I made a list of 20 fiction and 20 non-fiction books to read in 2020. One of my non-fiction picks was The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu and Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts (Simon Schuster, 2016).
The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu is the story of Abdel Kader Haidara, who set out to save the historic manuscripts of Mali from obscurity and the desert, and then had to save them again from the jihadis.
It is also the story of Timbuktu’s golden age in the 16th century, a fascinating time, especially to Westerners who have often assumed that Africans did not have a sophisticated culture, art, philosophy, or science.
It’s the story of AQIM (al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) taking over much of Mali, including the ancient city of Timbuktu, and then being defeated by French forces.
My Assessment
Even though Haidara rescued tens of thousands of invaluable manuscripts from destruction at the hands of Islamist militants, I wouldn’t say this book reads as a thriller. Its scope is much broader than a single daring escape.
On the other hand, it will educate you on several fronts, whether you are interested in the history of Mali in the Middle Ages or in the past decade. I was also interested to hear about the international scholarly community as Haidara acquired grants from the United States, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, and many other countries (both to build libraries and to evacuate the manuscripts from occupied territory).
I listened to this as an audiobook, which resulted in me not paying as much attention as I would have if I were reading a hard copy. One advantage of audio was hearing the pronunciation of all the proper nouns, but I was also glad to borrow a copy from the library to see the spelling of the names.
I think the book could have been improved by chapter titles and a table of contents because I like to get an overview when I read nonfiction. However, it does have a very detailed index, handy for looking up details I couldn’t remember from listening to the book.
Related Reading (for Kids)
The story of Haidara reminded my of a picture book about a similar rescue, this one taking place in Iraq in 2003. The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq by Jeannette Winter (HMH Books for Young Readers, 2005) tells the story of Alia Muhammad Baker, chief librarian of Basra’s Central Library, who rescued the books from the library nine days before it burned down during the invasion of Iraq. It’s a colourful picture book inspired by a New York Times article of July 27, 2003 and recommended for ages 5 to 8.