This lesson takes the title of Joshua Hammer’s intriguingly-named book ‘The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu’ for its enquiry question.
It focuses on the remarkable story of Abdel Kader Haidara, the librarian who rescued thousands of manuscripts from the grasp of Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists in 2012.
It describes Haidara’s heroism in smuggling these manuscripts out of Timbuktu, ultimately rescuing 350,000 texts from 45 different libraries.
Many of these documents were produced when the Malian Empire was in its ascendancy.
Students are tasked with working out why the manuscripts warranted such great effort, as they explore some of the ideas expressed in these ancient documents.
They use the manuscripts to substantiate a number of claims about medieval Mali (including, for example, the idea that the people of Mali were forward-thinking, and the notion that despotism kingship was denounced).
Finally, students compose speeches for the opening day of a new exhibition celebrating the important and much-treasured Timbuktu Manuscripts.
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- Lesson presentation: PowerPoint
- Lesson write-up: PDF
- Worksheet 1 & 2: PDF
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