Google Arts & Culture announces Mali Magic & Timbuktu manuscripts

Mali Magic, a digital treasure trove aimed at preserving and showcasing Mali’s historic and contemporary art and culture, was launched today by Google.

Google Arts & Culture has been collaborating with local and international organizations (see list below) since 2015 to digitize, curate, and share Mali’s incredible stories and rich heritage.

Google Arts & Culture identified four key pillars of Malian culture – manuscripts, music, monuments, and modern art – and collaborated closely with local communities and experts to digitally document the country’s rich art, architecture, scholarship, and musical tradition, as well as to share stories of its resilience in the face of political struggles with the rest of the world.

With the launch of Mali Magic, people from all over the world will be able to view an array of manuscripts, music, art, and heritage sites, including over 40,000+ digitised endangered manuscripts, many of which were smuggled to safety during the country’s political unrest. It also includes the first online, interactive tours of some of Mali’s most important historic sites, at-risk mausoleums, and mosques, including the Sidi Yahiya and Djinguereber Mosques and the Tomb of Askia, all created using Street View.

Google Arts & Culture also collaborated with DJ Spooky (Paul Miller), an artist and musician, to create short videos that explore the evolution of storytelling from West Africa to the American blues.

Maliba, an original album by Malian singer-songwriter Fatoumata Diawara, was created exclusively for the project and was produced in Mali and written about the country’s cultural legacy. The collection also includes a plethora of videos and images that document Mali’s contemporary art scene and feature some of its artists.

According to Chance Coughenour, Program Manager and Digital Archaeologist at Google Arts & Culture: “The Malian city of Timbuktu gave birth to a wealth of knowledge in the fields of human rights, morality, politics, astronomy, and literature, which is preserved in thousands of manuscripts.” When extremist groups threatened this ancient knowledge in 2012, local communities raced against the clock to save these treasures. This legacy is now accessible to people all over the world.”

“[They] are more than important historical documents,” said Dr. Abdel Kader Haidara, the ‘badass librarian’ known for smuggling the manuscripts out of Timbuktu. They are central to the heritage of the West African nation of Mali, representing Africa’s long legacy of written knowledge and academic excellence, and have the potential to inspire global learning from historical actions in confronting modern-day issues.”

“The preservation of global heritage is a massive undertaking,” Coughenour adds, “and many experts, NGOs, and cultural institutions work in this space and do an incredible job.” “It is an honor for us to provide our partners with the technology that allows their work to be accessible to people all over the world,” he concludes.

Highlight content available in the Mali Magic project:

• 40 000+ assets digitised manuscript pages
• 50+ exhibits on Mali heritage – manuscripts, music, monuments & contemporary art
• First ever Street View capture in Mali of 9 heritage sites
• 3D model and annotated tour of Djenne Mosque
• 1 music album, Maliba, by Fatoumata Diawara

Organisations working in partnership with Google Arts & Culture on the Mali project include:

SAVAMA – Manuscript Digitization & Curation which aims to preserve and enhance the Timbuktu Arabic manuscripts that constitute the Islamic cultural heritage of Mali, Africa’s collective memory and part of the world’s heritage.

Timbuktu Renaissance which aims to leverage Mali’s and Timbuktu’s heritage and living culture to promote peace and prosperity.

UNESCO which has published two stories of its efforts to reconstruct mausoleums and ancestral heritage sites targeted during the conflict.

Instruments 4 Africa, a non-profit organisation committed to cultural preservation, I4A supports artists to keep their practises alive so they can continue to empower their communities.

Brooklyn Public Library which hosted the launch.