Summary
Highlights
European imagination was captivated by stories of the mysterious city of Timbuktu. For Africans, it was a symbol of a great university in the Sahara, a center of learning where thousands of books were held at a time when Europe was in its Middle Ages.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. begins his journey on the Niger River in Bamako, Mali, following ancient trade routes. He travels 700 miles northeast to Timbuktu, a city once known for its gold and considered the most distant place on Earth.
The Mali Empire was founded in the 13th century by King Sundiata Keita. Musicians, known as griots, continue to sing about this national hero, preserving oral traditions that predate written history. Griots are poets who praise their patrons, with their epics being a primary source of Mali's early history.
Mali's fame spread during the 14th-century reign of King Mansa Musa. His pilgrimage to Mecca with an entourage carrying pure gold led to a temporary slump in gold prices in Cairo. He also ordered a mosque to be built every Friday during his return journey.
The Great Mosque of Djenné, built in the 13th century entirely out of mud, is a significant religious site. Islam was introduced to the Niger River Valley by Arab traders in the 11th and 12th centuries, bringing the written word. Djenné became a traditional center of Islamic learning, where children from across West Africa were sent to study. Everyone in Djenné is said to be able to read and write in Arabic.
The Sankore Mosque in Timbuktu was the heart of a great Islamic school system and university in the 16th century, boasting 25,000 students studying astronomy, literature, Islamic sciences, the Quran, mathematics, and medicine. Students could earn a diploma by studying for about 10 years and were given a turban upon graduation. Thousands of ancient manuscripts survive in private collections, evidence of a rich intellectual tradition.
The video highlights manuscripts written by black scholars, challenging the historical misconception that Africans were illiterate and lacked books. It mentions Ahmed Baba, who wrote at least 60 volumes in the 16th century, showcasing Timbuktu as a thriving center of knowledge when many European universities were just forming.
Gates expresses his relief that Timbuktu was not a mirage. He envisions the university filled with scholars carrying books, a powerful counter-narrative to the idea that black Africans lacked intellectual ability. Timbuktu, founded around the same time as some of Europe's earliest universities, was Africa's great center of learning where gold was spent on books, not just valued for its weight.