The Forgotten Libraries of Africa: Timbuktu and Beyond

In this powerful narrative, we uncover the untold story of Africa’s ancient universities, shining a light on Timbuktu’s Sankoré University, a 14th-century beacon of knowledge. Under Mansa Musa’s Mali Empire, it housed 25,000 students and 700,000 manuscripts, exploring astronomy, medicine, law, and poetry. From Morocco’s Al-Qarawiyyin, founded by Fatima al-Fihri in 859 CE, to Ethiopia’s Ge’ez scriptures and West Africa’s griot oral libraries, Africa was a cradle of wisdom. Despite colonial erasure, Africa’s intellectual legacy endures, reclaimed today through manuscript restoration and Afrofuturist voices. This is a story of resilience, remembrance, and the boundless sea of African knowledge that lit up the world.
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