ISIS accepts oath of allegiance from Mali

 Previously, Malian terrorist activities have been coordinated mainly by AQMI (Al Quaida in the Islamic Maghreb). Abu Walid Al Sahrawi, one of its commanders,  merged the Front de Liberation de Macina , Ancar Dine  and MUJAO   into  Jama'at Nasr al- Islam wal Muslimin two years ago.
  
The  connection with ISIS of this group has not been acknowleged by the ISIS commander Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi until now, when in an internet appearance  he accepts the allegiance of not only the leaders of the  Muslim terrorist group in Sri Lanka reponsible for the Easter Sunday attacks, but also of the Malian terrorists. This is a chilling development. From an article this morning in the Times:

  "In a video released after the bombing, the Sri Lankan attackers pledged their allegiance to Baghdadi, calling him “the caliph”. In his video, Baghdadi accepted their oath, along with others from jihadists in Mali, Burkina Faso and Afghanistan, a warning of Isis’s growing reach in areas where they have yet to meet much western resistance."
"The reference to Mali is significant as, while it has been subject to insurgent violence for years, jihadist groups there have largely been loyal to al-Qaeda, from which Isis split. A new sub-faction, led by a man calling himself Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, has emerged, and while it swore loyalty to Baghdadi in 2015 the precise nature of its “membership” in Isis has been unclear.
There was no previous acceptance of that oath of allegiance by Baghdadi, nor any indication that the group was acting under his explicit instructions. He may be indicating that now he would accept a mere oath of allegiance and does not demand that groups act only under instruction."

London delights

                                                                               

London is claiming me back with its kaleidoscopic possibilities... and I have taken full advantage of them, and been out almost every night since arriving back on Good Friday-  highlights were certainly Romeo and Juliet  on Friday night with Kathy and my godchildren who soaked in and revelled in the glamour of the  Royal Opera House and watched the ravishing Kenneth Macmillan choreography to the powerful Prokovief score.  This composer continued to hold the attention last night as I watched a brand spanking new play called ‘The Glass Piano’,  which was accompanied by  a live  concert pianist playing Prokofiev at the old Coronet Cinema, Notting Hill, now transformed into the quirky, cosy and beautiful Print Room, one of my favourite theatre venues  in London.

                                                                           

The premiere last night of this quirky, funny but ultimately tragic play set in mid nineteenth century Bavaria had  a rapturous reception by the normally quite spoilt and reserved London theatre crowd who clapped and stamped and shouted ‘Bravo!’- I thought I was in Milan, not Notting Hill... Do go if you are in London and have a chance.

Have finally put my African photographs up- here are some of those that used to adorn my mud walls in Djenne- the majority from Malik Sidibe’s trip to the hotel when we commissioned him in 2007.

                                                                             

And this morning in Djenne was the Crepissage of the Great Mosque... a spectacle I have seen so many times but which always seem as fresh and joyous as the first time. The picture from Paul Chandler who braved the hardships of the road and closed his ears to the travel warnings.

                                                                               

Timbuktu once more

 A tiny propeller plane winged me safely to Timbuktu once more, this time in the company of Dr. Maria Luisa Russo, my Italian friend and collegue- that is to say she is a real manuscript scholar, whereas it must be admitted that I am not... although I know quite a lot about them by now. And here is the team again, above at the Imam Essayouti library by the Djingreyber Mosque. 
Everything is always extreme in Timbuktu (no, actually, in Mali as a whole..) . The project itself frequently  hangs on a thread, but we always manage to save it somehow. This time we had a very difficult time with one of our libraries, which had run out of manuscripts, but still expected to get paid until the end of their contracts at the end of July!
A lawyer was consulted before I left Bamako, and the whole project was once more threatened of course...
In the end we managed to come to a friendly solution- and here are the two main protagonists in the dispute- Toubab and Alassane, once more friends, since a whole new bundle of manuscripts had been found suddenly and work was therefore reinstated at the library by the Sidi Yahia Mosque- one of the three great ancient mosques of Timbuktu, in connection with  which we are privileged to work.
                                                                        

                                                                                
 So celebration seemed to be in order, and celebration in Timbuktu involves slaughtering a lamb and turning it into the culinary speciality of Timbuktu: Tukaso, a delicious stew with large dumplings, always eated around a communal large dish: this time it was generously provided by Saadou Traore, our friend and collegue who worked in the Djenne Manuscript Library for three years, compiling its catalogue for the University of Hamburg. He has now returned to his home town Timbuktu and he wanted to regale his two collegues with the best that Timbuktu has to offer and slaughered a sheep for us! Here we are in his lovely old Timbuktu house, far down a sandy alleyway amongst the chalkstone houses of the old city... below Saadou and his wife with Maria Luisa (left).

        We  stayed  once more in the UN 'Supercamp' and were escorted by armed soldiers who stood guard outside wherever we found ourselves in Timbuktu.
There was a ceremony during our stay at the camp for recenly arrived Nigerian troops: here they are by the memorial inscribed  ' For Our Fallen Peace Keepers' .
                                                                

There are so many different nationalities at the UN camp, and we don't all have the same bathroom habits... therefore these informative plaques can be seen around the camp.

The day we left Timbuktu Moktar Cisse, (seen in the middle of the first picture, sitting down) the archivist at the Al Aquib library where we are working by the Sankore Mosque, also left for Bamako- he had been chosen to represent Timbuktu in the National meeting of the Haut Conseil Islamique to vote in  the new leader- and Chérif Ousmane Madani Haïdara was chosen, to replace Mahmoud Dicko- this is a popular choice in Mali:  Haidara can be said to represent traditional Malian Islam  whereas Dicko's Wahabist faith was influenced from the Gulf; an influence many feel can be the portal  to extremism.

 

and now I am once more back in London- where  we have just had four glorious  Easter days, albeit marred by the terrifying attacks in Sri Lanka...

Ca. 40 degrees on the verandah of Hotel Flandre where I am sitting with my cold Castel beer, after a  swim in the hotel pool. This feels like super luxury... it is probably the most frequented and indeed the only hotel that is operating  properly north of Segou. Sevare and Mopti are still working towns with plenty of Malians who work in NGO’s  and diverse toubabs –mostly from various UN branches - frequenting this hotel verandah where previously tourists used to be sipping beer, discussing their up-coming trips to the Dogon country, now a distant memory of of Temps Perdu...

 I arrived from Djenne at lunchtime, where I had spent two busy days organizing business regarding the new initiative I am setting up with Mark Saade, the Malian Consul  to the UK: Les Amis de Manuscrits de Djenne.  I was also privileged to attend the opening ceremony of the 6^th consequtive cataract operation campaign which is always sponsored by my dear cousin Pelle and his wife Nanni.  This event turns out to be most embarrassing every time since I am treated as some sort of superstar and White Savior, (echoing the words of the recent UK controversy)   and am lauded to the skies although I am only passing on the kind sponsorship of my cousin. I do take advantage on the occasion though  in so far as I insist that the yearly event at the hospital when 100 people get their cataracts removed for free is done in memory of my Keita who worked in the hospital and ran its laboratory. We observed  a minute’s silence for him, and that always moves me.

 As always, Djenne feels like home and so familiar that it is impossible to think that anything might happen to me, although everyone in Bamako thinks I am insane to travel there...

I visited my dear old friend Yelpha, the Imam, (above). He had a tragedy in his family yesterday, when his ten year old son drowned. He had been playing by the river with his friends (because of incessant teachers strikes there are no schools) and at midday  Yelpha suddenly heard terrible wailing from the street as they announced the death of his son. They gave him the ritual mortuary bathing then buried him there and then. Yelpha then carried on to officiate as usual at the customary Friday prayers at the Great Mosque. When I saw him he simply said ‘C’etait la volonte de Dieu’. I am not sure I would have been so lenient with God in my attitude... It is not the first time Yelpha has lost a child. I remember when he lost his five year old daughter to malaria one year. He took it just as calmly, but he did say that he was ‘unusually sad’. The little girl had followed him and sat on his lap when he ate and obviously loved him. Life and death are dealt with in such a different manner here.

And now, tomorrow morning on to Timbuktu and whatever trials that might entail. I should perhaps not announce my departure  to all and sundry on the internet for security reasons, but since we will be travelling around  escorted by our own private tank and five blue helmeted, machinegun carrying UN soldiers I think the chances of our being in any danger are minimal..

The Day before

yes, tomorrow a taxi will pick me up at 4.15 and take me to Terminal 4 at Heathrow. I will change planes at Paris and continue to Bamako, arriving into the height of the Great Heat about 2pm. April and May are the hottest months- I don't mind.

 Bring on the heat, I say.

Today I had a lovely , lingering, wine soaked Sunday lunch party with dear old friends Clare,  Cressida (above)  with Paul in the background. Cressida must have had a premonition that I had recovered my old sofa with MaliMali Forgeron fabric, because she was dressed perfectly to blend in with the design...

People have tried to dissuade me from going to Mali , saying the situation is getting increasingly dangerous and difficult. There were big demonstrations in Bamako a couple of days ago, and the centre continues to be volatile, especially after the recent massacre of over a hundred people in a Fulani village a week ago.

I have too much to do to worry about it.  Timbuktu is becoming more and more difficult to handle day by day, but I cannot really talk about our problems, since I do not want to compromise our project.  On the way to Timbuktu I will go to Djenne. I will be present at the opening ceremony of this year's cataract surgery by the team of Dr. Faira, who will once more operate on about a hundred village patients, this time  also spondored by my cousin Pelle and his wife Nanni. I will pick up fabrics from Dembele, who has worked to fulfil a fabric order from Holland. I will also spend time at the library- today I had a meeting with Mark Saade, the Malian honorary consul here in London. We are setting up our charity called 'Les Amis des Manuscrits de Djenne' which will hopefully be able to raise enough money to keep the library going. I remember that some years ago I had a conversation with the Prefect of Djenne, who was very sensitive about the fact that the library was receiving sponsorship- from abroad. I told him that all libraries worldwide receive sponsorship in order to be able to continue. Maybe it comes from the state, and maybe from private donors. It is in the nature of a library to need sponsorship-  for once it actually has nothing to do with Mali being poor. UK museums, galleries and libraries are also always chasing sponsorship. This was a new idea to the Prefect.

Much, much more is happening of course...hoping to be able to write soon from Mali...