The Amazing Story of Timbuktu's Book Smugglers by Charlie English
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The amazing story of Timbuktu’s book smugglers By Charlie English Monday 01.05.17 Monday Strike a pose! The Fashanus Folk horror Line of Duty Voguing in Europe Brothers divided The new wave Sam Wollaston 12A Strike a pose When the voguing of New York’s gay black subculture made its way to Europe, photographer Ewen Spencer was there to capture it. Alex Rayner reports hen Lasseindra Ninja , scene – where dancers from Lasseindra says a more recent Events are more mixed in Eu- W a French-born veteran diff erent groups or “houses” cultural phenomenon has rope, both racially and sexually, of the New York ball- compete in a wide variety of helped this 20th -century dance and some of the fi ner cultural room scene, fi rst came to vogue highly stylised dance routines style – still popular in New York delineations have been blurred. in European competitions, she – fi rst came to prominence in – fl ourish on the far side of the Lasseindra remembers that, dur- noticed one key diff erence among the late 80s and early 90s, via Atlantic. ing her fi rst few competitions, her fellow dancers. Malcolm McLaren ’s 1989 single “People in Europe got to held in Switzerland, voguing was “I was surprised to see Deep in Vogue , Madonna ’s 1990 know voguing via You Tube,” she put in same category as waacking , [cis] women,” she says. “I was hit Vogue , and Jennie Living- says. “YouTube started in 2005, another dance from US gay sub- surprised to see them trying to do ston’s 1990 documentary Paris I returned to Paris in 2006, and culture, which may look similar vogue femme. My style is vogue Is Burning . by 2007-8 there you were see- to the uneducated viewer, but is, femme. It is the dance of the Less astute followers of club ing it in European street dance she says, entirely diff erent. transsexual.” culture might have assumed competitions.” “Waacking is west coast, it’s Voguing and the associated that, soon after its rise, the scene Voguing did not transfer from disco and funk and it draws culture of the gay black ballroom would fade into obscurity. Yet North America entirely unaltered. from movies, from Hollywood,” 2 The Guardian 01.05.17 she explains. “Voguing is from Spencer travelled to Berlin, Although there is a small and exploited. Yet Spencer thinks New York, it’s more house and Stockholm, Tallinn and Rotter- vogue scene in Britain, Spen- this multiracial, poly sexual scene fashion.” dam to photograph dancers, after cer believes it has proved more is exactly what Europe needs at Over the past seven years, seeing footage from a Swedish popular on the continent, as the moment. And while Europe’s Lasseindra and her fellow event on a colleague’s phone. British clubbers seem more inter- balls may not meet the exacting voguers have helped educate “I’ve been clubbing for years, ested in hedonism. “You barely standards of NYC purists, “it’s European audiences, and with and without a camera, and see people drinking at these interesting to see diff erent establish a distinctly European these events certainly stand out events,” he says. “A lot of them cultures coming through ”, says take on the ballroom culture. as a high point for me,” explains have made an outfi t and have Spencer. British photographer Ewen Spencer. “The scene in Europe come there to compete.” “I like progress, and the Spencer , best known for his isn’t very black or very gay. It’s With its new-found popular- mixing of diff erent cultures. award-winning coverage of the quite inclusive. You can see how ity, some senior fi gures in the I think it’s all quite timely.” UK garage and grime scene, has the central and eastern European scene fear voguing – once the documented these events in his ballet and gymnastics traditions preserve of gay African Ameri- Bring, Come, Punish is available from latest book, Bring, Come, Punish . have fed into it.” cans – could become co-opted ewenspencer.com 01.05.17 The Guardian 3 (Right) A museum worker sorts through burnt manuscripts in Timbuktu in 2013 (Below) Abdel Kader Haidara looking through some of the vast collection in 2009 PHOTOGRAPHS REUTERS; GETTY IMAGES 4 The Guardian 01.05.17 ne hazy morning in 2012 in contacts in Timbuktu, 600 miles away. a greeting that left a hint of remem- Bamako, the capital of the The rebels were advancing across the bered contact, no more. He was well O west African state of Mali, desert, driving government troops and versed in the history and content of an ageing Toyota Land refugees before them. Haidara had the documents, but appeared not so Cruiser picked its way to known when he left his apartment much a scholar as a businessman who the end of a concrete driveway and that driving into this chaos would be controlled his aff airs in a variety of pulled out into the busy morning traf- dangerous, but now it was beginning languages via his mobile phones, or fi c. In its front passenger seat sat a large to look like a suicide mission. in person from behind a desk the size man in billowing robes and a pillbox Responsable is a French noun of a small boat. He was not the only prayer cap. He was 47 years old, stood whose meaning is easy to guess at in proprietor of manuscripts in the city, over 6ft tall, and weighed around 14st, English. There were few better words but as the owner of the largest private and, although a small, French-style to describe the librarian then than collection and founder of Savama, an moustache balanced jauntily on his as a responsable for a giant slice of organi sation devoted to safeguarding upper lip, there was something com- neglected history, the manuscripts of the city’s written heritage, he claimed manding about his appearance. In his Timbuktu, a collection of handwritten to represent the bulk of Timbuktu’s brown eyes lurked a sharp, almost imp- documents so large no one knew quite manuscript-owning families. ish intelligence. He was Abdel Kader how many there were, though he him- Sitting in his car on the morning of Haidara, librarian of Timbuktu, and self would put them in the hundreds of 31 March , Haidara knew there was only his name would soon become famous thousands. The manuscripts contained one place he should be. The cumber- around the world. some of the most valuable written some Land Cruiser made a U-turn once Haidara was not an indecisive sources for the so-called golden age again, and headed north-east, toward man, but that morning, as his driver of Timbuktu, in the 15th and 16th cen- Timbuktu and the war. piloted the heavy vehicle through turies, and the great Songhay empire Northern Mali had long been a rough the clouds of buzzing Chinese-made of which it was a part. They had been neighbourhood, a refuge for bandits, motorbikes and beat-up green mini- held up as proof of the continent’s smugglers and revolutionaries. In 2011, buses that plied the city’s streets, he vibrant written history. Few had done an extra ingredient had been added to was caught in an agony of indecision. more to unearth the manuscripts than the simmering stew. That year, a rebel- The car stereo, tuned to Radio France Haidara. In the months to come, no lion in Libya, backed by Nato jets and Internationale, spewed alarming one would be given more credit for cruise missiles, toppled the Gaddafi updates on the situation in the north, their salvation. regime , and hundreds of Malian Tuareg while the cheap mobile phones that In person, the librarian was an who had been employed in the dicta- were never far from his grasp jangled imposing man with a handshake of tor’s armies returned home with continually with reports from his astonishing softness, a drive-by of all the weapons and ammunition → The race to save the ‘library of Timbuktu’ In 2012, tens of thousands of artefacts from the golden age of Timbuktu were at risk in Mali’s civil war. In an exclusive extract, Charlie English describes the desperate attempt to rescue them from the fl ames – and how lethal attacks could still threaten the town’s treasures 01.05.17 The Guardian 5 coordinator, had never met Haidara and Diakité, but she felt he, in particular, “seemed to have a good track record”. At the start of October, the information Stolk was receiving from Bamako via email, phone and Skype was increasingly alarming. In particular, Diakité told her the city’s occupiers had implemented a “search- and-seize” policy in private homes and businesses, and Haidara was growing concerned that manuscripts would become the target. On 8 October , Stolk received an email from Diakité informing her that the manuscript-owning families of Timbuktu wanted Savama to evacuate their collections. A lack of checks on the road south had provided a window of opportunity . Diakité gave details of how it would work: the documents would be taken to Bamako in lockers, each of which would contain 250 to 300 documents, via two overland they could carry. In Mali, they organi sation, D Intl. Fundraising was A restored routes. Each shipment would be ← joined forces with a political central to their operation, and Diakité, manuscript in accompanied by couriers recruited movement that had been campaigning in particular, had contacts among the 2014; (below) from the manuscript-owning families, for an autonomous Tuareg state called foreign governments and foundations Abdel Kader and there would be “supervisory and Azawad, and the National Movement she knew from her career in develop- Haidara with security personnel” camped out all for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) ment.