A letter from the Minister of Culture

And a very gratifying one too...
It was addressed to the Village Chief of Djenne and leaked to me from a source inside the Ministry who wants to remain anonymous. This should finally put an end to the continuous rumblings of discontent which have plagued the Djenne Manuscript Projects from the very beginning of the digitization work in 2008 when I was first asked by the Djenne population to get involved and try and find them some funding.   A faction in town, led by the semi illiterate Village Chief, hostile to the Djenne Manuscript Library, have done all in their power to try and put a stop to the projects, spreading rumours that the British Library are stealing manuscripts and making vast fortunes on the back of the Djenne population's  manuscripts without paying anything back. (See Blog entry 'Let me have a good Gripe' on  August 31).

It appears that during a ministerial visit to Djenne in March, the village chief thrust a letter into the hand of the Minister of Culture- a very pleasant lady who has been educated in Canada and speaks perfect English- which once more demanded the immediate closure of the Library and the return of all the hard drives containing the digitization material claiming that it was illegal. The letter above is her reply, finally sent in late  May, which was just leaked to me:

this is my translation:

Subject: Your letter of the 14^th of March 2018

To the Village Chief of Djenne:

Sir,

I acknowledge receipt of your letter, referenced  above, concerning the hard drives from the Djenne Manuscript Library.

I inform you that the said hard drives have been handed over to the National Archives of Mali, during a solemn ceremony in the presence of the manuscript owners of Djenne; representatives of the Imam of Djenne; of the previous Village Chief and of many other notables amongst whom were the Deputy Secretary of the Malian Presidency; the ambassadors of Great Britain, of Sweden and of Germany. The hard drives are preserved at the National Archives of Mali and put at the disposal of students and researchers to be exploited in their study.

The digitisation of manuscripts, which is a legal act, is an efficient means of safeguarding and preserving ancient document collections.

I assure you of the accessibility of these hard drives at the National Institution and I invite you to trust in my continued collaboration.

The Minister of Culture

 

 So let's hope that this puts an end to it...