of Songhai.
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Allen Shaw @ To Linda and others: The conversation was about Timbuktu not about Muslims.
Linda says,
Allen,
your knowledge of African history is very spotty but like the little engine that could, you do try
Mali is synonymous with Muslims– who the h’ll do you think was ruling the area for 100s of years–black African Muslims
have you ever heard of Mansa Musa, the Richest man in history; or
Mansa Abu Bakr, who sailed the Atlantic Ocean almost 200 years before Christopher Columbus
I encourage you to not Peruse information you find or are provided but to READ it
Then they might accidentally learn something about Africa, such as Songhai and Mali history,
and the Tauregs, black African Muslims, and Mahgrebs/Arabs, who controlled the slave routes in northwest Africa and the Sahel, an area that Mali and it’s Empire was a part of:
“One of Africa’s key trading routes during the 19th century was the Taghaza Trail which dissects the Sahara, starting at the North West town of Aoudaghost, Morocco, running all the way down the Atlantic Coast at Freetown in Sierra Leone.
The route passed through Sidjilmasa, Taghaza, Walata, Ghana, Bamako and Niani before reaching the coast.”
http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/tuareg/tuareg.php
“but it was the connection between Mali and flourishing Timbuktu that became one of the primary routes for European traders.
Djenne and Timbuktu were two of Africa’s most important trading centers,
and it was here that Tuareg merchants could get significantly more in exchange for slaves and oil than at Agadez or Benin.”
http://www.thebeadchest.com/blog/european-trade-beads/
and remember Allen, the Europeans are the British, Spanish, Portuguese, and French– the people who started and ruled the Atlantic Slave Trade.
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Gro Jo @ Nice post Linda, however, “Boukmen” and “Macandel” should be Boukman and Macandal or Makandal.
GroJo, go kick rocks 🙂
you know good and well I was quoting a source.
Good to see you — you’ve been busy causing trouble I’ve noticed
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“resw77 @Linda
That’s good information that is rarely taught in American schools. I gather a lot of blacks in North America are descendants of citizens of Songhai.”
Linda says,
I think I read that 30% of north-western Muslims ended up in the Americas but the majority ended up in the Caribbean, central and south America.
The Mandinkas are/ were black Africans of the Songhai and Mali empire.
http://dna.ancestry.com/ethnicity/mali
Migrations within the Region
Conquest and trade led to migrations throughout western Africa. As the Ghana Empire began to decline in the 11th century, Soninke people dispersed through what is now Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, the Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau.
Malian traders extended their reach south into the areas of modern-day Ghana and Ivory Coast. Many migrated toward the Atlantic Coast as the Songhai Empire fell at the end of the 16th century, and trade shifted in that direction.
The Slave Trade
The Mali Empire was founded by kings from the Mandinka (or Malinké) people. During the transatlantic slave trade, some estimate that up to one-third of the Mandinka were enslaved and sent to the New World. As a result, many African Americans have Mandinka ancestors.
the French, Spanish, Portuguese, and British all had specific African ethnic groups that they preferred.
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@ Linda
“Mansa Abu Bakr, who sailed the Atlantic Ocean almost 200 years before Christopher Columbus”
Pure legend.
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Kartoffel @ Linda
“Mansa Abu Bakr, who sailed the Atlantic Ocean almost 200 years before Christopher Columbus”
Pure legend.
Linda says,
then the Vikings sailing to North America was also pure Legend.
I guess if it doesn’t come from a white European mouth, then it’s not true, right?!
Kartoffel, prove that it is Not true — because white western academics and history is NOT the sole authority on World history.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1068950.stm
Another researcher, Khadidjah Djire says they have found written accounts of Abubakari’s expedition in Egypt, in a book written by Al Omari in the 14th century.
“Our aim is to bring out hidden parts of history”, she says.
They are gathering evidence that in 1312 Abubakari II landed on the coast of Brazil in the place known today as Recife.
“Its other name is Purnanbuco, which we believe is an aberration of the Mande name for the rich gold fields that accounted for much of the wealth of the Mali Empire, Boure Bambouk.”
According to a Malian scholar, Gaoussou Diawara in his book, ‘The Saga of Abubakari II…he left with 2000 boats’, the emperor gave up all power and gold to pursue knowledge and discovery.
Abubakari’s ambition was to explore whether the Atlantic Ocean – like the great River Niger that swept through Mali – had another ‘bank’.
The book also focuses on a research project being carried out in Mali tracing Abubakari’s journeys.
“We are not saying that Abubakari II was the first ever to cross the ocean,” says Tiemoko Konate, who heads the project
“There is evidence that the Vikings were in America long before him, as well as the Chinese,” he said. “
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resw77,
the Hausa and Fulanis were Muslim, who also ended up in north America in large numbers.
Abagond, still waiting on that Africa tab so that information can be put out,
that will help to stop the ignorance from those who are still brainwashed by white western educations.
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@ Linda
I doubt that about Black Africans reaching Brazil on their own. They cannot do anything without White people. Remember, Mali is North West of Timbuktu and in the Sahara Desert near the center of Africa. It is 2784 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to Timbuktu. The Niger River runs from west to east.The Niger takes one of the most unusual routes of any major river, a boomerang shape that baffled European geographers for two millennia. Its source is just 150 miles (240 kilometers) inland from the Atlantic Ocean, but the river runs away from the sea into the Sahara Desert, then takes a sharp right turn and heads southeast to the Gulf of Guinea.
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Niger_River
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Abagond,
not sure what you’re doubting?
can you please elaborate
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OK, I see you changed your post and you are being Sarcastic (i hope!!)
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@ Linda
I do not have a sarcastic bone in my body.
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@ Linda
“prove that it is Not true”
Yesterday green Marsians landed in my backyard.
“then the Vikings sailing to North America was also pure Legend.”
No it isn’t. There is ample archeological evidence. If it were only for the Vinland Saga I would be very suspicious of that too.
The only source that even mentiones Abubakari II. as a ruler of Mali is Al-Umari. He writes that he was told by the successor of Abubakari that he started a voyage across the Atlantic. If we take that at face value (which peer-reviewed academia doesn’t), it still doesn’t prove that Abubakari ever made it across. Also the burden of proof is much higher for a Malian pre-columbian contact than for a Viking contact.
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@ Michael Cooper
People say that because it is 2784 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to Timbuktu.
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Abagond, you got Jokes today 🙂
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@ Allen Shaw
Where did you get that number? It seems way off.
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@ Gdi
My source on that is Robin Walker listed in the sources. He did not give particulars on what they burned.
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Kartoffel,
So you are saying Mansa Musa was a liar?!
because he is the King that told Al-Umari about how he got to the Malian throne. (FYI- Mansa means “King”) I guess he lied about being Rich too.
So, by your standards, Mansa Musa could not be believed because white western scholars are doubtful… the word of Arabs and Africans is not enough.
“Abubakar II’s successor, Mansa Musa (1312-1337) was immortalised in the descriptions of Arab writers, when he made his magnificent pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324.
Mansa Musa, talking to Syrian scholar Al-Umari:
The Sultan got ready 2,000 ships, 1,000 for himself and the men whom he took with him, and 1,000 for water and provisions. He left me to deputise for him and embarked on the Atlantic Ocean with his men. That was the last we saw of him and all those who were with him.
And so, I became king in my own right.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/4chapter3.shtml
Kartoffel, you still Can’t prove that Abubakari II did not make it across the Atlantic.
The mere fact that the Malians knew about the Atlantic Ocean, suggests that Africans were sailing on it.
I guess Christopher Columbus was a liar too:
“During his second voyage, Columbus was told by the indians of ESPANOLA (Haiti), that black people had been to the island before his arrival.
For proof, they presented Columbus with the spears of these African muslims. These weapons were tipped with a yellow metal that the indians called GUANIN, a word of West African derivation meaning ‘gold alloy’.
Oddly enough, it is related to the Arabic word ‘GHINAA’ which means ‘WEALTH’. Columbus brought some GUANINES back to Spain and had them tested.
He learned that the metal was 18 parts gold (56.25%), 6 parts silver (18.75%) and 8 parts copper (25%), the same ratio as the metal produced in African metal shops of Guinea.”
http://www.themodernreligion.com/ht/precolumbus.html
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[…] […]
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@Linda
“Columbus brought some GUANINES back to Spain and had them tested.
He learned that the metal was 18 parts gold (56.25%), 6 parts silver (18.75%) and 8 parts copper (25%), the same ratio as the metal produced in African metal shops of Guinea”
That reminds me that the “Guinea” was the name the British adopted for their gold coin currency minted from 1663 and 1814.
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Id first likever to say thank you to Abagdon butas far as I’m aware a ahead Baba wasn’t sold into Atlantic slavery he was imprisoned in Morocco for failing to cooperate
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Excuse the spelling mistakes spellcheck is taking the puss
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@ Linda
“So, by your standards, Mansa Musa could not be believed because white western scholars are doubtful… the word of Arabs and Africans is not enough.”
Historians get a lot of stuff wrong, and often. But mostly about interpretations, not the mere facts. And when it is about facts then mostly because they believe in theories that are supported by too little evidence, not because they ignore evidence.
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Kartoffel, are you saying that the Malians were at lower level of social and technological development than the Vikings? If you are, what do you base such claim on? Are you a believer in the theory that blacks can’t sail? I’m not entirely sold on Mansa Musa’s story because it’s more likely that he got rid of Abubakar II and came up with a story about the latter going off to explore, than Abubakar II giving up his throne to do so. If Abubakar II did reach the Americas, there should be proof of it in the fauna, flora of the Americas as well as in the gene pool of its population. Any signs of immunity to African diseases in a native population of South America that can be traced to the 14th century would be conclusive in my opinion. The claim that blacks are lousy sailors is nonsense, in1689, Siddi Qasim Khan a/k/a Yakut Khan, a member of the Siddi community of African ancestry and the administrator of Janjira fort, laid siege to British-held Bombay in 1689, and compelled them to pay imdemnity to the Mughal Emperor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child's_War
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@ gro jo
“are you saying that the Malians were at lower level of social and technological development than the Vikings?”
I think the burden of proof is higher for a number of reasons:
a) It’s well established that the Vikings had the capability of ocean seafaring. If the Malians had that capability I don’t know. But that they did just because they knew the Atlantic existed as Linda claimed is preposterous.
b) The Vikings have shown that they had the motivation to undertake long voyages. That is something very uncommon for a society. For example most other european mediaval societies didn’t do it. As I said I don’t know the naval history of Mali, but if they didn’t do many long voyages, I consider it extremly unlikely that they undertook this one under enomrous risk just for the sake of curiosity.
c) It’s much easier to cross the Atlantic from Greenland to the Canadian coast than from West Africa to either South America or the Carribean.
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@ Linda
http://www.themodernreligion.com/ht/precolumbus.html
This is the sort of stuff you’ll never learn in a high school or even college classroom.
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Thanks Abagond for the post and Linda for her added insights. I was unaware of this history.
Mack lyons link is useful too. Thanks. Linguistics is a valid marker.
I remember once seeing a satalight picture of Africa that showed ancient trade routes etched on the planet by the hooves of camels.
I think moderns underestimate the capacities of what they think are “primitive societies”.
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@ Odayne Wright
My mistake. I took it out of the post. Thank you.
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AWEsome post, I love learning more on Black history of the global diaspora Abagond!
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To Linda and Others
I do not pretend to have the great knowledge that you possess; however I have read a few word in the past that may be of some use to you scholars.
I mentioned last year that a study of the sub Saharan tribes would be beneficial and had some negative comments. Most of the following discussion is about the Sahel and the North of Africa and when all is said and done probable will have little impact on the Atlantic Slave Trade. As you will see below the African Prince from Timbuktu was capture along the Atlantic Coast.
All of us have an interest in the African Story so let us not be kicking each other and just learn!
*******************************************************************************
http://dbpedia.org/page/Abdulrahman_Ibrahim_Ibn_Sori
About: Abdulrahman Ibrahim Ibn Sori
An Entity of Type : person, from Named Graph : http://dbpedia.org, within Data Space : dbpedia.org
Abdu-l-Rahman Ibrahim Ibn Sori (a.k.a. Abdul-Rahman) was a prince from West Africa who was made a slave in the United States. After spending 40 years in slavery, he was freed in 1828 by order of President John Quincy Adams and Secretary of State Henry Clay after the Sultan of Morocco requested his release. He was captured near the Futa Djallon.
Futa Djallon is in Guinea which is in Sub Sahara, Africa approximately 150 miles from `the Atlantic Ocean
*****************************************************************************
“Linda’a comments to Allen
“I encourage you to not Peruse information you find or are provided but to READ it
Then they might accidentally learn something about Africa, such as Songhai and Mali history,
and the Tauregs, black African Muslims, and Mahgrebs/Arabs, who controlled the slave routes in northwest Africa and the Sahel, an area that Mali and it’s Empire was a part of:
“One of Africa’s key trading routes during the 19th century was the Taghaza Trail which dissects the Sahara, starting at the North West town of Aoudaghost, Morocco, running all the way down the Atlantic Coast at Freetown in Sierra Leone.
The route passed through Sidjilmasa, Taghaza, Walata, Ghana, Bamako and Niani before reaching the coast.” **************(see below)**********
http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/tuareg/tuareg.php
“but it was the connection between Mali and flourishing Timbuktu that became one of the primary routes for European traders. “ (Could not find this: reference)
First the Sahel crosses Africa from west to east and from 20mm north to 600mm south.
http://maps.thefullwiki.org/Sahel
http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/tuareg/index.php
http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/tuareg/tuareg.php
No slaves flowing west! See the following (Flowing east)
“This route then went on to be one of the main east-west routes across the Sahara; from Walata on to Timbuktu, Jenne (to the south), Goa, through the Tenere Desert to Agadez, before joining the north-south route in the east, running from Benin in the south, through Bilma and Zawilah, before heading north into Egypt. Flowing east – salt, kola, gold, ivory, and slaves. Flowing west – copper, ceramics, and cowrie beads.”
You failed to include the “slaves flowed east” portion. Slaves flowing east were for the North African Slave trade not the Atlantic slave trade.
“Tuareg were also responsible for bringing enslaved people north from “west” Africa to be sold to Europeans and Middle Easterners.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songhai_Empire#Economy
“The Songhai economy was based on a clan system. The clan a person belonged to ultimately decided one’s occupation. The most common were metalworkers, fishermen, and carpenters. Lower caste participants consisted of mostly non-farm working immigrants, who at times were provided special privileges and held high positions in society. At the top were noblemen and direct descendants of the original Songhai people, followed by freemen and traders. At the bottom were war captives and European slaves obligated to labor, especially in farming. James Olson describes the labor system as resembling modern day unions, with the Empire possessing craft guilds that consisted of various mechanics and artisans.[17]”
Please note European slaves in the above paragraph.
Please let us keep learning together! Not any one individual will ever know all of the history of Africa!
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Abagond To find the distance from the Atlantic Ocean to Timbuktu ask Google on your cell phone. it will give it in KM ask for it in miles and it will give it to you.
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Kartoffel
I cannot think of a single reason that Mali would have any ocean going ships when it is in the center of Africa.
They were outstanding navigator to be able to travel across the vast Sahara Desert!
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Allen Shaw @ I cannot think of a single reason that Mali would have any ocean going ships when it is in the center of Africa.
Linda says,
Allen Shaw, you are a living, breathing mascot of the word “ignorant”
the Mali Empire ruled by black African Muslims, which Kartoffel and I were discussing, was a vast Empire that stretched from the Sahara to the Atlantic Ocean
so having ships, was quite an easy accomplishment
if you really are black, then that’s a dam shame… you, sir, are an embarrassment!
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@ Allen Shaw
Please follow your own advice. According to Google Maps it is 962 miles from Timbuktu to Accra on foot. That is nowhere close to your bogusly precise factoid of “It is 2784 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to Timbuktu.”
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@ Allen Shaw
Mali sold slaves TO the Portuguese in the Gambia:
p. 72, “Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century” (1997), , editors Joseph Ki-Zerbo and Djibril Tamsir Niane (volume IV of the abridged edition of “The UNESCO General History of Africa”)
Slaves were regularly marched to the coast to be sold. The march could take months. Even before the Transatlantic Slave Trade, they were marched to Tripoli and Cairo, which are much farther away than the Atlantic coast:
Distance from Timbuktu on foot (according to Google Maps):
North Africa:
3,364 miles to Cairo, Egypt
2,721 miles to Marrakesh, Morocco
2,243 miles to Tripoli, Libya
Atlantic coast:
1,371 miles to Dakar, Senegal
1,326 miles to Banjul, Gambia
1,021 miles to Lagos, Nigeria
964 miles to Elmina Castle, Ghana
962 miles to Accra, Ghana
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Allen, talking to you feels like an exercise in futility due to your lack on knowledge on African history. I feel like I’m wasting my time
Linda says: Guinea did not exist back then
Futa Jallon was a part of the Mali and Songhai Empire. The Muslim people of this region are Fulani, and the Fulbe migrated to this region,
so as I stated, many black African Muslims, like Abdul Rahman were kidnapped and shipped to the Americas as slaves.
and the Taureg trade routes were widely used for trade- from Gold to slaves
As you notice, it encompasses all of northwest Africa, it flowed in ALL directions
and their trade flowed in All directions — not just north and east
without the Saharan slave trade, there would be no Atlantic Slave trade.
Linda says,
Wow, Allen…really.. I feel like I lost a brain cell just reading that!
the Sahel goes across the continent of Africa, touching shore to shore– it doesn’t flow in just ONE direction..
it’s not a Man-made trade route… it’s a natural Land region of Africa that transitions between desert and vegetation– what the h’ll does it have to do with slaves?
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@ Linda
Thank you!
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for your edification — a nice giant map showing slave trade routes from African cities.
the green lines indicate the slave routes for the Atlantic Slave Trade
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Abagond, you’re welcome
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I love the green lines; however I would appreciate the documentation the person used when the drew the map!
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“Wow, Allen…really.. I feel like I lost a brain cell just reading that!
the Sahel goes across the continent of Africa, touching shore to shore– it doesn’t flow in just ONE direction..”
Linda
If you would have read the reference you would see that that is a quote from the reference not from me!!
Like I say we all can learn, unless we close our mind to any other individuals contribution.
Don’t destroy your brain cells, because someone questions you just read the material they present carefully.
I understand that you know everything however I am constantly learning new things and changing things that I learned yesterday that are now proven to be wrong!
Abagond Sorry about the mileage, I ask my cell phone Google again and it gave me the same figure.
Slaves were marched north and east which is away from the Atlantic Ocean. If they were marched to the Atlantic Gold Coast where the Atlantic Slaves were mainly shipped from perhaps you could give me the quote.
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2784 miles looks like the distance from Timbuktu to NE Brazil.
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@Allen Shaw
The sad part is the advice you give to people is often one you need to follow. Smh
@Linda
Thank you for providing great detail.
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sharinalr
Don’t worry I always come out of these encounters with more knowledge then I had when I started.
I have learned quite a bit while I was reading and making my mistakes.
I still can’t get my Google to work right!
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You have your own Google?
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Abagond, since you’re in a scholarly groove, how about a post on Afroasiatic languages, specifically, why Egyptian is so closely related to Chadic?
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Oh yes. Afroasiatic languages for sure.
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Allen Shaw@ Slaves were marched north and east which is away from the Atlantic Ocean. If they were marched to the Atlantic Gold Coast where the Atlantic Slaves were mainly shipped from perhaps you could give me the quote.
Linda says,
Allen Shaw, “give you the Quote”
what are you smoking? I thought you were just slow, not blind
I posted a LARGE Map so that you could follow the lines, since reading seemed to be a challenge for you and you still don’t get it?!! —
Please take a seat because I’m done. You’ve passed the expiration date of my patience and tolerance for bullsh’t. I don’t come to this blog to educate racists or ignorant people.
As a Caribbean woman, I can easily say that I don’t know everything, I am always learning – I enjoy it.
I come to this blog to share information that I’ve learned, with fellow commenters who are interested in reading about the history omitted from white American/European scholastic history books that has been shoved down our throats in our respective western educations.
unlike you, a supposed black American man, who seems to enjoy wallowing in his whitewashed
chainsignorance because you seem h’ll bent of protecting the skewed versions of white American/western history, propaganda and stereotypes“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” Allen, and it’s not the fish. Every time you open your mouth, Allen, you reveal who you really are
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@Kartoffel
“a) It’s well established that the Vikings had the capability of ocean seafaring.
It’s also well established that people along the Niger River had ships far older than any Viking ship. With 8,000 years of archaeological evidence of people sailing along the Niger, it’s equally plausible that these masters of the river could also use the currents of the Atlantic to easily travel to the Americas.
“b) The Vikings have shown that they had the motivation to undertake long voyages. ”
What is motivation is that? Was intrigue, adventure and trade motivation enough for Mansa Musa? Is it really hard to conceive that the richest man in the world could hire the best navigators of the era and commission the best ships to be built?
“c) It’s much easier to cross the Atlantic from Greenland to the Canadian coast than from West Africa to either South America or the Carribean.”
Says who? Atlantic current maps actually show it’s easier to cross the Atlantic from the West African coast than it is from Europe. That’s actually what the European sailors of the 1500s did. They sailed down to West Africa and took the currents from there. Ever heard of the North Equatorial current? It’s not near Europe.
There aren’t really any currents that flow directly from Europe to the Americas without going all the way north to the Arctic (or south to Africa) first.
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For Kartoffel:
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Thank you for the reality check, resw77
it seems some people are h’ll bent on furthering white western/European propaganda
such as, the stereotype that Africans could not sail the Atlantic because the Europeans had a hard time getting their big ships through the coast of Africa
I guess if Europeans can’t do it, then nobody can?! — white historians were full of sh’t.
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“Kartoffel@ It’s well established that the Vikings had the capability of ocean seafaring. If the Malians had that capability I don’t know. But that they did just because they knew the Atlantic existed as Linda claimed is preposterous.
“Kartoffel@ It’s much easier to cross the Atlantic from Greenland to the Canadian coast than from West Africa to either South America or the Carribean.”
Linda says,
I’m glad you admit your ignorance because like, Allen, you don’t seem to realize that the Malian empire of Mansa Musa and is brother Abubakari II, stretched from the Sahara desert to the Atlantic Ocean.
the only thing that is preposterous, is your desire to take the words of white western/European historians as “fact”, and downplay the words of African and Arab historians as “fiction”
You do know that African fishermen and Traders were sailing on the Atlantic long before Europeans showed up to “witness it with their own 2 eyes”
because this is what the problem is with what you are saying– which is, “it didn’t happen because white historians don’t validate it.”
western Africans in white American/European history were overlooked and marginalized
because it did not suite the narrative of white western men and scholars to praise the very group of people that they were actively enslaving and disenfranchising.
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@ resw77
“It’s also well established that people along the Niger River had ships far older than any Viking ship. With 8,000 years of archaeological evidence of people sailing along the Niger, it’s equally plausible that these masters of the river could also use the currents of the Atlantic to easily travel to the Americas.”
There is a world of difference between river navigation and coastal seafaring and ocean seafaring. The former most societies did, the latter is quite rare. Did the Malians have ocean seafaring or didn’t they?
“What is motivation is that? Was intrigue, adventure and trade motivation enough for Mansa Musa? Is it really hard to conceive that the richest man in the world could hire the best navigators of the era and commission the best ships to be built?”
The Viking’s motivation was hunger for more fertile land and the much richer societies elsewhere. Pretty good incentives. They also didn’t just do the one murky Vinland expedition, that on its own would be pretty unbelievable. They settled Iceland, Greenland and fared to the eastern Mediterrean. That one very rich monarch would mount such an expedition just for the sake of curiosity seems much more unlikely.
“Says who? Atlantic current maps actually show it’s easier to cross the Atlantic from the West African coast than it is from Europe. That’s actually what the European sailors of the 1500s did. They sailed down to West Africa and took the currents from there. Ever heard of the North Equatorial current? It’s not near Europe.”
You are right if we are talking about Europe in general, but we discussed the likelihood of the Viking and a West African contact. On a globe rather than a map we would see even more striking how much closer Greenland and the American coast is.
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Sankoré University was founded with money provided by a Mandinka lady of that name. Was she the Oprah of her day? “Sankoré is first of all the name of a sponsor, a “grand dame of Timbuktu, very rich and wanting to do good deeds,” who built a mosque in her homeland.” http://sankore.org/en/why-it-called-sankore.
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@Kartoffel
“There is a world of difference between river navigation and coastal seafaring and ocean seafaring.”
That’s just an uninformed opinion. A white Norwegian (so you should trust him) demonstrated that the journey from W. Africa to America could be made on a tiny reed boat used for river navigation.
“The Viking’s motivation was hunger for more fertile land and the much richer societies elsewhere.”
Also your opinion. You don’t know what their motivations were. And I guess you want us to believe that people living on the edge of the Sahara couldn’t possibly “hunger” for more fertile land either.
“On a globe rather than a map we would see even more striking how much closer Greenland and the American coast is”
Now you’re just “switching goalposts,” as they say in America. First you said “easier,” and it is easier to take a direct, fast-moving current since it requires very little effort on the part of the navigator. There are not direct currents from Europe or Greenland to Canada.
Plus you are just assuming that Vikings settled Greenland, and your European archaeologists blame the sudden disappearance of Vikings on “economic and identity issues” and give the following B.S. excuse for why they didn’t leave anything behind:
“The archeologists interpret this as a sign that the departure from the colony proceeded in an orderly manner, and that the residents took any valuable objects along.”
You see the double standards and lame excuses you guys create when it comes to trying (desperately) to prove Europeans sailed anywhere prior to the 1400s?
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@Allen Shaw
That is good to hear. I learned a lot here as well.
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@ resw77
“Also your opinion. You don’t know what their motivations were. And I guess you want us to believe that people living on the edge of the Sahara couldn’t possibly “hunger” for more fertile land either.”
Not my opinion. The generally accepted interpretaion of the academic community that is well-supported by evidence. Of course the Malians could have had the same motivation, but did they? As far as I know the Malian Empire was a pretty rich agricultaral society. Normally these societes don’t pack up their stuff and seek for new land to settle but rather try to build empires.
“Now you’re just “switching goalposts,” as they say in America. First you said “easier,” and it is easier to take a direct, fast-moving current since it requires very little effort on the part of the navigator. There are not direct currents from Europe or Greenland to Canada.”
The currents between Greenland and Canada don’t seem any less supportive of a voyage than those between West Africa and the Americas. And the distance is significantly shorter. 1150 km from the south-west coast of Greenland to L’Anse-aux-Meadows vs 2900 km from Freetown to Pernambuco. Also the Vikings already travelled more than that across the open ocean towards Greenland.
“Plus you are just assuming that Vikings settled Greenland, and your European archaeologists blame the sudden disappearance of Vikings on “economic and identity issues” and give the following B.S. excuse for why they didn’t leave anything behind:”
Now you are making stuff up. The settlements of the Vikings were excavated. Additionally there is ample source material that documents 400 years of contact.
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@Kartoffel
“Not my opinion.”
You do not know anyone’s motivations except your own, and any of your white historians who say they do, are just guessing.
“The currents between Greenland and Canada don’t seem any less supportive of a voyage than those between West Africa and the Americas. ”
There you are switching goal posts again. I never said which was more “supportive of a voyage,” whatever that’s supposed to mean. You said it was “easier” for Vikings to sail to the Americas, and all I did was note the FACT that there are no direct currents from Europe or Greenland to Canada, while there are direct currents from West Africa to the Americas. I think it’s easier to travel in the direction of currents, like most navigators do.
“Also the Vikings already travelled more than that across the open ocean towards Greenland.”
You don’t have any proof that Vikings traveled to Greenland. Some skeletons found is not evidence of Viking presence, because native Americans already lived there. If you find some Viking artifacts in Greenland, please let me know.
“Now you are making stuff up. ”
Making what up? I quoted directly from Der Spiegel, which I thought you would trust since it’s white German owned: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/archaeologists-uncover-clues-to-why-vikings-abandoned-greenland-a-876626.html
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I offer you this site as my last contribution to this string:
http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/index.faces
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Allen,
This website has been your ONLY worthwhile contribution to the blog itself,
as far as I’m concerned.
good information
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@ resw77
“You do not know anyone’s motivations except your own, and any of your white historians who say they do, are just guessing.”
By that standard all historical research is pointless.
“Making what up? I quoted directly from Der Spiegel, which I thought you would trust since it’s white German owned:”
You’re completly misquoting that article. The auther in no way questions that there were Vikings in Greenland, he just debates the reason of their departure.
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@Kartoffel
“By that standard all historical research is pointless.”
No, you just need to learn to discern facts from opinions.
“You’re completly misquoting that article. The author in no way questions that there were Vikings in Greenland, he just debates the reason of their departure.”
There you go yet again switching goal posts. Bloody amazing.
Who said the author questions that there were Vikings of Greenland, and who did I misquote? I quoted directly from the text, and explained exactly why I used that quote: because I thought it was a white historian’s B.S. excuse for why there are no Viking artifacts uncovered in Greenland.
If an African historian said, Mansa Musa’s voyagers settled in America in 1330, but abruptly left in 1500 and that the reason no Songhai objects were left behind was because “The archeologists interpret this as a sign that the departure from the colony proceeded in an orderly manner, and that the residents took any valuable objects along,” you and most whites like you would doubt this, just as you’ve already doubted any possibility that Mansa Musa made the voyage, and would probably call it an Afrocentric theory.
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Good post, Abagond. The only thing I take issue with is the possible speculation that the brief Moroccan conquest of the Sonhai empire somehow meant many of the learned (ulama) were sold into slavery across the Atlantic. Where did you get that from? I’m not denying that it happened, but from my studies of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the overwhelming majority of enslaved Africans were neither Muslim nor from Timbuktu. Of course, there are a few cases of prominent, literate Muslim West Africans who were sold into slavery, but I have yet to hear of any of them coming from Timbuktu or Gao or Jenne.
My understanding was that more slave trafficking went northward, across trans-Saharan trade networks to be sold in North Africa. That’s how Ahmed Baba ended up in North Africa…
Did you know a famous scholar of this region (John Hunwick) of West Africa translated one of the famous Chronicles of the region by a Timbuktu scholar? I had the book on pdf, but lost it a few years ago. If I find it, I will email it around, more people should read how scholars in Timbuktu wrote their own history centuries ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hunwick
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@ talibmensah
I gave my sources in the post, but I will find the quote and add it to the thread.
If you find the PDF, I would be interested in getting a copy.
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@abagond
A post on Fourah Bay College would be interesting for comparative reasons. Also, Fourah Bay College included students who studied Islamic societies in Sierra Leone and West Africa. Fourah Bay is built on the Western concept of a university, which is quite different from what emerged in centers of learning like Timbuktu, Walata, or Jenne.
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Timbuktu is a traditional center of peace, learning and scholarship.
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All Black Americans need to study topics like this i have enjoyed reading and taking notes and learning.
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Ignorance and prejudice against Africa has become transformed into empirical fact. The ideas and philosophies in Europe as they penetrated/traded/encroached Africa recast the prejudicial and dismissiveness against the continent and her people.
So, Immanuel Kant could spout: “Humanity reaches its greatest perfection in the white race….”
And Hegel was no better: “Africa is no historical part of the world; it has no movement or development to exhibit.”
What these two so-called enlightenment thinkers did not know or want to understand that African philosophy , oral or written predated Greek philosophy.
Cheikh Anta Diop, the well-known Senegalese historian wrote: “Four centuries before Levy-Bruhl wrote his Primitive Mentality [also known by the title How Natives Think] Black Muslim Africa was commenting on Aristotle’s “formal logic” and was devoted to dialectics.”
Was the pyramids not built before the Parthenon?
The most prestigious Timbuktu scholar: Ahmed Baba (1556-1627/936-1037) in his work titled Tuhfat al- fuada. In a prophetic saying (hadith): He wrote on one of his thousands of manuscripts:
“One hour of a scholar laying on his bed but meditating on his knowledge is more valuable than the worship of a devout person during seventy years.”
In Mr Soulemayne Bachir Diagne’s appraisal of Ahmed Baba’s words: “ Ahmed Baba insists on the value of knowledge with the precision that knowledge is authentic and complete only when it is a way of life, when beyond the mastery of a science there is a scrupulous attention to what the good life means….”
Two things gleaning from the importance of Ahmed Baba’s manuscripts: the Timbuktu manuscripts needs to be preserved not only for posterity, and as museum objects, but for learning and meditating on African sciences, knowledge, poetry and philosophy in the past. The continued unlocking and deciphering of the manuscripts, could be made accessible and could contribute greatly to our scholarship and understanding of Africa’s (amongst other things, philosophical) past.
In The Tuffat al-fudala: “The ink of the scholar is more precious than the blood of a martyr.” In here, we are reminded by one of the greatest African philosophers that education is so important. That the pen is mightier than the sword.
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Thank you for sharing the news…
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Reblogged this on khushizn.
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