‘African Arabic manuscripts, from Timbuktu to Cape Town’

Africa has a rich tradition in Arabic script, and not just in the Maghreb. Professor Xavier Luffin gives a fascinating talk on this, for the most part, unknown heritage. A lot of people think that written texts only appeared in Africa with the advent of European colonisation. You only have to think of Ethiopia to realise that this is not true. Arabic script emerged elsewhere, mainly in order to record local languages. Timbuktu was one of the main places where Arabic manuscripts were recorded and conserved. Numerous manuscripts were also produced in Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana and Liberia, and in East Africa, from Somalia to Mozambique. Arabic script only appeared in Congo at a later stage. People often forget that the Muslim community of Cape Town also had an Arabic manuscript tradition, introduced by the Indonesians who settled there in the 17th century.