Saving the Sufi Saints of Timbuktu

The Sankore Mosque in Timbuktu (UNESCO/WHC)

Tucked away at the bottom end of the Sahara, Timbuktu has long been the perfect metaphor for a mythological exotic other.  In 1510 Moorish author Leo Africanus saw Timbuktu’s fabulous wealth at the height of the Songhai Empire – one of the largest Islamic kingdoms in history. In The History and Description of Africa, Africanus said the ritual in the court in Timbuktu was “exact and magnificent”.  The city's wealth and power came from its position as the southern terminus of a key trans-Saharan trade route. Merchants sold slaves and bought gold and the city was far enough away from everywhere to maintain autonomy. Some 333 Sufi saints are said to be buried in tombs and mausoleums across the city.

If ancient Timbuktu was a fabled place, the reality of modern Timbuktu is more prosaic. Over the centuries, its trade diminished as Atlantic vessels replaced the ships of the desert.  It became more isolated due to local squabbles and changed hands many times. In 1884 a decision in faraway Berlin brought Timbuktu under colonial ownership.  Sited north of a line between Say in Niger to Barou on Lake Chad, European bureaucrats deemed Timbuktu French territory not British. Locals were oblivious to the line on the map until nine years later when a small group of French soldiers annexed the city to the new French Sudan.

Timbuktu was bequeathed to the newly independent state of Mali in 1968. The corruption of Mali’s one party state coincided with the desertification and drought of Timbuktu.  Northern Mali was dying while government in far-away capital Bamako did nothing to avert the crisis. Tuareg independence fighters from the north had long been active in the region and many returned to Mali this year battle-hardened after the Libyan civil war to depose Gadafi.   

They were behind the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad to liberate northern Mali. Helped by a coup d’etat in Bamako in March , the NMLA combined with an Islamist group called Ansar Dine to quickly took over the three biggest cities in the region – including Timbuktu. Ideological differences quickly spread between the two factions. While NMLA was Tuareg nationalist, Ansar Dine was Islamist with links to Mauretanian-based Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

It was Ansar Dine who wanted to impose Sharia Law on Timbuktu. The former allies clashed at the battle of Gao  in June. The Islamist faction won a decisive victory and took revenge on recalcitrant locals by destroying Timbuktu’s World Heritage listed old city. On June 30, the BBC reported Islamist fighters damaged the shrines in the city including the mausoleum of Sidi Mahmoud, one of the revered 333 Sufi saints. While UNESCO hissed over the destruction of one its treasures, an Ansar Dine spokesman unapologetically said all the shrines would be destroyed. "God is unique,” he said. “All of this is haram (forbidden in Islam). We are all Muslims. Unesco is what?"

This sweeping certainty of the Islamists is in stark contrast to the views of most Muslims. Ansar Dine enjoys little support among locals and rules by fear. Mali is 97 percent Islamic but the vast majority want nothing to do with the cult of Islamism. Ansar Dine follows not in the path of Mohammed but invented traditions of the twentieth century drawing on fundamentalist icon Sayyid Qutb. Their spokesman was wrong: nothing in the magnificent mausoleums of Timbuktu are haram. 

Where this leaves the city and the rest of Northern Mali, depends on the strength of the new unity government in Bamako, announced overnight.  Imposed by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) it relies on army and civilian leaders to overcome their suspicion of each other and work together.  Next door Niger is alarmed about the dangers of Islamic radicalism in northern Mali. Ansar Dine’s links to AQIM will ensure Western support for the new government.  Financial support for a desperately poor city is imperative. But the fate of Timbuktu and its 333 Sufi saints will ultimately rely on the solidarity of its people to resist the medieval modernist barbarism of the Islamists.

Soldier of Malian Democracy wins again

The President of Mali has been re-elected for a second five year term after results announced yesterday. Amadou Toumani Toure won with 68.3% of the valid votes, avoiding the need for a run-off election. He comfortably beat his closest rival Ibrahim Boubacar Keita who could only manage to win 18.6%.

Foreign observers say the Mali vote was free and fair although opposition candidates have alleged fraud. They accused Toure’s supporters of using state assets to finance his campaign said voters' lists favoured the incumbent. Toure is now enjoying his second stint as leader having previously come to power in a military coup in 1991 before handing over power to a civilian government a year later

As expected, voter turnout was low, about 36%. In fact the turnout is an improvement on previous elections which has hovered around 20%. According to Mali’s Interior Ministry, political apathy is more prevalent in the capital Bamako than in the countryside. A German adviser to the government attributes Bamako's apathy to the fact many people are not interested in politics. Wilfried Wesch said “the political parties and the government did not do anything to promote democracy; they did not do anything to educate their people."

This malaise may be understandable as Mali is one of the world's poorest nations. Located on the southern edge of the Sahara, the landlocked Mali is the seventh largest country in Africa and twice the size of Texas. Its geography is dominated by a great river, the Niger. Mali sits at the northern apex of the curve of the 2,500 km river. The Niger is of crucial importance to the country providing irrigation for agriculture and serving as a major transportation artery.

Mali has known urban life for two thousand years. The influence of the Niger River made it a trade hub and the site of several caravan routes. Islam arrived in the 7th century spreading quickly after Mohammed’s death. It took hold in what was then the Ghana Empire (named for the emperor) which eventually gave way to the Malinke Empire. The Malinke Empire ruled for 400 years until 1645.

Inevitably the European powers took an interest in Mali. The French invaded in the 1880s and appointed a civilian governor in 1893. The locals resisted strongly but were eventually defeated after five years. Mali was subsumed into French West Africa. Like many other French colonies, it won the right to self-government with the passing of France's Fundamental Law (Loi Cadre) in 1956. It briefly formed a federation with Senegal before goings its own way with independence in 1960.

Its first leader Modibo Keita was lasted eight years before being overthrown in a bloodless military coup. A 14-member Military Committee for National Liberation (CMLN) ruled for the next six years. Moussa Traore emerged from the CMLN to take full control. He consolidated power and brutally put down challenges to his power from the military and from students unhappy with the lack of democracy. In 1991, another student rebellion gained important support from government workers. The military led by General Amadou Toumani Toure arrested Traore and established an interim government and a draft constitution.


During this phase, Toure got his nickname of the “Soldier of Malian Democracy”. A former parachute commando, he was instrumental in the push to seize power from Traore. Surprisingly he kept to his promise to organise elections. He handed over to a civilian president Alpha Oumar Konare the following year to international acclaim. He retired from the army but kept his eye on domestic politics. In 2002 Konare retired and Traore returned to power through the ballot box. His critics accuse him of lacking big political ideas, dismissing him for his focus on local development projects at the expense of grand visions. But abroad, people speak better of him "Mali has a good reputation in the international community and part of that is to his credit," said Global Insight’s Kissy Agyeman. "He is known for his simplicity. He is not one of those flamboyant African leaders," she said.