Ingles

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THE ROAD TO TIMBUKTU

It is perhaps surprising that a place as comparatively close toEurope as West Africa should remain more or less unknown long after the colonization of the Americas. Indeed, it was not until 1828 that the first European saw Timbuktu and lived to tell the tale. Thislong isolation was due to many factors: the trackless wastes of the Sahara, the long distances from the coast to the Niger River fraught with danger and disease, and the desert and coastal peopleswho preferred to maintain their exclusive position as trade middlemen between the Niger and the outer world. But this is no excuse for continuing near-ignorance in America and Europe of the fabuloushistory of the Middle Niger Valley in the modern Republic of Mali.

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As early as 872 A.D. the Arab geographer al-Ya'kubi would write of the ancient state of Ghana (situated in part in theMiddle Niger Valley) stating that it possessed a powerful king, with many lesser kings and kingdoms owing their allegiance to him, and that this king of kings controlled his country's mines of gold....