Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
diate hinterland. The prolific gold mines that had first captured the attention of Europe re-
mained in African hands.
RECLAIMING WEST AFRICA'S HISTORY
West African history was, for centuries, assumed to be a solely oral tradition. Later, non-African historians inter-
preted the absence of written records as indicating an absence of civilisation; H Trevor Roper wrote in 1963 that
'Perhaps in the future there will be some African history to teach. But at present there is none. There is only the
history of Europeans in Africa. The rest is darkness.'
That changed in the 1990s when an astonishing storehouse of manuscripts - up to five million across the Saha-
ra by some estimates - was 'discovered' in Timbuktu and surrounding regions. The manuscripts, some of which
dated to the 13th century, contained scholarly works of poetry, philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, geography,
physics, optics and medicine.
The manuscripts also included detailed histories of the region written by Africans, as well as the first-known
examples of local languages in their written form, thereby suggesting that Africans could read and write centuries
before Europeans arrived. Timbuktu also had a book-making tradition far more advanced than anything that
Europe could muster until the invention of movable type in the 15th century, and many books were printed on
European-manufactured paper which had reached Timbuktu long before any explorers completed the journey.
According to Dr John Hunwick, a leading expert on Africa's written history: 'Africa has for too long been ste-
reotyped as the continent of song and dance, where knowledge is only transmitted orally. We want to demonstrate
that Africans think and write and have done so for centuries'. In short, the manuscripts could change forever the
way we see West African history.
The oases of the Adrar region of Mauritania also have rich manuscript collections, especially Chinguetti and
Ouadâne.
Europe Ventures Inland
The inability to penetrate the West African interior haunted the great powers of Europe. In
1788, a group of influential Englishmen, led by Sir Joseph Banks, founded the Africa As-
sociation to promote African exploration . The French soon followed suit. Although ques-
tions of commerce and national prestige played an important role, the august men of the
Africa Association and their French counterparts were driven by a burning desire to solve
the great geographical questions of the age. In 1796, more than 300 years after Europeans
had first begun scouting the West African coast, Mungo Park finally determined that the
Niger River flowed east, while it was not until 1828 that the Frenchman Réné Caillié be-
came the first European to reach Timbuktu and return safely.
West Africans were by no means passive bystanders, and local resistance was fierce.
The most notable leader of the time was Omar Tall (also spelled Umar Taal), who led a
major campaign against the French in the interior of Senegal from around 1850. After his
death, the jihads known as the 'Marabout Wars' persisted in Senegal until the 1880s.
