{"id":9804,"date":"2012-04-11T04:04:28","date_gmt":"2012-04-11T02:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/04\/interview-timbuktu-librarians-protect-manuscripts-from-rebels\/"},"modified":"2012-04-11T04:04:28","modified_gmt":"2012-04-11T02:04:28","slug":"interview-timbuktu-librarians-protect-manuscripts-from-rebels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/interview-timbuktu-librarians-protect-manuscripts-from-rebels\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW-Timbuktu librarians protect manuscripts from rebels"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Fabled desert trading town houses &#8220;treasure of learning&#8221;<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Priceless texts being hidden away in rebel-held area<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Fears that illiterate footsoldiers may loot, steal<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Pascal Fletcher<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>JOHANNESBURG, April 10 (Reuters) &#8211; Malian scholars,<br \/>\nlibrarians and ordinary citizens in the rebel-occupied city of<br \/>\nTimbuktu are hiding away priceless ancient manuscripts to<br \/>\nprevent them from being damaged or looted, a South African<br \/>\nacademic in contact with them said.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Cape Town University&#8217;s Professor Shamil Jeppie said he was<br \/>\nin daily contact with curators and private owners safeguarding<br \/>\ntens of thousands of historic texts in Timbuktu, the fabled<br \/>\ndesert trading town and seat of Islamic learning overrun by<br \/>\nTuareg-led rebels on April 1.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Jeppie, involved in an internationally-funded initiative to<br \/>\npreserve Timbuktu&#8217;s &#8220;treasure of learning&#8221;, told Reuters there<br \/>\nhad been no major losses so far to the main state and private<br \/>\nmanuscript collections, but he feared for the future.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We hope it stays like this,&#8221; he said, adding that Timbuktu<br \/>\nwas occupied by two main rival rebel groups: the &#8220;nationalists&#8217;<br \/>\nof the MNLA movement who have declared an independent Tuareg<br \/>\nhomeland in northern Mali and are holding the city&#8217;s airport,<br \/>\nand the Islamists of the Ansar Dine (Defenders of the Faith)<br \/>\ngroup who had occupied the main military barracks.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have no faith in the rebels. They may have an educated<br \/>\nleadership, but they are sending in footsoldiers who are<br \/>\nilliterate and if they want something they will take it &#8230; They<br \/>\nwon&#8217;t have any respect for paper culture,&#8221; Jeppie said.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* Fabled desert trading town houses &#8220;treasure of learning&#8221; * Priceless texts being hidden away in rebel-held area * Fears that illiterate footsoldiers may loot, steal By Pascal Fletcher JOHANNESBURG, April 10 (Reuters) &#8211; Malian scholars, librarians and ordinary citizens in the rebel-occupied city of Timbuktu are hiding away priceless ancient manuscripts to prevent them [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-9804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}