Now, Hegel -- he very famously said that Africa was a place without history, without past, without narrative. Yet, I'd argue that no other continent has nurtured, has fought for, has celebrated its history more concertedly. The struggle to keep African narrative alive has been one of the most consistent and hard-fought endeavors of African peoples, and it continues to be so. The struggles endured and the sacrifices made to hold onto narrative in the face of enslavement, colonialism, racism, wars and so much else has been the underpinning narrative of our history.
Hegel je imao čuvenu izjavu da je Afrika mesto bez istorije, bez prošlosti, bez narativa. Ipak, ja tvrdim da nijedan drugi kontinent nije tako udruženo negovao svoju istoriju, borio se za nju i slavio je. Borba da se afrički narativ očuva u životu oduvek je bio jedan od najdoslednijih i najnapornijih poduhvata afričkog naroda, a i dalje je tako. Borba je istrajala i žrtve koje su podnete da bi se zadržao narativ uprkos ropstvu, kolonijalizmu, rasizmu, ratovima i još mnogo čemu bile su u osnovi narativa naše istorije.
And our narrative has not just survived the assaults that history has thrown at it. We've left a body of material culture, artistic magistery and intellectual output. We've mapped and we've charted and we've captured our histories in ways that are the measure of anywhere else on earth. Long before the meaningful arrival of Europeans -- indeed, whilst Europe was still mired in its Dark Age -- Africans were pioneering techniques in recording, in nurturing history, forging revolutionary methods for keeping their story alive. And living history, dynamic heritage -- it remains important to us. We see that manifest in so many ways.
Naš narativ je preživeo ne samo napade kojima ga je istorija obasipala. Ostavili smo veliku količinu materijalnih proizvoda kulture, umetničku umešnost i rezultate intelektualnog rada. Iscrtavali smo mape i tabele i beležili našu istoriju na načine koji su merilo na svim drugim mestima na planeti. Davno pre značajnih dolazaka Evropljana, zapravo, dok je Evropa još bila zaglavljena u mračnom dobu, Afrikanci su prvi koristili tehnike beleženja i negovanja istorije, stvarali revolucionarne metode da bi održali svoju priču u životu. A živa istorija, dinamično nasleđe i dalje nam je važno. Vidimo kako se to manifestuje na toliko mnogo načina.
I'm reminded of how, just last year -- you might remember it -- the first members of the al Qaeda-affiliated Ansar Dine were indicted for war crimes and sent to the Hague. And one of the most notorious was Ahmad al-Faqi, who was a young Malian, and he was charged, not with genocide, not with ethnic cleansing, but with being one of the instigators of a campaign to destroy some of Mali's most important cultural heritage. This wasn't vandalism; these weren't thoughtless acts. One of the things that al-Faqi said when he was asked to identify himself in court was that he was a graduate, that he was a teacher. Over the course of 2012, they engaged in a systematic campaign to destroy Mali's cultural heritage. This was a deeply considered waging of war in the most powerful way that could be envisaged: in destroying narrative, in destroying stories. The attempted destruction of nine shrines, the central mosque and perhaps as many as 4,000 manuscripts was a considered act. They understood the power of narrative to hold communities together, and they conversely understood that in destroying stories, they hoped they would destroy a people.
Podsetih se kako su baš prošle godine, a možda se sećate toga, prvi članovi grupe Ansar Dine koja se dovodi u vezu sa Al Kaidom optuženi za ratne zločine i poslati u Hag. Jedan od najpoznatijih je bio Ahmad al Faki, mladi Malijanac, a on je optužen ne za genocid, ne za etničko čišćenje, već zato što je bio jedan od podstrekača kampanje da se uništi deo najvažnijeg kulturnog nasleđa Malija. To nije bio vandalizam; to nisu bila nepromišljena dela. Jedna od stvari koje je al Faki rekao kada su od njega zatražili da se predstavi na sudu bila je da je on diplomac, da je učitelj. Tokom 2012. godine su se angažovali u okviru sistematske kampanje da se uništi kulturno nasleđe Malija. Ovo je u velikoj meri smatrano za vođenje rata na najsnažniji način koji se može zamisliti: uništavanjem narativa, uništavanjem priča. Pokušaj uništenja devet svetilišta, centralne džamije i možda čak 4 000 rukopisa bio je proračunat čin. Razumeli su moć narativa da drži zajednice na okupu i shodno tome su razumeli da će uništavanjem priča, nadali su se, uništiti narod.
But just as Ansar Dine and their insurgency were driven by powerful narratives, so was the local population's defense of Timbuktu and its libraries. These were communities who've grown up with stories of the Mali Empire; lived in the shadow of Timbuktu's great libraries. They'd listened to songs of its origin from their childhood, and they weren't about to give up on that without a fight. Over difficult months of 2012, during the Ansar Dine invasion, Malians, ordinary people, risked their lives to secrete and smuggle documents to safety, doing what they could to protect historic buildings and defend their ancient libraries. And although they weren't always successful, many of the most important manuscripts were thankfully saved, and today each one of the shrines that was damaged during that uprising have been rebuilt, including the 14th-century mosque that is the symbolic heart of the city. It's been fully restored.
Ali, baš kao što je Ansar Dine i njene pobunjenike vodio moćan narativ, tako je bilo i sa odbranom Timbuktua i njegovih biblioteka od stane lokalnog stanovništva. Bile su to zajednice koje su odrasle uz priče o Malijskom carstvu; živele su u senci velikih biblioteka Timbuktua. Od detinjstva su slušali pesme o svom poreklu i nisu imali nameru da odustanu od toga bez borbe. Tokom teških meseci 2012. godine, za vreme invazije Ansar Dine, Malijanci, obični ljudi, rizikovali su svoj život da sakriju i prokrijumčare dokumenta na sigurno mesto, radeći šta mogu da zaštite istorijske spomenike i odbrane stare biblioteke. Mada nisu uvek bili uspešni, mnogi najvažniji rukopisi su, srećom, spaseni, a danas je obnovljeno svako svetilište koje je oštećeno tokom tog ustanka, uključujući džamiju iz 14. veka koja je simbolično srce grada. U potpunosti je obnovljena.
But even in the bleakest periods of the occupation, enough of the population of Timbuktu simply would not bow to men like al-Faqi. They wouldn't allow their history to be wiped away, and anyone who has visited that part of the world, they will understand why, why stories, why narrative, why histories are of such importance. History matters. History really matters. And for peoples of African descent, who have seen their narrative systematically assaulted over centuries, this is critically important. This is part of a recurrent echo across our history of ordinary people making a stand for their story, for their history.
Ali, čak i u najmračnijim periodima okupacije, dobar deo stanovništva Timbuktua jednostavno nije hteo da se klanja ljudima kao što je al Faki. Nisu hteli da dozvole da se njihova istorija obriše, a svako ko je posetio taj deo sveta razumeće razlog, zašto su priče, narativ i istorija od tolikog značaja. Istorija je važna. Istorija je zaista važna. A za ljude afričkog porekla, koji su vekovima gledali sistematske napade na svoj narativ ovo je od kritičnog značaja. Ovo je deo eha koji stalno iznova odzvanja kroz našu istoriju, eha običnih ljudi koji se zauzimaju za svoju priču, za svoju istoriju.
Just as in the 19th century, enslaved peoples of African descent in the Caribbean fought under threat of punishment, fought to practice their religions, to celebrate Carnival, to keep their history alive. Ordinary people were prepared to make great sacrifices, some even the ultimate sacrifice, for their history. And it was through control of narrative that some of the most devastating colonial campaigns were crystallized. It was through the dominance of one narrative over another that the worst manifestations of colonialism became palpable.
Baš kao u 19. veku, porobljeni narodi afričkog porekla na Karibima borili su se pod pretnjom kazne, borili su se da vrše religijske obrede, da slave karneval, da održavaju istoriju u životu. Obični ljudi su bili spremni na velike žrtve, neki čak i na krajnju požrtvovanost, zarad svoje istorije. Upravo su se kroz kontrolu narativa iskristalisale neke od najrazornijih kolonijalnih kampanja. Kroz dominaciju jednog narativa nad drugim postale su primetne najgore manifestacije kolonijalizma.
When, in 1874, the British attacked the Ashanti, they overran Kumasi and captured the Asantehene. They knew that controlling territory and subjugating the head of state -- it wasn't enough. They recognized that the emotional authority of state lay in its narrative and the symbols that represented it, like the Golden Stool. They understood that control of story was absolutely critical to truly controlling a people. And the Ashanti understood, too, and they never were to relinquish the precious Golden Stool, never to completely capitulate to the British. Narrative matters.
Kada su 1874. godine Britanci napali Asanti, osvojili su Kumasi i zarobili kralja Asantija. Znali su da kontrola nad teritorijom i pokoravanje poglavara države nije dovoljno. Prepoznali su da je emocionalni autoritet države u njenom narativu i simbolima koji je predstavljaju, kao što je zlatna stolica. Razumeli su da je kontrola nad pričom od apsolutno kritičnog značaja da bi se zaista kontrolisao narod. Asanti su to takođe razumeli i nikada se nisu odrekli dragocene zlatne stolice, nikada se nisu potpuno predali Britancima. Narativ je bitan.
In 1871, Karl Mauch, a German geologist working in Southern Africa, he stumbled across an extraordinary complex, a complex of abandoned stone buildings. And he never quite recovered from what he saw: a granite, drystone city, stranded on an outcrop above an empty savannah: Great Zimbabwe. And Mauch had no idea who was responsible for what was obviously an astonishing feat of architecture, but he felt sure of one single thing: this narrative needed to be claimed.
Godine 1871, Karl Mauh, nemački geolog koji je radio u južnom delu Afrike, naišao je na izuzetan kompleks, kompleks napuštenih kamenih građevina. Nikada se nije sasvim oporavio od onoga što je video: grad od granita, suvog kamena, nasađen na stenovitoj površini iznad prazne savane - Veliki Zimbabve. Mauh nije imao predstavu ko je zaslužan za ovaj zadivljujući poduhvat arhitekture, ali bio je siguran u jedno: treba polagati pravo na ovaj narativ.
He later wrote that the wrought architecture of Great Zimbabwe was simply too sophisticated, too special to have been built by Africans. Mauch, like dozens of Europeans that followed in his footsteps, speculated on who might have built the city. And one went as far as to posit, "I do not think that I am far wrong if I suppose that that ruin on the hill is a copy of King Solomon's Temple." And as I'm sure you know, Mauch, he hadn't stumbled upon King Solomon's Temple, but upon a purely African complex of buildings constructed by a purely African civilization from the 11th century onward.
Kasnije je napisao da je kovana arhitektura Velikog Zimbavea jednostavno suviše prefinjena, previše posebna da bi bila izgrađena od strane Afrikanaca. Mauh je, kao i desetine Evropljana koji su krenuli njegovim stopama, teoretisao o tome ko je mogao izgraditi grad. Jedan je išao do te mere da pretpostavi: „Ne mislim da mnogo grešim ako prepostavim da je ta ruševina na brdu kopija Solomonovog hrama.“ A siguran sam da znate, Mauh nije naišao na Solomonov hram, već na isključivo afrički kompleks građevina koji je izgradila isključivo afrička civilizacija od 11. veka pa nadalje.
But like Leo Frobenius, a fellow German anthropologist who speculated some years later, upon seeing the Nigerian Ife Heads for the very first time, that they must have been artifacts from the long-lost kingdom of Atlantis. He felt, just like Hegel, an almost instinctive need to rob Africa of its history. These ideas are so irrational, so deeply held, that even when faced with the physical archaeology, they couldn't think rationally. They could no longer see. And like so much of Africa's relationship with Enlightenment Europe, it involved appropriation, denigration and control of the continent. It involved an attempt to bend narrative to Europe's ends.
Baš kao Leo Frobenijus, njegov sunarodnik, nemački antropolog koji je nagađao nekoliko godina kasnije, nakon što je prvi put video nigerijske glave iz Ife, da mora da su proizvodi davno izgubljenog kraljevstva Atlantide. Imao je, baš kao i Hegel, gotovo instinktivnu potrebu da Africi otme njenu istoriju. Ove ideju su toliko iracionalne, tako duboko ukorenjene, da čak i fizički suočeni sa arheologijom nisu mogli da razmišljaju racionalno. Nisu više mogli da vide. A kao i dobar deo odnosa Afrike sa prosvetiteljstvom Evrope, to je podrazumevalo prisvajanje imovine, omalovažavanje i kontrolu nad kontinentom. Obuhvatalo je pokušaj da se narativ iskrivi prema ciljevima Evrope.
And if Mauch had really wanted to find an answer to his question, "Where did Great Zimbabwe or that great stone building come from?" he would have needed to begin his quest a thousand miles away from Great Zimbabwe, at the eastern edge of the continent, where Africa meets the Indian Ocean. He would have needed to trace the gold and the goods from some of the great trading emporia of the Swahili coast to Great Zimbabwe, to gain a sense of the scale and influence of that mysterious culture, to get a picture of Great Zimbabwe as a political, cultural entity through the kingdoms and the civilizations that were drawn under its control. For centuries, traders have been drawn to that bit of the coast from as far away as India and China and the Middle East. And it might be tempting to interpret, because it's exquisitely beautiful, that building, it might be tempting to interpret it as just an exquisite, symbolic jewel, a vast ceremonial sculpture in stone. But the site must have been a complex at the center of a significant nexus of economies that defined this region for a millennium.
Da je Mauh zaista hteo da pronađe odgovor na svoje pitanje: „Odakle potiče Veliki Zimbabve ili ta velika kamena građevina?“, morao bi da započne svoju potragu hiljade kilometara izvan Velikog Zimbabvea, na istočnoj ivici kontinenta, gde se Afrika sreće sa Indijskim okeanom. Morao bi da prati trag zlata i robe od nekih od velikih trgovačkih središta na svahilijskoj obali do Velikog Zimbabvea, da bi stvorio predstavu o obimu i uticaju te misteriozne kulture, da bi stvorio sliku o Velikom Zimbabveu kao političkom, kulturnom entitetu kroz kraljevstva i civilizacije koje su dovedene pod njegovu kontrolu. Vekovima je trgovce privlačio taj deo obale iz udaljenih zemalja kao što su Indija, Kina i Srednji istok. Može biti primamljivo da se protumači jer je ovo izuzetno lepa građevina, može biti primamljivo da je protumačimo prosto kao izvrstan, simbolični dragulj, ogromnu ceremonijalnu skulpturu u kamenu. Ali, ovaj lokalitet mora da je bio kompleks u središtu značajnih ekonomskih veza koje su definisale ovu regiju tokom čitavog milenijuma.
This matters. These narratives matter. Even today, the fight to tell our story is not just against time. It's not just against organizations like Ansar Dine. It's also in establishing a truly African voice after centuries of imposed histories. We don't just have to recolonize our history, but we have to find ways to build back the intellectual underpinning that Hegel denied was there at all. We have to rediscover African philosophy, African perspectives, African history.
To je važno. Ovi narativi su važni. Čak i danas, borba za pričanje naše priče nije samo protiv vremena, nije samo protiv organizacija poput Ansar Dine. Takođe se sastoji i utemeljivanju istinskog afričkog glasa nakon vekova nametnute istorije. Ne samo da moramo da iznova kolonizujemo svoju istoriju, već moramo da pronađem načine da ponovo izgradimo intelektualne temelje čije je postojanje Hegel potpuno negirao. Moramo da iznova otkrijemo afričku filozofiju, afričke perspektive, afričku istoriju.
The flowering of Great Zimbabwe -- it wasn't a freak moment. It was part of a burgeoning change across the whole of the continent. Perhaps the great exemplification of that was Sundiata Keita, the founder of the Mali Empire, probably the greatest empire that West Africa has ever seen. Sundiata Keita was born about 1235, growing up in a time of profound flux. He was seeing the transition between the Berber dynasties to the north, he may have heard about the rise of the Ife to the south and perhaps even the dominance of the Solomaic Dynasty in Ethiopia to the east. And he must have been aware that he was living through a moment of quickening change, of growing confidence in our continent. He must have been aware of new states that were building their influence from as far afield as Great Zimbabwe and the Swahili sultanates, each engaged directly or indirectly beyond the continent itself, each driven also to invest in securing their intellectual and cultural legacy. He probably would have engaged in trade with these peer nations as part of a massive continental nexus of great medieval African economies.
Procvat Velikog Zimbabvea nije bio čudan trenutak. Bio je deo sve većih promena na celom kontinentu. Možda je odličan primer toga bio Sundijata Kejta, osnivač Malijskog carstva, verovatno najvećeg carstva koje je Zapadna Afrika ikada videla. Sundijata Kejta je rođen oko 1235. godine, odrastajući u vreme dubokih promena. Video je tranziciju između berberskih dinastija na severu, možda je čuo za uspon Ifa na jugu, možda čak i za prevlast solomonske dinastije u Etiopiji na istoku. Mora da je bio svestan da je živeo u trenutku ubrzanih promena, sve većeg poverenja u naš kontinent. Mora da je bio svestan novih država koje su gradile svoj uticaj čak od Velikog Zimbabvea i svahilskih sultanata, pri čemu je svaka bila direktno ili indirektno angažovana van kontinenta, svaka motivisana da ulaže u obezbeđivanje svog intelektualnog i kulturnog nasleđa. Verovatno bi se uključio u trgovinu sa ovim bliskim nacijama kao deo ogromne kontinentalne povezanosti velikih srednjevekovnih ekonomija Afrike.
And like all of those great empires, Sundiata Keita invested in securing his legacy through history by using story -- not just formalizing the idea of storytelling, but in building a whole convention of telling and retelling his story as a key to founding a narrative for his empire. And these stories, in musical form, are still sung today.
Kao i sva ta velika carstva, Sundijata Kejta je ulagao u to da osigura svoje nasleđe kroz istoriju koristeći priču - ne samo formalizovanjem ideje pripovedanja, već izgradnjom čitavog običaja pričanja i ponovnog ispredanja njegove priče kao ključnog za utemeljivanje narativa svog carstva. O ovim pričama se u muzičkoj formi još i danas peva.
Now, several decades after the death of Sundiata, a new king ascended the throne, Mansa Musa, its most famous emperor. Now, Mansa Musa is famed for his vast gold reserves and for sending envoys to the courts of Europe and the Middle East. He was every bit as ambitious as his predecessors, but saw a different kind of route of securing his place in history. In 1324, Mansa Musa went on pilgrimage to Mecca, and he traveled with a retinue of thousands. It's been said that 100 camels each carried 100 pounds of gold. It's been recorded that he built a fully functioning mosque every Friday of his trip, and performed so many acts of kindness, that the great Berber chronicler, Ibn Battuta, wrote, "He flooded Cairo with kindness, spending so much in the markets of North Africa and the Middle East that it affected the price of gold into the next decade."
Nekoliko decenija nakon smrti Sundijate, novi kralj je stupio na presto, Mansa Musa, njegov najpoznatiji car. Mansa Musa je poznat po svojim ogromnim rezervama zlata i po tome što je slao izaslanike na dvorove Evrope i Bliskog istoka. Bio je podjednako ambiciozan kao i njegovi prethodnici, ali je video drugačiji put ka obezbeđivanju svog mesta u istoriji. Godine 1324, Mansa Musa je otišao na hodočašće u Meku i putovao je uz pratnju od hiljadu ljudi. Pričalo se da je svaka od 100 kamila nosila 50 kilograma zlata. Zabeleženo je da je gradio potpuno funkcionalne džamije svakog petka na putovanju i da je učinio toliko dobrih dela da je veliki berberski hroničar Ibn Batuta napisao: „Preplavio je Kairo dobrotom, a toliko je trošio na pijacama Severne Afrike i Srednjeg istoka da je to uticalo na cenu zlata u sledećoj deceniji.“
And on his return, Mansa Musa memorialized his journey by building a mosque at the heart of his empire. And the legacy of what he left behind, Timbuktu, it represents one of the great bodies of written historical material produced by African scholars: about 700,000 medieval documents, ranging from scholarly works to letters, which have been preserved often by private households. And at its peak, in the 15th and 16th centuries, the university there was as influential as any educational establishment in Europe, attracting about 25,000 students. This was in a city of around 100,000 people. It cemented Timbuktu as a world center of learning. But this was a very particular kind of learning that was focused and driven by Islam.
U povratku, Mansa Musa je ovekovečio svoje putovanje izgradnjom džamije u srcu svog carstva. Nasleđe onoga što je ostavio za sobom, Timbuktua, predstavlja jedno od najvećih zbirki pisanog istorijskog materijala koji su proizveli afrički učenjaci: oko 700 000 srednjovekovnih dokumenata, od naučnih radova do pisama, koja su često bila sačuvana u privatnim domaćinstvima. Na svom vrhuncu, u 15. i 16. veku, tamošnji univerzitet je bio podjednako uticajan kao i bilo koja druga obrazovna ustanova u Evropi i privukao je oko 25 000 učenika. Ovo je bio grad od oko 100 000 ljudi. Učvrstio je Timbuktu kao svetski centar učenja. Ali, to je bila naročita vrsta učenja koja je bila usmerena na islam i vođena njime.
And since I first visited Timbuktu, I've visited many other libraries across Africa, and despite Hegel's view that Africa has no history, not only is it a continent with an embarrassment of history, it has developed unrivaled systems for collecting and promoting it. There are thousands of small archives, textile drum stores, that have become more than repositories of manuscripts and material culture. They have become fonts of communal narrative, symbols of continuity, and I'm pretty sure that many of those European philosophers who questioned an African intellectual tradition must have, beneath their prejudices, been aware of the contribution of Africa's intellectuals to Western learning. They must have known of the great North African medieval philosophers who had driven the Mediterranean. They must have known about and been aware of that tradition that is part of Christianity, of the three wise men. And in the medieval period, Balthazar, that third wise man, was represented as an African king. And he became hugely popular as the third intellectual leg of Old World learning, alongside Europe and Asia, as a peer.
Od moje prve posete Timbuktuu posetio sam mnoge druge biblioteke širom Afrike i uprkos Hegelovom gledištu da Afrika nema istoriju, ne samo da je to kontinent sa brukom od istorije, već je razvio i sisteme bez premca za njeno prikupljanje i negovanje. Postoje hiljade malih arhiva, prodavnica tekstilnih bubnjeva, koji su postali više od skladišta rukopisa i materijalnih proizvoda kulture. Postali su izvori narativa zajednica, simboli kontinuiteta, a prilično sam siguran da mora da su mnogi od tih evropskih filozofa koji su dovodili u pitanje afričku intelektualnu tradiciju, ispod svojih predubeđenja bili svesni doprinosa intelektualaca Afike zapadnom učenju. Mora da su znali za velike srednjevekovne filozofe Severne Afrike koji su podsticali Sredozemlje. Mora da su znali ili bili svesni one tradicije koja je deo hrišćanstva, o tri mudraca. U periodu srednjeg veka, Baltazar, treći mudrac, bio je predstavljen kao afrički kralj. Postao je veoma popularan kao treći intelektualni stožer učenja Starog sveta, uz Evropu i Aziju kao ravnopravan.
These things were well-known. These communities did not grow up in isolation. Timbuktu's wealth and power developed because the city became a hub of lucrative intercontinental trade routes. This was one center in a borderless, transcontinental, ambitious, outwardly focused, confident continent. Berber merchants, they carried salt and textiles and new precious goods and learning down into West Africa from across the desert. But as you can see from this map that was produced a little time after the life of Mansa Musa, there was also a nexus of sub-Saharan trade routes, along which African ideas and traditions added to the intellectual worth of Timbuktu and indeed across the desert to Europe. Manuscripts and material culture, they have become fonts of communal narrative, symbols of continuity. And I'm pretty sure that those European intellectuals who cast aspersions on our history, they knew fundamentally about our traditions.
Ove stvari su bile dobro poznate. Ove zajednice nisu rasle u izolaciji. Bogatstvo i moć Timbuktua razvili su se jer je grad postao središte unosnih interkontinentalnih trgovačkih puteva. Bio je to jedan centar na kontinentu bez granica, transkontinentalnom, ambicioznom, samouverenom kontinentu usmerenom ka spolja. Berberski trgovci su prenosili so, tekstil i novu dragocenu robu i učenja u Zapadnu Afriku preko pustinje. Ali, kao što možete videti na ovoj mapi koja je napravljena malo nakon kraja života Manse Muse, takođe je postojao i spoj podsaharskih trgovinskih puteva duž kojih su afričke ideje i tradicije pridodavale intelektualnoj vrednosti Timbuktua, pa čak i preko pustinje do Evrope. Rukopisi i materijalni proizvodi kulture postali su izvori zajedničkog narativa, simboli kontinuiteta. Prilično sam siguran da su ti evropski intelektualci koji su klevetali našu istoriju u suštini znali za naše tradicije.
And today, as strident forces like Ansar Dine and Boko Haram grow popular in West Africa, it's that spirit of truly indigenous, dynamic, intellectual defiance that holds ancient traditions in good stead. When Mansa Musa made Timbuktu his capital, he looked upon the city as a Medici looked upon Florence: as the center of an open, intellectual, entrepreneurial empire that thrived on great ideas wherever they came from. The city, the culture, the very intellectual DNA of this region remains so beautifully complex and diverse, that it will always remain, in part, located in storytelling traditions that derive from indigenous, pre-Islamic traditions. The highly successful form of Islam that developed in Mali became popular because it accepted those freedoms and that inherent cultural diversity. And the celebration of that complexity, that love of rigorously contested discourse, that appreciation of narrative, was and remains, in spite of everything, the very heart of West Africa.
Danas, dok gromkim silama kao što su Ansar Dine i Boko Haram raste popularnost u Zapadnoj Africi, taj duh pravog domaćeg, dinamičnog, intelektualnog prkosa održava stare tradicije u dobrom stanju. Kada je Mansa Musa učinio Timbuktu svojom prestonicom, gledao je na grad kao što je jedan Mediči sagledavao Firencu: kao centar otvorenog, intelektualnog, preduzetničkog carstva koje se razvijalo na dobrim idejama, odakle god da su one dolazile. Grad, kultura, sama intelektualna DNK ove regije ostaje tako lepo složena i raznolika da će uvek delom ostati smeštena u tradicijama pripovedanja koje proističu iz starosedelačkih, preislamskih tradicija. Veoma uspešan oblik islama koji se razvio u Maliju postao je popularan jer je prihvatio te slobode i tu svojstvenu kulturološku raznolikost. Proslava te složenosti, ta ljubav prema strogo osporavanom diskursu, to uvažavanje narativa, bilo je i ostaje, uprkos svemu, samo srce Zapadne Afrike.
And today, as the shrines and the mosque vandalized by Ansar Dine have been rebuilt, many of the instigators of their destruction have been jailed. And we are left with powerful lessons, reminded once again of how our history and narrative have held communities together for millennia, how they remain vital in making sense of modern Africa. And we're also reminded of how the roots of this confident, intellectual, entrepreneurial, outward-facing, culturally porous, tariff-free Africa was once the envy of the world.
Danas, dok su svetilišta i džamije koje je uništio Ansar Dine iznova izgrađivani, mnogi podstrekači njihovog uništenja smešteni su u zatvor. Ostale su nam snažne lekcije da nas još jednom podsete kako su naša istorija i narativ hiljadama godina održavale zajednice ujedinjenim, kako su i dalje od vitalnog značaja za razumevanje savremene Afrike. Takođe nas podsećaju kako je korenima ove samopouzdane, intelektualne, preduzetničke, spolja usmerene, kulturno porozne, bescarinske Afrike nekada zavideo svet.
But those roots, they remain.
Ali, ti koreni opstaju.
Thank you very much.
Hvala vam puno.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)