Saving the Timbuktu Manuscripts
 African
countries have thrown their weight behind efforts to preserve the priceless
Timbuktu Manuscripts, ancient documents that hold the key to some of the secrets
of the continent's history and cultural heritage - and shatter the conventional
historical view of Africa as a purely "oral continent".
The Timbuktu Manuscripts - or Mali Manuscripts - reams of written manuscripts
dating as far back as the 13th century, are ancient Arabic texts that hark back
to the Malian city of Timbuktu's glorious past, when it existed 500 years ago as
a gold trading port and centre for academics and scholars of religion,
literature and science.
The manuscripts provide a written testimony to the skill of African
scientists, in astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, medicine and climatology in
the Middle Ages.
Timbuktu, long-since a symbol for remote and exotic destinations, was once an
extremely wealthy city. Muslim merchants would trade gold from West Africa to
Europe and the Middle East in return for salt and other goods.
The manuscripts point to the fact that Africa has a rich legacy of written
history, contrary to popular opinion that oral tradition alone has preserved its
heritage. This is important, given that written records are believed to be such
crucial markers of civilisation.
As many as 18 000 manuscripts, many from ancient libraries, are now housed in
the Ahmed Baba Centre, named after the famous 15th century Timbuktu scholar,
Ahmed Baba. Many of the ancient texts are also still housed in the libraries of
private families in Mali.
Some of the texts, written on delicate paper, are beginning to disintegrate,
and preservation measures have become an imperative.
Restoration
 Over the centuries, these 13th century manuscripts have been subjected to
much physical damage. The climate of the
region is one of the culprits. Heat and dryness cause the paper to become
brittle. The improper storage of the manuscripts have exposed them to dust,
vibration and sudden changes in temperature and relative humidity. Dust and grit
has abraded some of the text in certain manuscripts. Worse still, the publicity
generated around the manuscripts has invited another source of potential damage : human
handling. Researchers, historians, tourist and collectors
have all flocked to Timbuktu to see these rare valuables.
Preservation strategies
Preserving the Timbuktu manuscripts is a huge challenge. What may work in
other parts of the world, may not work in Timbuktu. The ever present dust
presents one of the greatest challenges in a desert town where it is a part of
life. Attempts to microfilm the manuscripts were aborted for this reason. A
small scratch on microfilm can result in the loss of a large amount of data.
It is very difficult to control dust in an area where the buildings
themselves are made out of mud and wood. To allow ventilation, buildings often
do not have closing windows allowing a free flow of sand and dust inside.
But assuming microfilming is an answer, there would still be the issue of
proper storage. Climate controlled rooms with constant temperature and humidity
to house these valuables is vital for their preservation, but in a town where
the electricity supply is an unreliable generator system, power failures would
lay to waste any of these efforts.
Cost is another factor as machinery and material has to be imported and at
unfavourable exchange rates. And then again, simply maintaining equipment
becomes a battle of wills with high temperatures and of course, the dust.
Digitising the collection may work on the less fragile manuscripts but it may
be disastrous for the extremely fragile ones which represent the larger part of
the collection.
Clearly a fresh multi-pronged approach is needed to save these valuable
manuscripts. In collaboration with other governments and international experts,
their approach will now be towards preventive conservation, preventing further
deterioration as well as curative conservation, restoring the damaged works.
South African involvement
South Africa came onto the scene when President Thabo Mbeki offered help to
the Malian government to preserve the ancient scripts during a state visit in
2001. The two countries have now launched a trust fund to elicit funds from the
public to preserve the continent's heritage.
An estimated R36-million is needed over a five-year period, both to upgrade
the Ahmed Baba Centre and to finance the building of a new library equipped with
the necessary technology to preserve the manuscripts.
The Timbuktu Manuscripts have been earmarked as the first official cultural
project of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad), the
socio-economic revival plan of the African Union. They have also become a South
African Presidential Project, co-ordinated by the Presidency and the Department
of Arts and Culture, through the National Archives in Pretoria.
South Africa is now sharing with Mali its own technical expertise on
preserving ancient documents. According to project leader Dr Graham Dominy of
the National archives, four Malians have just finished part of the training
process.
Rare book boxes
Alexio Motsi of the National Archives who has been in charge of the training
aspect explains that the first step is to protect the manuscripts from any
further damage before restoration work can begin. The manuscripts will be
encased in "rare book boxes", specially designed containers made using
certified archival materials. Each container is tailored to the needs of the
manuscript depending on how it was made and bound. The containers will protect
the manuscripts from temperature fluctuations, humidity and vibrations.
Motsi says that the next stage will see the introduction of restoration work
which will require much scientific and technical skill. So as to match the
original craftsmanship, their approach will again be manuscript specific,
dependent on the type of paper, ink, thread and leather used. Science aside,
Motsi points out that the restoration work will also be mindful of the religious
aspects to handling ancient texts such as the Koran.
Article partly sourced from www.safrica.info
with permission.
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