The Timbuktu Job | Explorer
When Al-Qaeda invaded Northern Mali, it was only a matter of time before they started burning books. But in Timbuktu, one librarian decided he couldn't let thousands of years' worth of history and literature be destroyed without a fight. There was nothing but gunfire everywhere. I was totally taken off guard; I wasn't expecting anything like this. I mean, to be honest, I thought I was going to die right then. I knew they'd be coming for the libraries next.
Abdul Kader is, above all, a bibliophile. He turned Timbuktu into this Scholastic Center again ever since the glory years of Timbuktu, the late 15th century to the late 16th century. There was a tradition of writing books and trading them. These priceless volumes not only are they physically beautiful but the subject matter—romantic poetry, sex, astronomy, and openness about science and mathematics. So this very different strain of Islam, very dramatically different from the hardcore Wahhabi Islam that dominates Saudi Arabia, and that the Wahhabi tried to export to Timbuktu.
The ancient desert town of Timbuktu is under assault, and in recent days, one Islamist group allied with Al-Qaeda has begun systematically destroying shrines inside the mosques. I knew that if anyone was going to be responsible for the manuscripts, it had to be me. Abdul Qader calls a meeting of his fellow librarians, and he says, "We got to do something." The first step of the process involves sending volunteers out into the markets of Timbuktu and methodically buying thousands of footlockers and trunks.
The second step of the operation involves packing up hundreds of thousands of manuscripts in these libraries into the footlockers. This has to be done at night because there are Islamic police making the rounds all the time. There was so much chaos and looting going on; left and right, people were stealing everything they could find. So we just looked like all the other robbers and thieves.
The jihadis begin implementing Sharia law in a big way. They begin stoning people to death, executing them by firing squad, chopping off hands and feet. Some people started informing on others. We couldn't take the chance that someone was going to ride us out. The third step involves a massive movement of these footlockers from Timbuktu across 606 miles to the capital, Bomo, which is still in government hands where they can be stored safely.
We tell people, "Climb on; we take you out for free." You got a truck full of 10 to 15 people inside. They don't stop you; they just let you pass on by. That was our strategy. They enlist the support of village chiefs, stash the manuscripts in various houses right on the riverbank, and then boatmen go up the river making this two-night, three-day trip.
A French helicopter spotted these trunks being carried upriver. The French pilot demanded that the couriers on board open up these trunks to make sure they weren't smuggling weapons. The helicopter pilot left them unscathed. Jihadists entered the government library filled with anger, hatred, desire for revenge, but they see these shelves empty. They didn't realize it at the time, but they were defeated by a librarian.
The collection has been moved now to a single facility in Bomo. They're all consolidated in one place; they're in good shape. They're being digitized systematically, and Abdul's hope is he can return the books to the libraries that are now sitting empty, padlocked, unvisited.
We want to make sure the library network in Timbuktu is rebuilt in order to receive these texts one day when peace is reestablished. Abdul Kader definitely was a badass librarian. This could never have happened without his inspiration and his instigation. I was engaged; I was never afraid.