Wednesday, January 30, 2013

MAIL - Ancient Manuscripts Casualties in Conflict?

"Ancient Manuscripts May Be Among Casualties of Malian Islamist Conflict" PBS Newshour 1/29/2013

Excerpt

JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour):  There remains a great deal of confusion about the extent of the damage in Timbuktu.  What is known is that the city, a United Nations World Heritage Site, is home to more than 200,000 ancient manuscripts and other artifacts, spanning many centuries, stored in small private libraries and a large research center.

Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro visited Timbuktu 10 years ago for the PBS program "Religion & Ethics Newsweekly."

Here's an excerpt from his report.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO:  It's an impoverished town of about 30,000, most of them nomadic traders or subsistence farmers.  But Timbuktu is rich in history -- history that contradicts a commonly held impression in the West that sub-Saharan Africa has only oral and no written traditions.

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