Beyond Timbuktu: An Intellectual History of Muslim West Africa

by Ousmane Oumar Kane

Renowned for its madrassas and archives of rare Arabic manuscripts, Timbuktu is famous as a great center of Muslim learning from Islam's Golden Age. Yet Timbuktu is not unique. It was one among many scholarly centers to exist in precolonial West Africa. Beyond Timbuktu charts the rise of Muslim learning in West Africa from the beginning of Islam to the present day, examining the shifting contexts that have influenced the production and dissemination of Islamic knowledge--and shaped the sometimes conflicting interpretations of Muslim intellectuals--over the course of centuries.

Highlighting the significant breadth and versatility of the Muslim intellectual tradition in sub-Saharan Africa, Ousmane Kane corrects lingering misconceptions in both the West and the Middle East that Africa's Muslim heritage represents a minor thread in Islam's larger tapestry. West African Muslims have never been isolated. To the contrary, their connection with Muslims worldwide is robust and longstanding. The Sahara was not an insuperable barrier but a bridge that allowed the Arabo-Berbers of the North to sustain relations with West African Muslims through trade, diplomacy, and intellectual and spiritual exchange.

The West African tradition of Islamic learning has grown in tandem with the spread of Arabic literacy, making Arabic the most widely spoken language in Africa today. In the postcolonial period, dramatic transformations in West African education, together with the rise of media technologies and the ever-evolving public roles of African Muslim intellectuals, continue to spread knowledge of Islam throughout the continent.

Genres: Islam, History, Africa, Western Africa, Religion, African Literature, Education

296 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2016

Reviews

[Saifullah]

When it comes to the intellectual history of black Africa, the discourses seldom go beyond Timbuktu. This book, while arguing the black African intellectuals have made enormous contributions to the Islamic intellectual history as their north African religionists, tries to bring out the pre-colonial history of knowledge in West Africa. Analyses its epistemic pedagogy and also traces its evolution and persistence in postcolonial West Africa. It also takes on the impact and influence of the Arabic language and Islam in shaping the culture of West African Muslims.

[Izmir Raja · Rating 5 out of 5]

Timbuktu was founded in the 11th century by Tuareg nomads as a camp by the Niger river in Mali, West Africa, at the southern tip of the Sahara Desert, and quickly established itself as a rest stop for both north and south traveling camel caravans. The first written references to the Tuaregs came from the Greek Historian Herodotus, around 450 B.C. who believed them to have originated in either Egypt or Libya many centuries before Christ. He referred to them as Canaanites which translates roughly into “Purple people.”

They are a Berber ethnic group whose numbers today approach one million, and they are widely spread throughout Niger, Mali, Algeria, Burkina Faso and Libya, with smaller numbers in Morocco. They are traditional nomads, who owe allegiance to no particular country, and consider the Sahara to be their true home. They have a different name for this desert in each of the countries it occupies, and consider it to be many separate deserts. Sahara is a term known only in the west.

For over two thousand years they have hauled gold, salt, and slaves across North Africa to the great port cities such as Mopti and Dakar. The term, “Tuareg” is derived from the area in their assumed ancestral home in Libya called Fezzan Targa, combined with a misinterpretation of the Arabic root TRQ, having a quiloquial meaning of “Abandoned by God,” a term they have applied to themselves after losing most of their traditional desert homelands over the centuries by foreign conquest. They refer to themselves most commonly as Kel Tamasheq or “Those who speak Tamasheq” their native tongue, and also Kel Tagelmoust, or “Wearers of the veil.” In Mali, the majority also speak Arabic and French.

Most people know them as the “Blue Men of the Sahara” because of their deep indigo turbans, called tagelmoust, and robes. The color is gleaned from sea urchins imported from the Mediterranean which the women dry in the sun and beat into a powder, after which, it is worked by hand into the fabric, giving it the deep, rich, color. Indigo is absorbed through the pores of the skin, and those who wear it often, eventually take on a permanent blue tint, thus their name. Now there are countless stories about the origin of the name Timbuktu.

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Thus, the belief in God, the prophets, the Day of Judgement, angels, and reward and punishments became the ingredients through which they understood their universe.”

A highly informative book on the topic.

[Steve Llano · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outstanding, sweeping, and engaging argument that Arabic language and Islamic religion have not just shaped West African intellectual traditions, but that West African epistemologies, practices of writing and pedagogy, and native languages have influenced Islam from theology to law to literature. In short - a fantastic book.

The book leans toward serving specialists in the history of Islamic pedagogy or the history of West Africa, but that is only a fault if you don't mind feeling like an eavesdropper from time to time. I enjoyed the experience of reading the work of a scholar that is meant for other scholars of this area first and generalists second. It's extremely well-written, and covers the intellectual history through educational practices of West Africa (broadly Mali, Mauritania, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal - probably leaving out a lot here) and how those practices were shaped by and shaped Islam, Arabic language, colonialism, and post colonial forms of governance. Turns out that higher education in particular has enormous influence over the events in the late 20th and early 21st century in West Africa.

One of the highlights of the book - and one I wish the author spent more time on - was the relationship of various technologies to pedagogy such as ink and writing surfaces. The chapters on the changes in paper were fascinating, as well as how writing and curricular comportment of the western-theorized school challenged but did not account for the long-standing belief that one-on-one oral instruction over years is where knowledge really comes from.

I recommend you read this if you are interested in the relationship that Islam has in West African culture, particularly if you have only read this history from the view of French or English-language scholars. The book conclusively proves that the Arabic language tradition of analyzing history, literature, law, and other practices in these cultures, as well as native language and non-written language traditions is far more influential than the Anglophone or Francophone historians account for, even at their best.

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beyond Timbuktu: An Intellectual History of Muslim West Africa reclaims and restores African history in a way that includes and reveres the intellectual contributions Muslim scholars have made in the production and transmission of knowledge in West Africa. This book explores how Muslim scholars have shaped West African society, and how the Arabic language unified different communities across Africa and beyond. I appreciate Kane's inclusion of storytelling to demonstrate how Islamic traditions has promoted intellectual and cultural exchange, integration and understanding among communities from different regions, redressing the colonial narrative of division and violence.

[Julia Hendon · Rating 2 out of 5]

A potentially interesting and important subject but the writing was so dull and descriptive. No illustrations either. A couple of maps would have helped a lot

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up on a whim, purely because of the title. It made me aware of how little I know about Islam and about West Africa, which was not the point of the book but I think is good for me; a prompt to do more reading in both areas.

Lots of mention of libraries and education in the Arabic-speaking world, which was also really cool.

Not really designed for my type of casual reading, but if you're doing research in this area, Kane seems to be incredibly knowledgeable.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kane extols the Arabic/Muslim learning tradition in West Africa. Good, but intended for a limited audience.