Discovery of timbuktu Manuscripts

Greatest find since dead-sea scrolls - On the Verge of being Lost

Dear: Brother(s) / Sister(s)

We are writing to ask that you support our first annual PRESERVE-A-MANUSCRIPT CAMPAIGN to help save our endangered legacy. The goal of the PRESERVE-A-MANUSCRIPT CAMPAIGN is to rewrite the history of Africa and its people. This is of a great significance particularly since many western scholars oftern dismiss the African contienet as lacking written records which is one of the distinguishing characteristic of civilization. In the 60's, H. Trevor a noted historian wrote that “perhaps is the future, there will be some African history to teach. But at the present there is none: there is only the history of Europeans in Africa. The rest is darkness.”

How Can you Help Save The Endangered Manuscripts Of Timbuktu?

Those of you who care and appreciate an African legacy, an academic legacy, an Islamic legacy and spiritual legacy, can help save the endangered manuscripts of Timbuktu. There are 700,000 manuscripts in Timbuktu and its surroundings that are on the verge of being lost if the appropriate action is not taken. These manuscripts represent a turning point in the history of Africa and its people. During the 14th century, timbuktu flourished as the greatest academic and commercial center in Africa even before the European Renaissance. The translation and publication of the manuscripts of Timbuktu will restore self-respect, pride, honor and dignity to the people from Africa and those descended from Africa; it will also obliterate the stereotypical images of Tarzan and primitive savages as true representation of Africa and its civilization.

The books of Timbuktu cover diverse subjects such as mathematics, chemistry, physics, optics, astronomy, medicine, Islamic Sciences, history, geography, the traditions of the Prophet (pbuh), government legislation and treaties, jurisprudence and much more.

Today, this entire African intellectual legacy is on the verge of being lost!!! The brittle condition of the manuscripts, i.e., the pages disintegrate easily like ashes, the termites, insects, weather, piracy of the manuscripts, and selling of these treasures to tourist for food money pose a serious threat to the future of the manuscripts of Timbuktu.

TIMBUKTU EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION, the legal custodian and caretaker of the manuscript, urges you to act today, at this very moment by sponsoring at least one manuscript. Based on the 700,000 volumes the foundation wants to restore, preserve, translate and publish, we estimate that if 700,000 concerned people sponsor each a manuscript for $100.00 we will secure the amount needed to allow the Foundation to undertake its activities and programs; thus rewrite the history of Africa and its people. NO CONTRIBUTION IS TOO SMALL.

Please take the initiative to save a t least one manuscripts by mailing your tax-deductible offering to:

Timbuktu Educational Foundation
P.O. Box 222 • Alameda, CA 94501

or visit our website at www.timbuktufoundation.org. We thank you for your important contribution.

Musa Balde,
President/CEO