Programme

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  • Day 1

    13 September 2020

  • Paper Abstract: This work took almost ten years (2005-2017). The author was intrigued by local African cultures being belittled by incoming cultures, and their importance and distinct self-expression being disregarded by Arab scholars. Taking a closer look at the heritage of those cultures, which were called “foreign” to indicate their status as alien to prevalent cultures, the author looks for the basis of this deliberate or undeliberate belittlement of a heritage that has been spread all over the African continent simply because it is written using Arabic script. The author points out that modern scholars disregarded early Arabic writings in vast areas of Africa since Ibn Khaldun because, apart from references to caves or artefacts, those writings paid no attention to the African heritage that was prevalent in the areas those scholars visited, as the remaining cultural production was verbal and unrecordable. Key national African writers did the same in their areas. This research is the result of collaboration with a number of specialized scholars from countries chosen by the author to establish the extent to which manuscripts from those countries reflect the heritage of Arabic-script manuscripts. The author selected sixteen manuscripts in sixteen languages from all over Africa and arranged them in two volumes. The first volume includes manuscripts in eight languages in the following order: Malagasy, Swahili, Hausa, Fulani, Wolof, Mandingo, Songhay and Tamashek. The second volume contains manuscripts in Berber, Soninke, Serer, Kanuri, Yoruba, Nobiin, Afar and Afrikaans.
    Panel 1, Session 1: Historical Traditions of Arabic-Script Manuscripts in Africa

  • Day 2

    14 September 2020

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    Panel 3: African Arabic-Script Languages
    Where
    Hall 1, Building A

  • Paper Abstract: Ancient manuscripts are compiled by scholarly institutions based in various historic cities such as Timbuktu. As a sum of knowledge passed down from generation to generation, they contain valuable information and represent an essential reference source in the fields of thought, religion and the creation of social and family ties. In Africa, the written word and, even more so, manuscripts, permeate the social fabric and contribute to the construction of society's historical, cultural and educational edifice in various ways. Manuscripts inform emotions and ideas and bring individuals together. As with any handwritten tradition, that of Africa materialises the spoken word while ensuring its perpetuity; that it is preserved and communicated across time and space. Thus, in West Africa, across the immense Sahara and practically all along the Niger River, from Guinea to Nigeria, passing through Mali and Niger, from Guinea to the Atlantic Ocean, passing through Senegal and Mauritania, societies were permeated by written culture. The need to write and own manuscripts became a sign of social distinction. Teachers, pupils and scholars owned manuscripts which they transcribed or purchased for their studies. The pride of a scholar was measured by the number of manuscripts on his bookshelf. This contribution aims to trace the history of how the handwritten tradition evolved in Africa and particularly in West Africa.
    Panel 3: African Arabic-Script Languages

  • The Islamic manuscript tradition of East Africa is rich and varied and spread throughout the Swahili cultural zone, including Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and the Comoro Islands. Although much research has been conducted in past two decades, the East African tradition has still received less scholarly attention than its West African counterpart. One reason is that the extant corpus is smaller, and significantly more recent, dating mainly to the 19th and 20th centuries. Another reason is that many collections remain in the ownership of families or mosques. This workshop will first present the known manuscript tradition in East Africa, mainly with reference to Kenya and Tanzania, but also the Comoro Islands and Mozambique. The intellectual influence of Yemen/Hadramawt and Oman on textual production, circulation, collection, and usage (especially in teaching) will be discussed, combined with the emergence of the Swahili literary tradition. Secondly, the workshop will present the main repositories of Islamic manuscripts in East Africa and the state of mapping/cataloguing some sites that has yet to be fully investigated. Finally, this workshop will discuss various initiatives to make collections available and the important relationship between private custodians and national institutions to maintain collections. Here, emphasis will be on the shared Islamic tradition of East Africa, alongside the shared challenges facing the actual collections. The aim is to discuss ideas about how the East African tradition can best be mapped, digitized, conserved, and studied on a regional level, taking into account the shared tradition on which it is based and which is still very present.
    Workshop 1: The Islamic Manuscript Tradition of East Africa: Textual Traditions and Context
    Workshops

  • Day 3

    15 September 2020

  • Paper Abstract: The Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Learning and Islamic Research in Timbuktu (IHERI-AB) is the largest manuscript preservation centre in Sub-Saharan Africa. It hosts approximately forty thousand (40,000) manuscripts covering various fields of knowledge, notably in relation to Fiqh, Hadith, literature, history, etc. This paper will address the meaning of cataloguing; that is to say, the standardised or normalised description of manuscripts. Cataloguing is also a scientific endeavour facilitating researchers' and readers' access to manuscripts. We will note that, in order to be a good cataloguer, one must necessarily possess a very rich knowledge of Islamic culture allowing the cataloguer to authenticate manuscripts and authors, understand the types of writings - Maghrebi, Mashriqi and Sudanese - and apply any useful information that may improve the cataloguing of manuscripts. Regarding the contents of the IHER-ABT, actual cataloguing began in the nineties (90's), which allowed the publication of six (6) volumes by the Al-Furqan Foundation in London. Each volume contains 1500 titles. Other catalogues compiled with Ahmed Baba Institute materials were published locally under conditions set by donors. These works, however useful, are too limited for researchers to benefit from them. Our presentation will also describe how we approached the critical editing of Institute materials; that is to say, the authentication of manuscript texts and their publishing for easier readability in comparison to handwritten texts. We will detail the challenges faced and difficulties overcome in composing the critical edition of certain manuscripts by local authors. If the purported aim (the purpose) of the physical and electronic preservation of manuscripts is their scientific use - in other words, to edit them so as to popularise their content, because manuscripts are not museum pieces - this is one of the challenges we must overcome for the benefit of future generations.
    Panel 4: Cataloguing and Publishing

  • Paper Abstract: Cultural heritage preservation calls for thinking beyond the limits that we usually take for granted when dealing with historical collections. While considering such activity as solely aimed at preserving the past, we tend to forget its multiple and wider meanings from a social point of view. Activities aiming at preserving the physical integrity of collections and the permanence of texts, such as preventive conservation, conservation treatments, and digital preservation, are part of a wider challenge that engages actively with education and social development. The preservation of Arabic-script manuscripts in Africa, both in their library and archive value, has to be considered from a broader perspective: this speech will address the role of individuals in charge of collections care and transmission not only from the point of view of cultural heritage preservation, but also for their implications for communities – both local and international. Preservation and conservation intertwine with digitization as part of a long-term safeguard strategy that does not look to the past, but to the future, and can actively contribute to sustainable development. The speech will address multiple meanings and challenges linked to written cultural heritage preservation, both physical and digital, and how the role of individuals in charge of collections care has to be considered “beyond the library’s door”.
    Panel 5: Preservation, Conservation, and Digitization

  • Day 4

    16 September 2020

  • After the publication of the history of Sinder and the interest shown in local and social history, we chose to continue our research on the same theme, this time focusing on the history of Zinder. The manuscript entitled "Tarikh Zinder" ( ضياء النيجر من تاريخ زندر ) is a manuscript written in Arabic (Tanoudi Ibn al-Boukhari Ibn al-ajal al-Timbukti al-agadassi) on the history of Zinder (Niger). This is Manuscript No. 37 of Volume 1 in the catalogue of manuscripts hosted by the Department of Arabic and Ajami Manuscripts of the Institute for Research in Human Sciences at Abdou Moumouni University in Niger. The incipit begins with a Basmala, a eulogy. Start of text: ...يا بني إن زندر في زمن قديم كان ذات أشجار و وديان و لكن سأخبرك ببدء الأمر إلى منتهاها… ، End of text: و هذا ما أنعم الله عليّ و قدر لي ما أطيق انتهى… الحمد لله رب العالمين ثم الصلاة والسلام على سيدنا محمد وآله و صحبه و سلّم. أصب الصباح ركب مصطى Histoire de Zinder explores the social history of the Zinder region in the 19th Century, in the very beginnings of colonisation, and particularly the history of the sultanate, its socio-political organisation and its relations with the other sultanates. The manuscript evokes the arrival of the French under the Cazémajou mission in charge of reconnoitring the Say-Barruwa line up to Lake Chad, and the circumstances of Cazémajou's death.
    Workshop 3: Tarikh Zinder: Editing, Translation, and Annotations
    Workshops

  • The workshop will address the planning of physical and digital preservation activities and will focus on two main topics: (1) project planning, prioritization of activities and workflow, and how to find low-cost solutions for better preserving manuscript collections; (2) project planning for fundraising and providing some basic hints for outlining preservation and digitization project proposals. Participants will be actively involved in an interactive session: through preparation of a case study, attendees will have the opportunity to exchange proposals and ideas on the above mentioned topic and get feedback from the workshop leader.
    Workshop 5: Preservation and Digitization Planning for Library Collections
    Workshops

  • Cataloguing is key to assisting readers in accessing a manuscript, particularly its coding, author (if known), number of folios, state of preservation, type of writing, etc. One of the difficulties that cataloguers face when cataloguing manuscripts is identifying and differentiating between the many various types of writing. There are two main types of writing: al-Mashriqī and al-Maghribī, but there are also other details to consider, which is why the workshop will be discussing the writings we come across when cataloguing Timbuktu manuscripts, as these writings are sometimes mosaics are very often different. These writings include, among others, Maghribī, Saḥrāwī, Sūqī, Sūdānī, and so on. We will be describing the characteristics of each type of writing so that the manuscripts may be distinguished at first sight, both by cataloguers and readers. We will also be covering the migration process undergone by these writings, from the Ḥijāz to North Africa and then West Africa, where other variants are known.
    Workshop 4: Cataloguing and Publishing
    Workshops

  • This workshop will begin with a brief overview of the recommendations in international law to protect cultural heritage in crisis, in particular this 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. Although designed for armed conflict, the recommendations are equally valuable in other types of crisis, such as riots and terrorism. But how do those threats differ to the more-commonly considered risks from disasters? And what does that mean in practice? Working in small groups, workshop attendees will complete a number of small exercises designed to develop awareness of the threats to archival heritage in crisis and some of the best ways to proactively mitigate them (rather than conservation, or post-disaster first aid). Workshop Aims: 1. To develop understanding of international law and its relevance to heritage protection 2. To develop understanding of the threats to heritage in crisis, particularly violence-based threats, such as riots, terrorism and conflict 3. To develop understanding of some key measures to mitigate threats and to conduct simple mitigation exercises
    Workshop 6: Proactive Planning for the Protection of Archival Heritage in Crisis: From International Law to Practice
    Workshops