Niger and the National Museum of Niger

Writings of Runoko Rashidi

Introduction to African Civilizations / African Presence in Early Asia / Introduction to the Study of African Classical Civilizations

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Niger and the National Museum of Niger

Letters from Runoko Rashidi

National Museum of Niger

Greetings Sisters and Brothers,

How are you? Just a quick note to tell you that I am back in France safe and relatively sound. Today was a long travel day, starting in Niamey, Niger with a stop over in Burkina Faso and then a connecting flight in Casablanca. There were long delays on every leg of every flight and chaos in Morocco and my only large piece of luggage did not arrive. Hopefully it will come later tonight or tomorrow. So I am tired and just a little stressed. But I am okay and have a lot to share with you over the next few days. But right now, here are some of the highlights.

In Niger I arrived safe and sound but had to go through a few delays to get my visa. I stayed in an elegant African owned hotel. Everything was made of wood and painted gleaming white. The hotel owner is a great scholar.

I went to the National Museum of Niger. I went to the Grande Marche and the Petit Marche. I did some shopping. I did some resting. I finished Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers. I did a historic lecture. I had a sunset boat ride on the Niger River. I met and interviewed, for the first time, the people called the Wodaabe. You have surely seen them on TV or photos of them in books. These are the Fulanis that most closely retain their ancient traditions. This was fascinating. I also saw a lot of Tuaregs—all of them Black—and had a chance to talk to a few. I was around Hausas most of the time.

But the most important thing is that I saw the Niger Manuscripts. Not only did I see them but I held some of them in my hands, photographed them, and had a long interview with the director and assistant director of the African research institute that houses these priceless treasures. There are more than four thousand of them. From what I gather these manuscripts are even more important than the more famous Timbuktu Manuscripts and contain original documents, some of them more than five hundred years old, on such subjects as history, science, sociology, and the life of the Prophet Muhammad by such scholars as Mahmud Kati, Abderahman Es-Sadi, Ahmed Baba and an African scholar that I had never heard of before—Cheikh Baye.

When I told the institute director that I intended to bring a group of sisters and brothers to Niger next year he told me that he would arrange a special conference and put all of the manuscripts on display! Now wouldn't be something!

And my guide in Niger throughout was a descendant of the Songhai Emperor Askia the Great who told me stories on the Niger about African voyages to the Americas before Columbus! Yes, it was that kind of trip!

So enough for now. I am okay and blessed big time±

In love of Sacred Africa,

Runoko Rashidi Okello, resting in France

19 December 2007

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Geographical, Historical, and Political Background

Greetings Family,

I have been here in France two nights now. I still have not recovered my luggage (maybe today) and I am suffering from the effects of one those head colds that I receive when I have been pushing myself for an extended period. But it is cold and quiet here and I am going to rest up big time, and have no travel plans until mid-January. So, before more of it fades away, I thought that I would take a little time to detail some more of my experience in Niger.

First, Niger is a very large land locked country located in north-central Africa. To the east it is bordered by Chad, to the northeast by Libya, to the northwest by Algeria, to the west by Mali, to the southwest by Burkina Faso and Benin, and to the south by Nigeria.

It has a population of about ten million people made up largely of Hausa, Djerma, Fulani, and Tuareg. It was colonized by France beginning in the nineteenth century and declared its independence in 1960. But French remains the official language. It has a lot of uranium.

Again, I want to thank Professor Hassane Souley—without whom the trip probably never would have happened. Brother Hassane is a brilliant Nigerien scholar based here in France. I met him a few months ago and doors just started to open after that. Indeed, one of the best things about living in France is that I am so close to Africa.

Niger is regarded as one of the poorest countries in the world. Unemployment averages about seventy percent and I was told that there is only about one doctor for every 100,000 people. Hard to believe, isn't it? But that is what I was told.

Niger is also listed very low regarding education. But one of the things that I liked about it is that, unlike numerous other African nations, history in Niger is taught from the time of the great African empires and not the arrival of the European. A lot of people know about the work of Cheikh Anta Diop.

Niger is an overwhelmingly Muslim country. When I arrived at the airport both inside and out there were throngs of people waiting to go on the pilgrimage to Mecca.

I did not get far beyond Niamey, the capital of Niger. Niamey straddles the Niger River. Over the river is the John F. Kennedy Bridge built a few decades ago by the United States.

I found Niamey itself dry and dusty and much more relaxed than Dakar and Cotonou. The roads were fair and there are a lot of small white taxis. Most of the petroleum comes from Nigeria and Libya. There are suspicions about the French and Libyan roles in stirring up strife in Niger by supporting a Tuareg rebellion in northern Niger.

I did not see a lot of foreign tourists in Niamey and I suspect that most tourists come to Niger to visit Agadiz, to the northwest of Niamey, rather than to Niamey itself. I hope to visit Agadiz in the not to distant future.

I enjoyed Niger a lot more than Mali, Benin, Togo, Senegal, and Burkina Faso—some of the other former French colonies that I've visited in the region. I found the pace of life relaxed and people very friendly. Of course, my principal companions in Niger had a lot to do with my success there as there were three or four brothers who never left my side whenever I went out. I could not have asked for more diligent companions and I will be forever grateful to them. If I had companions like this looking out for me in the other countries just mentioned I am sure that I would have benefited a lot more from my travels than I a actually did. If there is one lesson more apparent than ever before it is that if you go someone where you have never been before, don't speak the local language, don't know anybody, and have not done a lot of research you are almost sure to have a less than wonderful time if you don't have people looking out for you.

One of the observations I made in Niger was that neither France or the French are well-liked by the masses of people. France was a brutal and ruthless colonizer that slaughtered, raped, and pillaged and gave virtually nothing in return.

The food was good; the beer not very. Crime seemed to be rare. I was very impressed by the dignity of the people. I found the Wodaabe and the Tuareg the most interesting of the people that I met. To be honest with you I was expecting a lot of Arabs but almost every body was dark-complexioned. Some of the women were oh so beautiful. Just looking at one Fulani woman almost took my breath away! Even she had to laugh. And, thank god, I did not see the skin-bleaching that I found so common in Senegal. You do see a lot of it though in the music videos that bombard the TV screens, along with the deification of western clothes and jewelry, European standards of beauty, and sex, sex, sex. I found this very disturbing.

Finally, a little more about the Niger Manuscripts. The collection is housed in the Institut Des Recherches en Sciences and Humains (IRSH) affiliated with the University of Niger. All of the manuscripts are written by Africans and they have been collected from much of northwest Africa and even Chad. Sadly, the government of Niger seems little interested. The manuscripts deal with such subjects as history, religion, grammar, geography, astronomy, sociology, and the history of West Africa.

Five hundred of the more than four thousand manuscripts in six volumes have been catalogued under the title Catalog of Islamic Manuscripts prepared by Dr. Hassane Mouleye and edited by Professor Ayman Fu'ad Sayyid, and published in London by the Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation in 2004.

The first two hundred manuscripts thus far catalogued focus on history and some of the illustrious authors include Mahmud Kati, Abderahman es-Sadi, Ahmed Baba,and Cheikh Baba. I believe that some of them are about the great African patriot Usman Dan Fodio. Some of the manuscripts are as long as fourteen hundred pages and are contained in tall metal file cabinets. Most of the manuscripts are in Arabic but others are in Hausa and Tamashek and date to the fifteenth century. I held a few in my hands but was afraid that I would damage them. They are very fragile and some of them are bound in leather. They are truly some of sacred Africa's great treasures.

So this is the core of my experience in Niger. I have been to eighty-four countries now in search of the African heritage. And my lecture in Niamey makes forty-five countries that I have lectured in. I am very proud of that.

Among the next few new African travel destinations I am contemplating for 2008, in addition to Egypt, Ghana, and Morocco, are Cape Verde, Cameroon, Mauritania, Congo Brazzaville, and the biggest of them all—Nigeria.

Okay, enough for now. I gave you a lot today. Now it is time to relax a little and, in spite of the cold, I have tickets to a big Ethiopian concert tonight!

In love of Africa,

Runoko Rashidi Okello
21 December 2007

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posted 23 December 2007