Timbuktu Renaissance is an exceptional exhibition, organized by the joint efforts of Mali’s Ministry of Culture and the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA).
It highlights Mali’s scientific, political, and legal achievements and situates it, contrary to popular opinion, within sub-Saharan Africa’s intellectual legacy.
The exhibition is a tangible testament to the continent’s intellectual and written heritage.
From Ismailimail Archives: Timbuktu, Mali, 10 October 2003.
His Highness the Aga Khan (centre) and Prime Minister Ahmed Mohamed Ag Hamani (right) examining ancient manuscripts at the Ahmed Baba Centre in Timbuktu, Mali. – Photo AKDNGary Otte
His Highness the Aga Khan (centre) and the Prime Minister Ahmed Mohamed Ag Hamani (right) at the 14th century Djingereiber Mosque, Timbuktu, with Mr. Abdramane ben Essayouti, the Imam of the Mosque – Photo AKDNGary Otte
Sixteen original 15th- and 16th-century Malian manuscripts will go on display Friday at the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, Belgium The exhibition, titled Timbuktu Renaissance, has an exceptional backstory: the precious manuscripts were smuggled out of Timbuktu in the wake of the city’s 2012 takeover at the hands of Islamist rebels.
When the insurgents threatened to destroy libraries and other cultural artifacts they regarded as sacrilegious, Timbuktu Renaissance curator Abdel Kader Haidara organized a clandestine effort to convey Timbuktu’s wealth of historical documents to the Malian capitol of Bamako. Local families helped Haidara export over 350,000 manuscripts, sneaking the contraband out of Timbuktu in vegetable wagons and canoes.
“We realised we needed to find another solution to take them entirely out of Timbuktu itself. It was very difficult. There were loads of manuscripts. We needed thousands of metal boxes and we didn’t have the means to get them out. We needed help from outside.”
– Abdel Kader Haidara, Director of the Mamma Haidara Library in Timbuktu, via BBC World Service
The personal risk to Haidara and his helpers was great.
But Haidara prevailed, and he was rewarded for his efforts with the 2014 Germany Africa Prize. His collection attests to Mali’s rich intellectual history: Timbuktu Renaissance, organized with help from the Ministry of Culture in Mali and the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, highlights the nation’s scientific, political, and legal achievements. Western scholars often ignore sub-Saharan Africa’s intellectual legacy, believing it takes no written form — but the manuscripts to be displayed in the exhibition, and the rest of the collection preserved by Haidara, are a testament to the continent’s written heritage.
“One of the biggest cultural rescue operations ever in the context of an exacerbated political-ideological war”.
– Julie Chaizemartin, Art Historian
Timbuktu Renaissance will be on view at the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels (Bozar) (Rue Ravenstein 23, Brussels, Belgium) December 19–February 22, 2015.
Discover, Explore and Learn more at
- The Art Newspaper | Manuscripts rescued from the hands of Islamist rebels – By Gareth Harris. Published: Thursday December 18, 2014.
- Hyperallergic – Sensitive to Arts & its Discontents | After Harrowing Rescue, Timbuktu Manuscripts to Go on View in Brussels – By Becca Rothfeld. Published: Thursday December 18, 2014.
- Timbuktu Renaissance – on view at the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels (Bozar), December 19–February 22, 2015.
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