–May, Tuareg declaration of independent nation of Azawad, an Islamic state.
–May, AQIM/Alliance captures Goa and Timbuktu.
2013 –January, February, French air bombardment in Mali, French troops arrive retake Goa, Timbuktu and Duentza.
–February, March, ECOWAS deploys troops in support of French troops.
–April, French begin withdrawal from Mali.
–April 25, United Nations Security Council passes resolution creating peacekeeping force for Mali
–France’s President Hollande calls for country wide election in Mali for July
–May, five suicide bombers die in attack on Malian troops near Gao
Acknowledgements
AS MY TIMBUKTU JOURNEY ENDED, MY BOOK’S journey into your hands began. It exists because many people helped me along the way, though I ask those not mentioned to please know that I also deeply value their roles. Stephen Darling and John Korenic were among the first to encourage my travels; Paul Grescoe, Rob Sanders, Scott Wayne, Margo Pfieff, Allan MacDougall, Jim Douglas, and Jim Hutchison prodded my writing; and Steve Henrichsen, Professor Musa Balde, and Brian Antonson spent time reviewing materials and nudging the author to improve. My narrative was informed through swapped travel stories, and several tellers, though not all, will become known to the reader — they enabled a better book. The author takes responsibility for any flaws or errors in the text, including those in paraphrasing and interpretation.
All photographs are identified and credited at the book’s end, yet I wish here to thank their creators: Dennis Shigematsu, Catherine Devrye, Jose Mandigers, Anke Biermans, Don Cayo, Alida Jay Boye, and Christine Elliott — seasoned travellers all, and good with the click of a shutter! They kindly lent their images for this book with the understanding that a donation has been made in their name to “help preserve a manuscript” through the Timbuktu Educational Foundation’s program and, separately, to further the important work of The Timbuktu Manuscripts Project, financed by Norway with the goal of preserving and promoting Africa’s literary heritage. And also Don Waite, who gave a friendship full of guidance on photographic quality and consistency.
The book is enhanced by cartographer Eric Leinberger, whose maps will assist future travellers as well as readers. Also, portraits were commissioned for several figures related to the history of West Africa to further the reader’s understanding of their individual character. Illustrator Simon Anderson-Carr’s ink drawings provide the first fresh perspectives in nearly two centuries. He worked from known visuals for each, except Adams, for whom only written descriptives exist, resulting in a speculative portrait.
Geoffrey Lipman’s willingness to write the book’s foreword provided the author with a warmly welcomed vote of confidence.
Certain partners stand out when it comes to assisting and motivating the author. John Eerkes-Medrano is a sage and candid editor who believes that he has equal responsibilities on behalf of the writer, and on behalf of the reader — and he befriended my book’s journey. Robert Mackwood of Seventh Avenue Literary Agency read the manuscript over a weekend and committed to represent it on the Monday morning, finding the best publishers for this work.
The decision to publish rested with Michael Carroll, and ultimately, Kirk Howard, respectively editorial director and owner of The Dundurn Group in Toronto. The care of Shannon Whibbs as the book’s copy-editor proved to be one of professionalism, patience, and wisdom. The striking cover design by Jennifer Scott furthered the book’s stature, as did the thoughtful book layout by designer Erin Mallory. My respect and appreciation to all three.
New York’s Skyhorse Publishing’s Tony Lyons and Cory Allyn took the decision to publish this Second Edition and encouraged the new Afterword. In doing so, Liz Driesbach created a new cover design and Oleg Lyubner oversaw the book’s introduction and promotion. Also, I very much appreciate Dania Sheldon’s work to secure access and permission for the new photographs within the Afterword. My thanks to them all for helping convey the importance of Mali’s difficulties and the need to help protect the ancient manuscripts.
I extend my gratitude to the people of West Africa, those written about and those inferred between the lines of my story; they are remarkable.
Advice from my sons, Brent and Sean, was fundamental to both my trip plans and writing ambitions. Foremost, as will have become apparent to the reader — and something for which I will be eternally thankful — this book would not exist without a certain question from Janice, my wife, when she asked, “Why don’t you just go to Timbuktu …?”
About the Author
RICK ANTONSON, THE AUTHOR OF ROUTE 66 STILL Kicks: Driving America’s Main Street and co-author of Slumach’s Gold: In Search of a Legend and The Fraser Valley, is president and CEO of Tourism Vancouver, has served as deputy chair of the Pacific Asia Travel Association based in Bangkok, Thailand and is a former chair of the board for the Destination Marketing Association International based in Washington, DC. He serves as president of the Pacific Coast Public Television. He has traveled widely with his wife, Janice, including a trek with a guide-driver by four-wheel-drive from Lhasa, Tibet, through the Himalayas to Katmandu, Nepal. In five trips over the past dozen years, Rick and his sons, Brent (author of Of Russia: A Year Inside) and Sean, have circumnavigated the northern hemisphere by train, beginning and ending in London, England—including travelling by rail from Beijing, China, to Pyongyang, North Korea (a country today visited by few Westerners). Recently, Rick joined an expedition team to the 16,854-foot summit of Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey, followed by travels in Iraq and Iran, the subject of his forthcoming book. Rick and Janice make their homes in Vancouver, Canada, and in Cairns, Australia.
Sources and Recommended Reading
Adams, Charles Hansford, ed. The Narrative of Robert Adams, a Barbary Captive: A Critical Edition. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Africanus, Leo. The History and Description of Africa. London: Hakluyt Society, 1896.
Allen, Benedict, ed. The Faber Book of Exploration. London: Faber and Faber, 2002.
Asher, Michael and Dean King. Death in the Sahara: The Lords of the Desert and the Timbuktu Railway Expedition Massacre. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2008.
Barth, Heinrich. Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa. Edited by G.T. Bettany. London: Ward, Lock, 1890.
Battutah, Ibn. The Travels of Ibn Battutah. Edited by Tim Mackintosh-Smith. London: Picador, 2002.
Benanav, Michael. Men of Salt: Crossing the Sahara on the Caravan of White Gold. Guilford, Ct: Lyons Press, 2006.
Bennett, Nicholas. Zigzag to Timbuktu. London: John Murray, 1963.
Brook, Larry. Daily Life in Ancient and Modern Timbuktu. Minneapolis: Runestone Press, 1999.
Caillié, René. Travels Through Central Africa to Timbuctoo. 1830. Reprint, London: Darf, 1992.
Christopher, Robert, and Erik James Martin. Ocean of Fire: Through the Garden of Allah to Timbuktu. London: George G. Harrap, 1957.
Davidson, Basil. Africa: History of a Continent. New York: Macmillan, 1966.
De Gramont, Sanche. The Strong Brown God: The Story of the Niger River. London: Hart-Davis, McGibbon, 1975.
De Villiers, Marq, and Sheila Hirtle. Sahara: A Natural History. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2002.
De Villiers, Marq, and Sheila Hirtle. Timbuktu: The Sahara’s Fabled City of Gold. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2007.
Di Cintio, Marcello. Harmattan: Wind Across West Africa. Toronto: Insomniac Press, 2002.
Fitzpatrick, Mary, et al. Lonely Planet: West Africa. 6th ed. Footscray, AUS: Lonely Planet Publications, 2006.
Fleming, Fergus. The Sword and the Cross. London: Granta Books, 2003.
Fremantle, Tom. The Road to Timbuktu: Down the Niger on the Trail of Mungo Park. London: Constable & Robinson, 2005.
Gardner, Brian. The Quest for Timbuctoo. London: Readers Union/ Cassel, 1969.
Gwyn, Stephen. Mungo Park and the Quest of the Niger. London: John
Lane and Bodley Head, 1934.
Hemingway, Ernest. Green Hills of Africa. New York: Scribner, 1935.
Hudgens, Jim, and Richard Trillo. The Rough Guide to West Africa. 6th ed. London: Rough Guides, 2006.
Hunwick, John O. and Alida Jay Boye, with photographs by Joseph Hunwick. The Hidden Treasures of Timbuktu. London: Thames and Hudson, 2008.
Jacobs, Michael. In the Glow of the Phantom Palace: Travels from Granada to Timbuktu. London: Pallas Athene, 2000.
Jeppie, Shamil and Souleymane Bachir Diagne, eds. The Meanings of Timbuktu. Cape Town, South Africa: Human Sciences Research, 2008.
Keenan, Jeremy. The Tuareg: People of Ahaggar. London: Sickle Moon Books, 2002.
Kryza, Frank. Race for Timbuktu: In Search of Africa’s City of Gold. New York: HarperCollins, 2006.
Kurlansky, Mark. Salt: A World History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002.
Mackintosh-Smith, Tim. Travels with a Tangerine: A Journey in the Footnotes of Ibn Battutah. London: John Murray, 2001.
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Ondaatje, Christopher. Hemingway in Africa. Toronto: HarperCollins, 2003.
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Schwartz, Brian M. A World of Villages. New York: Crown, 1986.
Shakespeare, Nicholas. Bruce Chatwin. London: Harvill Press, 1999.
Shapiro, Michael. A Sense of Place. Palo Alto, Ca: Travelers’ Tales, 2004.
Velton, Ross. Mali: The Bradt Travel Guide. Bucks, UK: Bradt, 2000.
Welch, Galbraith. The Unveiling of Timbuktu: The Astounding Adventures of Caillié. 1939. Reprint, New York: Carroll & Graf, 1991.
Zinsser, William. “Visiting Timbuktu.” In On Writing Well. New York: Harper Perennial, 1976.
Illustration and Photography Credits
Simon Anderson-Carr: pages 55, 102, 124, 144, 150, 155
Rick Antonson: pages 24, 37, 83, 110, 188, 189, 229, 246
Anke Biermans: pages 175, 184
Alida Jay Boye, University of Oslo: pages 285, 303
Bridgeman Art Library: page xi
Don Cayo: pages 81, 140, 151
Catherine Devrye: pages 172, 207, 216, 240
Christine Elliott: pages 137, 148, 170
Eric Leinberger: pages iv, 48, 78, 157, 209, 271, 277
Alexandra Huddleston: page 279
Zakarie (Zak) Kouriba: pages 270, 283
Jose Mandigers: pages 116, 117, 119
Dennis Shigematsu: pages xviii, 91, 218, 224
Timbuktu Educational Foundation: page 160
A Plea to Preserve the Past
Photograph © 2008 by Alida Jay Boye, coordinator of the Timbuktu Manuscripts Project, University of Oslo.
OVER THE CENTURIES, IGNORANCE HAS IMPEDED the preservation of the 700,000 Timbuktu manuscripts. A continued lack of awareness facilitates their slow disappearance — the loss of history’s book, one page at a time. Without these paper treasures, we will know immeasurably less about a glorious time in sub-Saharan Africa some six hundred years ago.
It is a race against time to save these irreplaceable riches, which in this book are described as “Islamic pamphlets covered with sand ... scholarly pages a phase away from dust.” A portion of the author’s royalties from To Timbuktu for a Haircut will be donated to preserving the Timbuktu manuscripts. Some of the most notable preparatory work has been done through The Timbuktu Manuscript Project undertaken by the University of Oslo which completed its important work in 2009, coordinated by Alida Jay Boye. Other impressive progress is being undertaken by the Tombouctou Manuscript Project by the University of Cape Town in South Africa and the Ford Foundation, www.tombouctoumanuscripts.org
Of personal importance to me is the work of Abdoul Wahid Haidara who oversees bibliothèque Mohamed Tahar, and I thank Alida Jay Boye for the introduction.
Index
Abdullah, 22
Abdoul Wahid Haidara, 279 Abraham, 225
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), xv, 12, 179, 243
Adams, Robert (see Rose, Benjamin)
Afel Bocoum, 81, 113, 186
Africa Cup of Nations, 51, 261
Africa: History of a Continent, 32
African Association (see Association for Promoting the Discovery of Inland Parts of the Continent of Africa)
African Committee (see Committee of the Company of Merchants Trading to Africa)
African Development Bank, 231
African Queen, 191.
African Union, 231
Africanus, Leo, 38, 139, 142
Agence France-Presse, 274
Agriculture (Dogon), 217
Ahmed Baba, 280
Ahmed Baba Centre (l’Institut Ahmed Baba), 280
Al Bekây, Sheikh, 47, 49, 149, 152, 153
Alchemist, L’, 21, 94
Alec, 36, 37, 40, 43, 44, 45, 51, 62
Algeria, 55, 56, 115, 116, 272
Algerians, 57
Al-Hadj, Ahmed, 154, 156
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), xvix
Alistair, 195, 196, 197, 268
Ali Farka Touré (see Touré, Ali Farka)
Ama, 248
Amadgugou, 260
Amana, L’Auberge, 108
Amsterdam, 173
Amadou Toumani Touré (see Touré, Amadou Toumani)
Amtrak, 10
Animism, 229
Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith), xvix, 273, 274
Antonson, Brent, 21, 293
Antonson, Janice, 21, 22, 70, 87, 122, 142, 164, 293
Antonson, Sean, 17, 94, 293
Arabic, 47, 114, 115, 147, 158, 198, 273
Arabs, 31, 114, 145, 165
Arab Spring, xvix, 267
Army Day, 231
Askia Mohammed, King, 39
Association for Promoting the Discovery of Inland Parts of the Continent of Africa, 45, 103
Auberge Gorma, 98
Azaouad, 115
Azawad, 272
Baba, Ahmed, 280
Baby Foot, 171
Balanzan Tree, 228
Balde, Musa, 161, 278, 291
Bali Climate Change Framework, xvii
Bamako, 6, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 25, 26 , 28, 29, 34, 44, 45, 50, 52, 61, 67, 68, 70, 71, 74, 79, 94, 96, 113, 120, 128, 198, 199, 212, 259, 260, 284
Bamana, 6
Bambara, 6, 22, 34, 53, 70, 72, 73, 79, 81, 84, 89, 91, 98, 101, 147, 174, 176, 192, 195, 203, 205, 212, 218, 230, 231, 251, 252, 261
Banbuk, 31
Banco, 14, 177
Bandiagara, 203, 204
Bandiagara Escarpment, 209
Bangladesh, 138
Bani River, 90, 201, 255
Banque Internationale pour le Commerce et l’Industrie au Mali (BICIM), 68
Baobab Rope, 187, 191, 217
Baobab Trees, 201
Barth, Heinrich, 47, 88, 105, 152, 153, 168
Bath, Order of, 153
Battutah, Ibn, 38
Begnimato, 222
Belgium, 168
Benin, 3, 260
Bennett, Nicholas, 165
Berber, xv, 3, 115, 122, 152
Berlin, 153, 262
Berlin Geographical Society, 153
Bibb, Eric, 284
Bibliothèque Manuscrits — Al-Wangari, 154
Biermans, Anke, 291
Biltmore Hotel (Los Angeles), 9
Bissap, 36
Black Magic, 233
Blue Men of Africa (Tuaregs), 56, 116
Bou-bou,197
Bouctou, 3, 151, 152
Bouctou Hotel, 135, 136, 139
Boure, 31
Bretton Woods, xvii British Airways, 41
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), 11, 13;
Film Crew, 96
British Library, 17, 18, 165
Brothers in Bamako, 284
Bryson, Bill, xiii Bulgaria, 22
Burkina Faso, 3, 5, 6, 16, 34, 94, 115, 204, 223, 260, 261, 263, 274, 275
Bussa Rapids, 101, 102
Cable News Network (CNN), 13, 261
Caillié, René-August, 46, 47, 86, 88, 105, 114, 138, 139, 141, 143, 145, 147, 148, 149, 150, 162, 166, 167, 171, 187, 196, 260, 266
Cairo, 38
Camel Caravans (Azalai), 109
Camels, 3, 56, 57, 112, 119, 121, 123, 125, 196, 197, 198
Canada, 2, 50, 54, 131, 162, 216, 242, 258, 296
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), 13
Cape Town, 11, 14
Caravans, 31, 32, 109, 125, 146, 159, 196
Carbon Neutral, 182
Carter, Jimmy, 108
Cayo, Don, 180
Chad, 36
Charles, The, 123, 125
Charles X, King, 149
Chatwin, Bruce, 31
China, 218, 296
Chris, 5, 6, 7, 8
Christian, 46, 152, 163, 229, 229, 230, 252
Christianity, 49, 149
Circumcision Paintings, 205
Coffee, 43, 44
Coldonneur, Ebou, 26, 29, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 40, 42, 52, 53, 54, 62
Colonel Lamana Ould Dou, 269
Colonel Moammar Gadhafi, 271
Committee of the Company of Merchants Trading to Africa, 126
Communauté Financière Africaine (Franc CFA) (see Seffe)