Education and Why Isn't The Truth Known?

When the subject of the history of education comes up some people look at the so-called called Greek schools of Philosophy and science as the jump off point for what we have learned to where knowledge started. However there a great of people who will admit that Egypt was not only the cradle civilization but the place where these same Greek scholars came to learn and study. But often there is one city that is left out of the equation. That city is Timbuktu, where the University of Sankore, which at its height had 25,000 scholars. An army of scribes, gifted in calligraphy, earned their living copying the manuscripts brought by travelers. Prominent families added those copies to their own libraries. As a result, Timbuktu became a repository of an extensive and eclectic collection of manuscripts. “Astronomy, botany, pharmacology, geometry, geography, chemistry, biology,” said Ali Imam Ben Essayouti, the descendant of a family of imams that keeps a vast library in one of the city’s mosques. “There is Islamic law, family law, women’s rights, human rights, laws regarding livestock, children’s rights. All subjects under the sun, they are represented here.”


Before the European Renaissance, Timbuktu flourished as the greatest academic and commercial center in Africa. Great empires such as Ghana, Mali, and Songhai were proofs of the talents, creativity and ingenuity of the people. The University of Timbuktu produced both Black African scholars and leaders of the highest rank, character and nobility.

By the 12th century, Timbuktu became a celebrated center of Islamic learning and a commercial establishment. Timbuktu had three universities and 180 Qur’anic schools. These universities were the Sankore University, Jingaray Ber University and Sidi Yahya University. This was the golden age of Africa. Books were not only written in Timbuktu, but they were also imported and copied there, in an advanced local book copying industry in the city. The universities and private libraries contained unparalleled scholarly works. The University of Sankore curriculum was divided into four phases that (primary degree, secondary degree, superior degree, circle of knowledge) and the courses were taught at the the three masajid or mosques in the city. (Sankore, Jingaray, Sidi Yahya).

However, it was the manuscripts the amassing and producing of sacred manuscripts within the libraries that brought the university it greatest notice. There are an estimated 70,000 manuscripts that exist within the libraries of Timbuktu and neigboring cities. That in itself is a great accomplishment but as time passed on the city fell under the colonialization of France and even today so many of these manuscripts are found in French museums and private collections.

We are all taught that Africa is "a dark continent" but I propose a question. If it was and is so dark, why did so much light (knowledge) emanate from this dark crater of dirt, mountains and caves? How is it that so much of the information we rely on today in some many different genres of learning have their origins within this "dark" contnent? Sad part in all of this not only do we not know, but when the information is spoken about we seem to think that it serves no purpose in this day and age, but I disagree. If we choose not to know, then blatant miseducation will just continue. There have been many great discoveries, many great institutes of learning that have been created and are flourishing, however to not give this place, this university, this culture, these people, it's rightful place within the annals of history was then and still is a crime.