Policy Brief

Mali has been in a situation of armed conflict for the past two years or thereabout. Existing knowledge shows that during such moments of armed conflicts insurgents direct their attacks on essential national infrastructure and assets as part of their larger strategy of making the society ungovernable and overthrowing those managing it. Hence, what every government in war does is to provide maximum security for these infrastructure which include essential roads, bridges, water and sewer systems, airports, ports, and public buildings such as schools, health facilities, prisons, recreation facilities, electric power production, fire safety, waste disposal, and communications services. These facilities are specially protected because the society cannot run without them. Recent experience in Mali, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region suggests that the time is ripe for the definition of national infrastructure to be protected during armed conflict to be more sharply broadened beyond the narrow confines of the security of the nation’s public work. There is the need to prioritise cultural property on the list of what should be protected given its relevance to the continuity of humankind. This conclusion derives from some policy gaps evident in the damage caused to cultural property by the rebels in Mali. The situation reminds us of some existing international Conventions on the protection of cultural property and their questioned effectiveness in situations of armed conflict.

Lessons from Cultural Security in Mali

The Experience in Mali

In the Western Africa, Mali is one of the few countries with living evidence of human civilisation dating from the Middle Palaeolithic to modern times. The legendary Ghana, Mali, Shongay, Mossi and Segou kingdoms and empires taught in African History evolved from it. Hence, it has several historic and archaeological sites and a large collection of manuscripts, theological and scientific treaties dating back to the pre-Islamic era. So significant are the cultural property of the country that since the late 1980s UNESCO had to submit some of the cultural sites to its World Heritage List. These include some traditional toguere-built houses at the old town of Djenne; three main mosques, Djingareyber, Sankore and Sidi Yahia as well as 16 cemeteries and mausoleums in the city of Timbuktu; the tomb of Askia the great; the cliff of Bandiagana and several other cultural sites of historical significance.

One would have expected such cultural patrimony to be adequately protected during the armed conflicts in Mali given some existing Conventions on the protection of cultural property in situations of armed conflict. The most significant of these Conventions are the 1954 Hague Convention on Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and the 1970 UNESCO Convention which recognise the significance of cultural patrimony in armed conflict and foreign affairs. First and foremost, both Conventions expect belligerents in situations of armed conflict to show respect for cultural property. It is unfortunate that the rebels in Mali did not show any respect for these Conventions. The government of Mali also lacked enough capacity to provide the kind of protection expected of it.

Hence, as the armed conflict in the country started in 2012, fourteen of the Timbuktu mausoleums and exotic manuscript centres, including those that are part of the UNESCO World Heritage, were damaged by the rebels who took over the northern part of the country and established an unrecognized Islamist state in the region of Azawad. They tagged cultural property unIslamic (haram). In addition to damaging them and burning historic manuscripts, the Islamists prohibited all cultural practices and expressions. So impactful was the onslaught that by August 2012, the UNESCO World Heritage Collection (WHC) had to put the city of Timbuktu and the Tomb of Askia in Mali on the list of World Heritage in Danger (Varoutsikos 2012:2). To arrest the situation, UNESCO is currently working with the Malian Ministry of Culture to restore the damaged infrastructure.

The damage to the cultural property in Mali was preceded by some warning signs; it did not come suddenly. If the capacity was not lacking, the needed protection could have been organized. For example, the BBC News of June 3, 2013 reported that before the Islamists arrived to carry out their final onslaught, some of the exotic manuscripts in the libraries were ferried into safety by Dr Abdel Kader Haidara, owner of one of Timbuktu's biggest private libraries, containing manuscripts dating back to the 16th Century in the country. He was assisted by other big book-owning families, together with officials of the state-run Ahmed Baba Institute to hide the major collections in private homes. Hence when the Islamists set fire on two key libraries in Timbuktu, some important documents were spared from the inferno for the future generation.

Work in Progress

Plate 1 below shows some of the manuscripts in metal boxes taking into safe custody before the arrival of the rebels while Plate 2 shows some archivists foraging through the burnt manuscripts to identify what is left to be salvaged.

Source: BBC News Magazine, 3 June 2013, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22704960