Journey to Gao

On the second of August Columba and I boarded a small prop plane at Bamako in the company of Fred, an American journalist writing a story about our intrepid Benedictine  and his saving of Islamic manuscripts. 

It was once more an UNHAS flight- United Nations Humanitarian Air Service and our destination was the troubled city of Gao, in the out-of-bounds northern territories of Mali. It had taken many months to arrange this visit and we were staying at the UN Headquarters- a rambling desert of prefabs where more than a dozen different nationalities are housed, making up the security forces in this, purportedly the most dangerous UN mission in the world.

 Our purpose  was to meet up with the Kounta family and see their manuscripts in order to decide whether it would be worth starting a project here. No one else has attempted such a seemingly daft idea before - it is virtually impossible to move anywhere here without heavy security and travelling in armoured vehicles. 

But our project in Timbuktu has now come to an end. Columba wants to explore new possibilities here- we are still operating in Djenne, and that will continue for at least the next year. The ancient city of Gao, the seat of the Songhai Empire- of course we would be able to find interesting treasures here! 

And the Kountas, a famous clan of Malian Arabs with historic connections to the West African Soufi movement Qādirīyah should be able to come up with some material to work with.

 Because of time and security restrictions we were unable to visit their library, and our meeting took place at the Governor's Residence. This charming and welcoming  southerner was called General Moussa Traore, like the long serving erstwhile  Malian Dictator. The General promised to lend us any help we needed for any future visits, and also potentially for transporting the digitising material. We were unable to see more that a few manuscripts, but there is probably no doubt about the quality and quantity of this family collection's manuscripts. Everyone seemed genuinely pleased that we should have made the effort to come.

At our UN camp we met an old acquaintance:  Major Johnny Ericsson, the only Swede at the camp, although there are quite a few others with  the TACOUBA ; the new force that combines French, British and Swedish forces - and possibly others- that have offensive power and actively seek out the Jihadi terrorist elements. There was radio silence concerning this group, and one felt uncomfortable asking any questions...

We had all met a couple of year previously in Timbuktu, below!

Johnny came and spent some time with us one night, and we discussed many things- Mali, the deployment of all these troops etc. Our discussion has taken on a new significance and urgency now, in the wake of the Fall of Kabul... The situation in Mali has many similarities with the Afghanistan campaign. This little makeshift meeting spot for sunset drinks below was the only concession to relaxation and 'normal' life in this  austere desert outpost. 

After our Gao adventure we flew to Mopti and visited Djenne of course.  The last leg of our journey, back down to Bamako, was made by car, through the verdant Malian rainy season countryside.