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Google Arts & Culture brings an important legacy of African history for free

One of the largest literary productions in Africa has been digitized and is in Google Arts & Culture. Is named Mali Magic and includes more than 40,000 pages of manuscripts from Timbuktu, a city seven kilometers from the Niger River, in the Republic of Mali.

In collaboration with historians from West Africa, Google has been working on the digitization of part of the cultural heritage of Mali. After intense work, this new digital project was recently launched, open to the public. To explore it, just enter here.

There are texts from the 11th to the 20th century that cover various topics, including astronomy, law, and medicine. This is the work preserved by the librarian Abdel Kader Haidara, who is known for the work he did in 2012 when he saved these important literary works from the jihadists who had then occupied Timbuktu.

The squatters began vandalizing historical sites in the city, and Haidara realized that the manuscripts were in great danger. TOyes, it was how he formed a support network, made up of local and international organizations, and they began to collect the texts so that they could be transferred to a safe place.

It should be noted that they are ancient writings printed in some cases on goat, sheep and even fish skin. The fruit of that silent and courageous work, which took him about 18 months, can now be seen embodied in an impressive virtual exhibition.

“The digitized collection and experiment, showcasing a large archive of manuscripts available on Google Arts & Culture, opens a whole new door to understanding the past and the cultural significance of the archives. Documents that represent a Renaissance in African history, once thought to be spoken but never written, are now accessible to the public and modern scholars around the world.” explains Haidara, on the site’s official blog.

These manuscripts, dealing with topics as diverse as strategies for keeping the peace, astronomy, mathematics, divination, and advice of all kinds, were secretly smuggled out of the city in cars and boats. Some are written in verse to help memorize the content. Texts can be found that speak of slavery, the rights of married women as well as tolerance between religions.

Timbuktu was a key trading post on the caravan route across the Sahara during medieval times. Hence, it has been a city where many texts of various kinds emerged and therefore serves as a window to education, religion, commerce and many other aspects of the culture of that region.

Many of the digitized texts date from the time known as Timbuktu’s golden age, the 16th century, when the city not only prospered economically, but also intellectually. In that century, its university was in full swing and had, according to various estimates, about 25,000 students, equivalent to a quarter of the city’s population.

“The progressive interpretation of Islam in Timbuktu allowed for friendships between men and women and a love for music and dance that generated an intellectual environment where, according to Joshua Hammer in his work The book smugglersit was possible that manuscripts with titles like this were created: Advice for men on having sex with their wives”, it is detailed on the Google site.

In the manuscripts you can even find recipes to make aphrodisiacs that aim to improve fertility, as well as recommendations of the best verses of the Koran to achieve more intense and prolonged orgasms.

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