when al-qaeda invaded northern Mali it
was only a matter of time before they
started burning books but in Timbuktu
one librarian decided he couldn’t let
thousands of years worth of history and
literature be destroyed without a fight
there was nothing but gunfire everywhere
I was totally taken off god I wasn’t
expecting anything like this I mean to
be honest I thought I was going to die
right then I knew they’d be coming for
the libraries next Abdelkader is above
all a bibliophile
he turned Timbuktu into this scholastic
center again ever since the glory years
of Timbuktu the late 15th century to the
late 16th century there was a tradition
of writing books and trading them these
priceless volumes not only they
physically beautiful but the subject
matter romantic poetry and sex and
astronomy and openness about Science and
Mathematics though this very different
strain of Islam very dramatically
different from the hardcore Wahhabi
Islam that dominates Saudi Arabia and
that the wahhabis tried to export to
Timbuktu the ancient desert town of
Timbuktu is under assault then in recent
days one Islamist group allied with
al-qaida has begun systematically
destroying shrines inside the mosques
Sakhi even I knew that if anyone was
gonna be responsible for the manuscripts
it had to be me Salma Abdul Kadir calls
a meeting of his fellow librarians and
he says we got to do something
the first step of the process involves
sending volunteers out into markets of
Timbuktu and methodically buying
thousands of foot lockers of trunks the
second step of the operation involves
packing up hundreds of thousands of
manuscripts in these libraries into the
foot lockers this has to be done at
night because there are Islamic police
making the rounds all the time there are
so much chaos and looting going on left
and right people are stealing everything
they could find so we just look like all
the other robbers and thieves
the jihadis begin implementing Sharia
law in a big way
they begin stoning people to death
executing them by firing squad
chopping off hands and feet some people
started informing on others we couldn’t
take the chance that someone was going
to rat us out
the third step involves a massive
movement of these footlocker’s from
Timbuktu across 606 miles to the capital
Bamako which is still in government
hands where they can be stored safely we
tell people climb on we take you out for
free you got a truck full of 10 to 15
people inside they don’t stop you they
just let you pass on back that was our
strategy they enlist the support of
village chiefs stash the manuscripts in
various houses right on the river bank
and then boat men go up the river making
this 2 night 3 day trip from Timbuktu
French helicopter spotted these trunks
being carried up river the French pilot
demanded that the courier’s on board
open up these trunks to make sure they
weren’t smuggling weapons
the helicopter pilot left them unscathed
jihadis enter the government library
filled with anger hatred desire for
revenge but they’d see these shelves
empty they didn’t realize it at the time
but they were defeated by a librarian
the collection has been moved now to a
single facility in Bamako they’re all
consolidated in one place they’re in
good shape
they’re being digitized systematically
and avocados hope as he can return the
books to the libraries that are now
sitting empty padlocked unvisited on
vaycay unbelievably thick we want to
make sure the library network in
Timbuktu is rebuilt in order to receive
these texts one day on pieces we
established
I’ll bail Kotter definitely was a badass
librarian this could never have happened
without his inspiration in his
instigation I was engaged I was never
afraid
was only a matter of time before they
started burning books but in Timbuktu
one librarian decided he couldn’t let
thousands of years worth of history and
literature be destroyed without a fight
there was nothing but gunfire everywhere
I was totally taken off god I wasn’t
expecting anything like this I mean to
be honest I thought I was going to die
right then I knew they’d be coming for
the libraries next Abdelkader is above
all a bibliophile
he turned Timbuktu into this scholastic
center again ever since the glory years
of Timbuktu the late 15th century to the
late 16th century there was a tradition
of writing books and trading them these
priceless volumes not only they
physically beautiful but the subject
matter romantic poetry and sex and
astronomy and openness about Science and
Mathematics though this very different
strain of Islam very dramatically
different from the hardcore Wahhabi
Islam that dominates Saudi Arabia and
that the wahhabis tried to export to
Timbuktu the ancient desert town of
Timbuktu is under assault then in recent
days one Islamist group allied with
al-qaida has begun systematically
destroying shrines inside the mosques
Sakhi even I knew that if anyone was
gonna be responsible for the manuscripts
it had to be me Salma Abdul Kadir calls
a meeting of his fellow librarians and
he says we got to do something
the first step of the process involves
sending volunteers out into markets of
Timbuktu and methodically buying
thousands of foot lockers of trunks the
second step of the operation involves
packing up hundreds of thousands of
manuscripts in these libraries into the
foot lockers this has to be done at
night because there are Islamic police
making the rounds all the time there are
so much chaos and looting going on left
and right people are stealing everything
they could find so we just look like all
the other robbers and thieves
the jihadis begin implementing Sharia
law in a big way
they begin stoning people to death
executing them by firing squad
chopping off hands and feet some people
started informing on others we couldn’t
take the chance that someone was going
to rat us out
the third step involves a massive
movement of these footlocker’s from
Timbuktu across 606 miles to the capital
Bamako which is still in government
hands where they can be stored safely we
tell people climb on we take you out for
free you got a truck full of 10 to 15
people inside they don’t stop you they
just let you pass on back that was our
strategy they enlist the support of
village chiefs stash the manuscripts in
various houses right on the river bank
and then boat men go up the river making
this 2 night 3 day trip from Timbuktu
French helicopter spotted these trunks
being carried up river the French pilot
demanded that the courier’s on board
open up these trunks to make sure they
weren’t smuggling weapons
the helicopter pilot left them unscathed
jihadis enter the government library
filled with anger hatred desire for
revenge but they’d see these shelves
empty they didn’t realize it at the time
but they were defeated by a librarian
the collection has been moved now to a
single facility in Bamako they’re all
consolidated in one place they’re in
good shape
they’re being digitized systematically
and avocados hope as he can return the
books to the libraries that are now
sitting empty padlocked unvisited on
vaycay unbelievably thick we want to
make sure the library network in
Timbuktu is rebuilt in order to receive
these texts one day on pieces we
established
I’ll bail Kotter definitely was a badass
librarian this could never have happened
without his inspiration in his
instigation I was engaged I was never
afraid
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