In Africa, a quarter of the world, men's skins are black, their hair is crisp and curled. And somewhere there, unknown to public view, a mighty city lies, called Timbuktu. When William Thackeray wrote these lines in the 19th century, fevered speculation about Timbuktu was at its height.
For hundreds of years, Europe had been captivated by stories of a mysterious city buried deep in the heart of black Africa. European explorers race to be the first to reach the fabled city of Timbuktu. When I was growing up, Timbuktu was a magical name for black people. The men in my neighborhood used to sit around at Mr. Comey's barbershop talking about the existence of a great university just on the edge of the Sahara Desert in blackest Africa.
When Europe was in its middle ages, Africans were flocking to this university. You have these visions of Africans with these great turbans and these great robes surrounded by thousands and thousands of books, and it was our people. Then they would go on to say, there's stuff in these books the white man don't want us to know about.
My journey begins on the banks of the mighty river Niger in Bamako, capital of Mali in West Africa. I'll travel the old trade routes, following in the footsteps of those first European explorers. I'm heading 700 miles northeast, down the Niger, to Timbuktu, once known as the most distant place on the face of the earth.
Tales of gold led to Timbuktu's fame, fueling the imagination and the greed of European explorers. Once all the gold in medieval Europe came from this part of Africa and gold is still mined in the forests south of Bamako. That's the gold right there.
Wow, that's a lot! Yeah, it's a whole row of gold. Can you see now?
Yeah, I see it. And it's full of it. It looks like the stars. The Empire was founded in the 13th century by King Sandiata.
Mali's musicians still sing about this national hero. I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm This funky bar reminds me of a juke joint back home. But if these are the blues, they are African blues.
I ask Boubacar Traore why he sings about Sandiata. Because they told us about Sandiata's history, and we were not born then. I have other things to say.
I know very well the history of Suyata. There are others who translate it like that. There are others who translate it like that.
But for me, I know that I am descendant of Suyata. That's why I felt the feeling of Suyata. Did you say that you were descended from Sandiata? Yes, all the Marians are descendants of Suyata. We are proud of this.
griots are poets who sing the praises of their wealthy patrons it's a tradition that goes back to the earliest kingdoms before the written word these epics passed down from generation to generation are the main source of mali's early history These days, Griots praise anyone who shows them the money. First she sings about Umar. And then she starts singing about me. I hope I paid her enough to be remembered for the next 500 years.
I hope I paid her enough to be remembered for the next 500 years. Molly's fame spread like wildfire in the reign of the great king, Mansa Musa. In the 14th century, Monsa Musa made a pilgrimage from Timbuktu to Mecca with an entourage of 500 slaves, each carrying a staff of pure gold. He gave away so much gold when he passed through Cairo that its price slumped for 12 years.
On his return journey, the king ordered a mosque to be built every time he stopped on a Friday, the Muslim holy day. The Great Mosque of Djenné dates back to the 13th century. It looks like something from outer space, but for me it's as sublime as the cathedral at Notre Dame. It's made entirely out of mud. After prayers, I meet the great Imam of Djenne, Mali's most revered cleric.
Assalamu alaikum. It's a great honor to meet you. I feel like I'm meeting a great person.
the Pope, but better. So is there any way I can see inside the mosque? That we want you to become Muslim.
I will hope to you to come into the mosque. If I become Muslim, I want four wives. I will ask for your permission to come into the mosque. When this will become, it means that we will be close. Good.
We will be brothers. Yes, we will be brothers, yes. You know that the Fulani are beautiful.
Oh, yeah. And maybe he find for you a woman in his Fulani. Oh, good.
C'est bon. Islam was introduced to the Niger River Valley by Arab traders in the 11th and 12th centuries. With Islam came the written word.
Djenne is a traditional center of Islamic learning, and it's still very devout. Children are sent here from all over West Africa to study. I'm joined by Boubacar Diaby, Jenny's Head of Conservation, and by Kevin MacDonald, an archaeologist.
It's very old, this wood. Because it's not just one person who's utilizing this wood. You have generations and generations who have used this very same tablet in their studies.
It's a textbook. Yes. Boubacar, do they efface this?
Do they sand it off and then begin again? Yes, they have to wash it. They wash the ink off? Yes.
Sometimes you even drink this water that you use for washing. That's it. It's a symbol. that you're taking the Quran within you?
Drinking in knowledge. Absolutely. Absolutely. I think I'll pass on that.
It was very important that during the 16th century, the hunger for knowledge was so great that books were probably the most important of commercial exchanges. The most important thing to commerce was books. You see, that's important because the image of black Africa is that the people are illiterate, traditionally. That doesn't happen at Djenne.
There's no illiteracy in Djenne. This is probably the only town in Africa where you don't have one single illiterate person. Not one single illiterate person.
Everyone in Djenne knows how to read and write in Arabic. It's extraordinary. Timbuktu is almost destitute, but for me there is something magical about this place.
The Sankhore Mosque has been the object of my dreams for almost 40 years. In the 16th century, this was the heart of a great Islamic school system and university that once had links with Cordoba and Cairo. My guide, Ali Sidi, is an Islamic scholar. According to historians, this university was counting 25,000 students.
25,000 students? Yeah. What did they study?
Well, they studied two things. astronomy, literature, Islamic sciences, the Quran, the mathematics, medicine, traditional medicine. So they would study in these rooms?
They were studying in these rooms in the morning. And in the afternoon, courses are given in that court. In the court.
How long did it take to get through the upper level? It's about ten years. So that's like getting a bachelor's degree and then a PhD. Yeah. And once you get graduated, you get your diploma.
And you also get... traditional turban. A turban?
Yeah. Now, would the scholars come from all over Black Africa or mostly from Mali? They came from Black Africa, from West Africa. And most of them were taken in charge by the local population and by traditional chiefs. For me, the shadows of these scholars haunt the streets.
Timbuktu began life in the 12th century, when Tuareg nomads from the desert set up camp by a well. In time, it became a trading post, the port on the Sea of Sand. By the 16th century, Timbuktu was at its peak. Scholars and students were drawn here, and a trade in books developed.
Thousands of these old manuscripts survive, hidden away here in private collections. Ali Sidi takes me to see Haidera and his family library. This book is about poetry.
It's about poetry. The author is using local languages. African languages.
Yeah, African languages. In the 16th century. And the second part of the book is dealing with astronomy.
Astronomy? You know, astronomy was well used here in the 16th century. The Tuareg still uses astronomy.
Yeah. This one? Yeah. Which book is about mathematics?
This is about mathematics. Mathematics? Yeah.
Algebra, geometry, what? I think it's more about accounting. Accounting?
Yeah. The doctor was having the trade, the Trans-Saharan trade. This one. What's it about? Allah Allah.
What language is it? This manuscript. is dealing with the slavery history.
Slavery? Yeah. Each correspondence is a document.
It's giving elements about the price or the cost of the person. Yeah, of a person. You know, Hydra, my ancestors were slaves.
They could be in this book. Can you see if there are any Gateses in here? I don't know.
I don't know. What's his name? Gates. Abdul Gates. Abdul Gates.
Abdul Gates. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
It's beautiful. And these are books written by black people? Some of them were written by black people.
When I was growing up, school books said... What I'm going to tell you, here in Timbuktu, we had big black scholars. I'm going to give you at least one example. During the 16th century, we had Ahmed Baba, who wrote at least 60 volumes.
60 himself? 60 himself. That's great.
But when I was growing up, the school books said Africans couldn't read and write, didn't have any books, and here this great library exists. Yeah, indeed it is. He cannot say that Africans do not write. Yeah, I know. Because he saw too many authors were from Africa.
Right. Yeah. And this is not the only place they are keeping books. They have other books. In Timbuktu?
Yeah, in Timbuktu. The mind of the black world locked into the pages of these priceless books. Evidence of a grand civilization untranslated and unknown. Thank you To tell the truth, I've always half feared that Timbuktu would prove to be a mirage.
Just another story spun by those brothers back home in the barbershop. I've dreamed about coming to Timbuktu since that day when I first heard about this place. I see this courtyard as surrounded by black men with long gowns and turbans, which they received as their sign of their degree when they graduated. and each of them carrying books, this whole place surrounded by books.
Precisely when Europeans said that black Africans lacked the intellectual ability ever to learn to read and write, this place, founded just about the time of the University of Paris or the University of... Bologna or Charles in Prague and fully 311 years before my own beloved Harvard, this place was brimming with 25,000 students and scholars gathered from all over black Africa and North Africa who had come here because this was Africa's great center of learning. It's enough to make you cry.
Timbuktu. Where salt was worth its weight in gold, and gold was spent on books.