It is perhaps surprising that a place as comparatively close to Europe as West Africa should remain more or less unknown long after the colonization of the Americas. Indeed, it was not until 1828 that the first European saw Timbuktu and lived to tell the tale. (Continue...)

		Ghana and Mali empires, the Great Mosques of Djenne and Sankore, the ancient city of Jenne-jeno				Gates recounts his visit to Dogon and reflects on the discovery of ancient manuscripts
		Modern-day slavery and Ancient African intellectual achievement at Timbuktu				The oral tradition of the Griots