Timbuktu, one of the world’s first and oldest university

Timbuktu
Timbuktu

Oh wow… I always knew Timbuktu (Tombouctou in Mali) because of the story of the great emperor of the kingdom of Mali, Mansa Kankan Musa. I knew it was the center of his empire, but it is only lately that I realized that it was one of the world’s first and oldest thriving university! Students came from all over the world to study at Timbuktu. Imagine that, students from the middle east, and Europe coming to Africa to study! oooohhhh … Goodness Gracious, that sight only would make me proud! Well, to those who say Africa only has an oral tradition, go and check out the 700,000 manuscripts at the great Sankore University in Timbuktu, and tell me what you think! Oh la la…

In one documentary, the speaker mentions that they translated one of the manuscript on Algebra from Arabic to

Sankore University in Timbuktu
Sankore University in Timbuktu

French, and sent it to France to be evaluated educationally; well, that manuscript revealed that the mathematics it contained was currently studied in 2nd year of university in France, and the speaker then says “and that was taught at universities in Timbuktu before the 16th century“!  Wow… my Goodness!

Timbuktu also houses some of the world’s oldest mud mosques, and every year the people of the city unite to re-do the walls of the mosque. It was added to the UNESCO world’s heritage list in 1988  (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/119/).

Read about it on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbuktu

Great Zimbabwe, a civilization of stone

A Conical tower
A Conical tower

Have you ever felt tired of people telling you that there was no great Black civilization? that there was nothing in “sub-saharan” Africa? Well,… I have heard of a great African kingdom in the southernmost part of Africa: Great Zimbabwe which stands for “great house of stone” in the Shona language! Houses upon houses made of stone, and today some of them still stand tall in Zimbabwe. When a German geologist ‘stumbled’ (you know what I mean… like christopher Columbus discovered America at a time when it was already full of people) upon it, he was convinced that it could not be the work of Africans! Well, then… let me present to you Great Zimbabwe, a kingdom located between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers! It is a civilization which flourished from the 11-15th centuries. Just like the Maya, Aztec, incas, we also have our own!

UNESCO made it a world site heritage in 1986. (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/364/)

Check out http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/zimb/hd_zimb.htm

Great Zimbabwe ruins
Great Zimbabwe ruins

There are great documentaries about Great Zimbabwe, but I decided to choose a short doc made by school children (please don’t be distracted by the masks shown in these video which are not from southern Africa but from West and Central Africa), since all the others mostly focused on the European researchers rather than Great Zimbabwe itself. If you are curious, feel free to go check all the other documentaries on youtube or dailymotion (such as Zimbabwe’s Ancient Ruins Part 1-3, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Kdhyj2kc6c).

Thomas Sankara, The African Che

Captain Thomas Sankara
Captain Thomas Sankara

Thomas Isidore Sankara was a great visionary African leader, the kind which comes around once every 50 years or century. He had an unlimited and undying love for his country, his fellow countrymen, and his continent. He had a vision for a true independent African country, and continent. He strongly believed in justice, and worked extremely hard. He was a man of great integrity and discipline. At a time when women were relegated to the kitchen, Thomas spoke out loudly for women’s rights, and admitted women in the military, and in key positions within his government (the minister of Budget was a woman). What kind of man names his country “the land of upright people” (le pays des hommes integres)? What kind of man, by his passion and vision, reorganizes an entire country in just 4 years! no wait… actually just 3 (since the last year, Sankara’s government was crippled by internal division with Compaore’s factions). Well… let me tell you who that is: the great, and only, splendid Thomas Sankara, who made me proud of being an African child, who made me raise my chin up and walk upright!

Thomas Sankara in Ouagadougou
Thomas Sankara in Ouagadougou

At the time Sankara was assassinated, he was only 38 years old, a year younger than Ernesto Che Guevara… but just like Che, he left an indelible mark in the history of the world! Please join me in celebrating Captain Thomas Sankara!

(If you would like to learn more about him, please check out the website: – http://www.thomassankara.net/?lang=fr which does a good job of keeping Thomas Sankara’s memory alive and  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sankara which I contributed to).

Click on the link below and watch the video!

Thomas Sankara, le Che Africain