September 6, 2002
Decaying Manuscripts Reveal Africa's Literate History
But few scholars study documents that challenge Western ideas about the continent's pastAs John O. Hunwick gingerly leafs through the magnificent folios of a collection of 600-year-old manuscripts, tiny flakes of ancient parchment crumble away, and a portion of West Africa's literate history settles in the scorching desert sand beneath his feet. He is standing in the courtyard just outside the library of Abdel Qader Haidara, an Islamic scholar whose family's collection of 5,000
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