Song for Ahmed Baba

1st voice: Here comes the sand
To cover everything
Camouflaging.
But before it does
Honour an African Teacher,
Of Ahmed Baba I must sing

2nd voice: We know you are coming Sahara
Voices: Desertification
2nd voice: We know you are coming
Voices: Manuscript destruction
Hold off for a while
Until we’ve finished this recording

3rd voice: Beautiful calligraphy
Illustrations in gold
Lovingly bound in leather
But termite is no respecter of beauty
He just comes along,
Always claiming his booty

2nd voice: Because of insect, heat
Dust and grit
A very precious thing
Is disappearing bit by bit

1st voice: To sing of African treasure
Lost in the sand
So fragile and brittle
The careful human hand

Voices: Stay away Sahara,
We pray you stay away,
For just a little longer

1st voice:To sing of the African gems
Song of the shining scholar
Tell the whole world
Of gold that came from paper

2nd voice: His father was a teacher
Destined to be one too
The most famous professor,
University Timbuktu

1st voice: And though the sand
Keeps coming in
Choking
Burying.
And though the sandstorm
Throw his weight around
It can’t stop me
Of Teacher Baba I must sing

Voices: Sankore Sankore
Bless your name Sankore
We sing of Ahmed Baba
The last great Chancellor

II

1st voice: Timbuktu
Where the slaves came through
Gold and salt too
Timbuktu
Of the Tuareg
Turban indigo blue

2nd voice: Timbuktu
Of Fulani
Hausa merchant crew
A Golden Age of peace
Christian Muslim
And Jew

3rd voice: Timbuktu
Of schools and scholars
Manuscripts and books
The sweet pursuit of learning
In every library
Space and nook

Voices: From all over the world
Books innumerable
The city of the libraries
1st voice: Binding
2nd voice: Inkmaking
3rd voice: Copying
1st voice: Illustration
Voices: Massive book industry
Employing thousands
Skills that gave them dignity

2nd voice: Books
Multitude of books
More than the eye will ever see
Library after library
Sankore
Sidi Yahya
Djinguerber
Timbuktu University

3rd voice: Who was Ahmed Baba’s teacher?
Who started that river flow?
1st voice: From Djenne on the Niger
The renowned Mohammed Bagayogo

2nd voice: In his time of Haj
They gave him a badge
Honorary degree
Ancient Egypt
Old Cairo
Al Azhar University

1st voice: Because of word passed down
Because of manuscript
We know his contribution
Of that we know.
In singing of Ahmed Baba
We honour Mohammed Bagayogo

1st voice: Both wrote books on Medicine and History
Voices: 16th century
2nd voice: On Law and Philosophy
Voices: 16th century
3rd voice: Mathematics and Astronomy
Voices: 16th century
1st voice: Signposts for you and me
Voices: 21st century

Voices: Sankore Sankore
Bless your name Sankore
We sing of Ahmed Baba
The last great Chancellor

III

1st voice: Here comes the invader
With European partner
Cannon and muketry
Burnt the books
Banished teachers
The Songhei Tragedy

2nd voice: Marrakesh Men
Didn’t come on their own
Came with mercenary.
Came from Spain
In their thousands
The latest weaponry

3rd voice: All the libraries
Public and private
Put to the torch or robbed.
The student howled
Bookbinder wept
Professor began to sob.
Wave of invasion
Rage of destruction
When ignorance is rife.
The scribe became ill
Illustrator broke down
The inkmaker took his life

1st voice: Battering of beauty
Crucifixion of culture
The nail goes in and and in
The elder screams
Timbuktu
Voices: My Timbuktu is dying

1st voice: Teachers of Timbuktu
The Chain-Gang Professors
Exile of the Educator
Away across the Sahara
Voices: Across the Sahara
Across the desert in chains
1st voice: Robbed a piece of our soul
Took the best of our brains
Voices: Across the Sahara
Across the desert in chains

3rd voice: Accused of rebellion
Ahmed Baba in chains
Time for everything they say
A time for pain

2nd voice: Locked in Moroccan prison
But his light shone out
Here comes Marrakesh scholar
Ahmed Baba’s name they shout

1st voice: Captive of the Sultan
Open arrest in Marrakesh
Living the same old vision
Time to dream afresh

2nd voice: Students galore
No room for anymore
The legal men came too,
Asking questions of the law

3rd voice: Slow trudge of exile
Year after year after year
Ahmed Baba in his house
Shedding the quiet tear

Voices: Sankore Sankore
Bless your name Sankore
We sing of Ahmed Baba
The last great Chancellor

IV

1st voice: The old Sultan died
Another stepped in
Ahmed Baba went to see him-
Man of successful petition

3rd voice: After 12 years,
Going home
Teardrop for Timbuktu.
To see beloved city
Familiar faces
The elders and the new

2nd voice: A city changed
No longer at its best
Beauty in decline
Our hero wept
To see Timbuktu
No longer able to shine

1st voice: Dry
2nd voice: Wasteland
3rd voice: Where are the farmers?
Voices: Gone to another place
3rd voice: Dry
2nd voice: Where are the teachers?
Voices: Gone to another place
Lovers of light and wisdom
They ran to freedoms embrace

3rd voice: Invasions means disruption
Means economic confusion
Tribal rivalry
1st voice: Here comes Tuareg
2nd voice: Here comes Bambara
3rd voice: Here come the Mossi

2nd voice: Born to teach
Born to write
Timbuktu dark
Or Timbuktu light
Ahmed Baba,
Born to teach and write

Ahmed Baba: Farewell Golden Age. I’m glad I knew you. Glad I participated in your shining. I basked in your reflection. Warmed by your brilliance. And although I no longer have my library, I bear the imprint, the hallmark of learning. It has been a privilege, blessed Timbuktu, to have been a teacher within you.

1st voice: Ring the bell of learning
Loudly let it ring
To celebrate a great teacher
Of Ahmed Baba I must sing

Voices: Stay away Sahara,
We pray you stay away
For just a little longer

Voices: Sankore Sankore
Bless your name Sankore
We sing of Ahmed Baba
The last great Chancellor

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* © Natty Mark Samuels, 2009.

* Ahmad Baba al-Massufi al-Tinbukti, full name Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Ahmad al-Takruri Al-Massufi al-Tinbukti (October 26, 1556 – 1627), (also known as Ahmed Baba Es Sudane or Ahmed Baba the black) was a medieval West African writer, scholar, and political provocateur in the area then known as the Western Sudan. Throughout his life, he wrote more than 40 books and is often noted as having been Timbuktu’s greatest scholar. ... The only public library in Timbuktu, the Ahmed Baba Institute (which stores over 18,000 manuscripts) is named in his honor. (Wikipedia)
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