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The book is available from spected tourism executive, coaxes the reader www.amazon.ca and www.chapters.indigo.ca with charm and knowledge into joining his personal quest in West Africa. His encoun- These choice book selections will appear in Western Africa and Global ters with entertaining train companions Ebou and Ussegnou, Venues Editions of Africa Travel Magazine, first as digital issues and a mysterious cook called Nema, and intrepid guide Zak, all later in print. To celebrate this innovative project, escorted West African make you want to pack up and leave for Timbuktu tomorrow. tours inspired by Rick Antonson’s book will begin prior to and follow- As Antonson travels in Senegal and Mali by train, four-wheel ing the Africa Travel Association’s 35th Annual Congress in Banjul, The drive, river pinasse, camel, and foot, he tells of fourteenth- Gambia. Hosted by ATA member and popular tour operator Mariama century legends, nineteenth-century explorers, and today’s Ludovic de Lys of Bamako, the tours are described in this issue and endangered existence of Timbuktu’s 700,000 ancient manu- detailed on Africa Travel Magazine’s Website - www.africa-ata.org/wa_ scripts in what scholars have described as the most important tours.htm archaeological discovery since the Dead Sea Scrolls. Think Eric Newby’s A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush or Red- mond O’Hanlon’s Into the Heart of Borneo and you begin to see what kind of writer Rick Antonson is. To Timbuktu for a Haircut combines wry humour with shrewd observation to deliver an armchair experience that will linger in the mind long after the last page is read. Over the centuries, ignorance has impeded the preservation of the 700,000 Timbuktu manuscripts. A continued lack of awareness facilitates their slow disappearance — the loss of history’s book one page at a time. Without these paper trea- sures we will know immeasurably less about a glorious time for Africa some six hundred years ago. Literally, it is a race against time to save these irreplace- able riches, which in this book are described as “Islamic pamphlets covered with sand … scholarly pages a phase away from dust.” A portion of the author’s royalties from “The remarkable comination of Rick Antonson exploring the ancient To Timbuktu for a Haircut will be donated to the Timbuktu mysteries of Timbuktu, matched with the rich culture of Mali that he cap- Educational Foundation to assist its Preserve-a-Manuscript tures so well makes a page-turner from start to finish. Rick’s underlying Campaign, which can be found at www.timbuktufounda- tion.org. Additional information on preserving the Timbuktu story confirms my own experience in that amazing land.” manuscripts is available from Libraries of Timbuktu at www. Jerry W. Bird, Editor, Africa Travel Magazine sum.uio.no/timbuktu. Africa Travel Magazine TO TIMBUKTU FOR A HAIRCUT: A Journey through West Africa The Forbidden City Unesco World Heritage Site It surprised me how reachable Timbuktu was. I’d Tagged with labels such as “The Town of been willing to put up with sporadic travel and de- Saints,” Timbuktu no longer receives accolades. lays, to accept cramped and stuffy spaces, to be hot to Those who call it home do not share the foreign- the point of suffocation, to adjust to communication er’s fascination. The city’s mystique is powerful gaffes, to accept “price surprises,” and even to eat only until you arrive. I’d like to pretend it’s dif- sand. None of this was easy for anyone. Nevertheless, ferent, but it isn’t. “the Forbidden City” was, after all, accessible.” Nothing prepares the naive visitor for the ab- I had taken a day — one day only — in the middle of sence of intrigue quite like the question Malians my life and set it aside for Timbuktu. This was that consistently ask when they find out that one is day and its evening and the night. travelling to Timbuktu: “Why?” The Bouctou Hotel, low and unassuming as a sand UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites grew dune, seemed to attract litter into piles wherever people sat or in 1988 with the designation of Timbuktu and the specific squatted. An irascible Mohammed, determined to remain aloof inclusion of its three mosques, of which the Djinguereber from the scattered groups around him, leaned alone against a Mosque, built in 5, is the most prominent. Its reputation tree, where my Land Cruiser stopped just short of his scowl. rests on its history and its current state of disrepair, as well as “Rick!” he shouted at my open window, commanding the scene for its periodic acceptance of visitors. The Sankoré Mosque, and muting the hubbub of conversation. I shoved the vehicle’s part of a school, attended by 5,000 university students at its door open and swung my feet to the ground. I was a titch taller peak in the sixteenth century, is also notable. Its colonnades than him; his eyes were darker. He held the advantage. “The and courtyard were rebuilt in 1582, though it was first con- boat must leave today at three,” he smiled. structed a century earlier, and the mosque is cited as “unique “Nope.” I said this quickly, and noticed earthen architecture.” The Sidi Yahia Mosque, that the bystanders gasped that someone which takes its name from one of Timbuktu’s would dare disagree with this forceful saints, is in the best condition of the three, Arab. The air quickened. but non-Muslims are denied entry. All three “It would be good,” he continued with mosques, however, are crumbling away. In self-serving self-assurance. “You have Timbuktu, the restoration of monuments is lots of time in Timbuktu. Then the a continuous process, and the drift of earth pinasse can leave.” among them relentless. Timbuktu, once the In the ensuing silence, he knew that I “Pearl of Africa,” also has the dubious dis- knew that this change was necessary to tinction of being on the United Nations’ List make a related itinerary work for him. of World Heritage Sites in Danger. The River Niger could wait. I said noth- Surviving there to this day are homes of the ing. People looked away. Zak scraped three earliest European explorers to reach the sand with the heel of his sandal. the fabled city and live among its inhabit- Then, all eyes turned toward Moham- ants. Each feared for his personal safety and med. Finally. “Rick?” It was sharp, the was eager to return to Europe and relate his way he flung it.“It’s not going to hap- achievements. In the nearly two hundred pen, Mohammed.” I breathed for the years since then, the mud houses of Laing, crowd. “The boat leaves tomorrow.” Caillié, and Barth have been, as they were Africa Travel Magazine before the arrival of their local guide, if only to rid also encouraged broader belief in the tenets of Islam, and building librar- historic guests, shelter for oneself of pestering young- ies and universities known as madrasas, most of them no longer in exis- residents of Timbuktu. sters. I asked Zak to come tence. And they remain intact, with me that morning. We A Rare Opportunity despite the desert’s con- walked away from the Non-Muslims are generally not invited into mosques, so when the oppor- tinued attempts to erode Bouctou Hotel’s drabness tunity arose to enter this one, we took it.