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TRAVEL, Unit 5
TIMBUKTU
Dwayne had just about recovered from the thought of his stay-at-home grandmother being all the
way across the ocean. But one sunny day after her return from England, as Molly and Dwayne
sat comfortably on her deck with lemonade and her legendary home made blueberry cake, Molly
said, "Honey, I've been thinking…." Dwayne got a nervous feeling in his stomach. "I've been to
such wonderful places, but when I think about it, they were all so….. safe." Dwayne's nervous
feeling got significantly stronger. "Please tell me you're not about to fly around the world in a
hot-air balloon!" he laughed, hoping he was telling a joke.
"No….." Molly seemed to be thinking aloud. "Our ancestors and our country…. Well, there is so
much we've done in the past that we shouldn't have, and so much we're not doing now. I want to
see for myself. Now I know I can fly across an ocean and come back safe and sound," she
added, in order to reassure Dwayne who was looking a little pale. "I want to go to Africa.
Dwayne?" But Dwayne couldn't make a sound.
1. List the first 5 things that come to your mind when you think of the continent of Africa.
The first thing Molly thought of was a jungle the way Hollywood used to portray it, ("Me
Tarzan, you Jane".) There are a series of Tarzan books and movies, complete with chimps,
elephants and savages. Tarzan is a manly, Caucasian jungle-man who had been raised by apes.
Jane is the beautiful, American woman on safari who is repeatedly rescued by Tarzan.
2. Is there anything demeaning about the Tarzan stories?
3. How would you change the characters and/or plot?
Molly loved the thought of being in a place filled with exotic animals, but her journey was about
people. When she considered how far she was traveling, both in miles and culture, even Molly
got a little nervous. There is only one African country with a name you could mistake for hers -Mali! The only familiar name to Molly in Mali was the town of Timbuktu. This is only because
there was a popular song in the 50's called "Kalamazoo and Timbuktu." (It had nothing to do
with Africa, but just used those places as a funny way to rhyme a love song.) So she got up her
courage by telling herself that she was flying to a town she'd heard of for years in a nation with
her own name.
4. Why would this help calm her nerves?
5. What do you think of Molly's unusual way of deciding where to go on her trip?
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6. If you were going to a new place (or prison), what would calm your nerves?
7. On this map of the world, find Maine, Massachusetts, California, England and Africa. If
there were 5 different courses, one for each of these places, which one would you sign up
for? Why?
Mali is a very poor country which is in the Sahara Desert of northwest Africa. Its economy is
based primarily on farming, making it highly dependent on adequate rainfall. Social ills,
including a literacy rate of only 23 % and a high population growth rate, also contribute to Mali's
poverty. Life in the desert is hard. There is a constant search for water, the 120 degree heat is
searing, and sand storms lash the eyes.
The desert is all around Timbuktu. Its sands sweep through the city center. The nearest
encampment with camels and tents is only 20 minutes away by foot. There are over 17,000
people living in Timbuktu, and its inhabitants include Arabs, Berbers, Songhai, Mossi
Toucouleur, Bambara, Bela, Malinke, Fulani, Moors and Tuaregs.
8. What are the advantages and disadvantages of a city with inhabitants from so many
different cultures?
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9. In this environment, what would you do for work, for food and for entertainment?
10. Would you rather live in a climate that is too hot, or one that is too cold. Why?
In Timbuktu's market, you can find anything from a favorite drink of sour milk, crushed millet
and honey, to fricassee of crocodile. The streets are bare and dusty, but if you peer into the
courtyards of the richer houses you might see obese women lying on the ground or on low
couches. Obesity in women is admired, as a symbol of wealth. To maintain such girth in a
desert climate requires mountains of food. Only the very rich can afford the luxury of a wife so
large that she has to be carried by servant girls.
11. Compare the gap between upper and lower class life in Timbuktu vs. the U.S.
There are two bookshops, the Evangelical Library and the Librairie Populaire du Mali, in the
principal square, but sales cannot be high. Newspaper is at a premium, and is very useful for
wrapping fish, meat or vegetables in the market. More serious and substantial ideological books,
may eventually have their pages are passed on to the market. They are used for wrapping little
packages of dye, chili pepper, snuff, chewing tobacco, the crushed leaves of the baobab tree, or
charms to counteract djinns.
After Molly arrived, her first step was to learn about the history of the area. The first thing she
learned was that Timbuktu can be spelled in several different ways, Tombouctou, for one.
(We'll use the familiar American spelling in this Unit.)
12. Come up with 2 other ways to spell Timbuktu.
13. If you could name a town, what name would you choose and why?
Timbuktu was famous for its natural salt supply, and the salt was traded for gold of equal weight.
It seems unlikely that those two would be of equal worth, but you can’t live without salt. Bodies
require salt to function, and in the days before refrigeration, it was used to preserve meat.
Are you wondering why so much salt wound up in the Sahara Desert? Here's a hint – the fossil
of the shell of a very ancient sea creature called a Trilobite was found in the bone-dry Sahara.
Another fossil discovered in this same environment is this stone carving of a giraffe.
14. How could the fossil of an ancient sea creature end up in the desert?
15. What fossils have been found in different parts of the world?
The trade of salt was in the hands of the Tuareg, kel tadalete or "Blue Men", for their robes of
indigo, sapphire, and cobalt, which stand out brilliantly in the yellow desert. Both sexes wear
flowing blue robes and elaborate silver jewelry, and the women decorate the soles of their feet
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with henna and their eyes with kohl. Tuareg people still live in the desert, though today many
drive Land Rovers instead of camels.
Here's a warning about camels – they spit. They are trained to kneel down for you to get on
their backs. You lock one leg around the saddle and brace yourself. A camel gets up front legs
first and if you are not holding on for dear life, you will not stay on for very long. To get a camel
to start, you kick it on the shoulder with your free leg and say “Hut-hut!” If the camel feels like
it, she will start. If she doesn’t, she will spit.
16. What are 3 advantages and 3 disadvantages of a camel vs a Land Rover? Which one
would you want and why?
To exchange gold and salt, Arab traders would first meet with the villagers from Timbuctoo who
would lead them to a specific trading spot. They would beat drums to signal opening of the
market, and pile their salt in rows, each trader using his own special marks. Then the traders
would pull back from the trading site, (up to a half-day's journey away), and the miners would
arrive in their boats with gold. They would heap gold beside each pile of salt. Then they would
beat their drums and leave.
The traders would come back and, if satisfied, collect the gold and leave, again beating on drums
to signal that the business was concluded. If the traders were not satisfied with the gold left by
their salt piles, they would retreat once more, hoping the miners would add to the amount of
gold. Such action would continue until a bargain was struck. When the traders took the gold, the
miners would then leave with the salt. It was known as “The Silent Trade”.
17. Why do you suppose that the trade took place like that? Why wouldn’t it be easier to
sit down together and make a deal?
18. Compare this kind of trading to the trading of cash for stocks and bonds in this
country.
19. Compare them both to the "trading" that goes on among prisoners.
The trade route crossed the wastes of the Sahara which had to be navigated almost like a sea.
Surrounding the desert were inland "ports", places where caravans of up to 12,000 camels would
form to travel together to a common destination. Traveling in groups was necessary as protection
against robbery along the way. Using the stars or familiar rocks, pilots would guide the caravans
along routes that took them to oases, where they could replenish their water supplies. These
slow-moving processions could take up to six months to reach their destination, another inland
"port" across the desert.
20. Describe walking in the sand of the Sahara vs. walking on a beach.
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21. Use 3 words to describe a desert and 3 words to describe a beach.
22. After what you've learned about Mali, Timbuctoo and the Sahara, design and draw a
postcard for Molly to send home to Dwayne.
Mineral resources, gold and salt, were the major reason for the trade that built the wealth and
power of the West African kingdoms of Mali, Ghana and Songhai. The location of these
kingdoms gave them access to generous supplies of both these valuable resources.
23. Name 3 uses for gold, and name 3 for salt.
The resources of this area eventually attracted the attention of the rest of the world. The English
came, then the French, Germans, Russians and the Chinese. Some of the first Europeans to go
there were killed because the locals were not open to outsiders, especially people who did not
practice the Islamic faith. The first European to return alive from Timbuctoo went dressed as a
poor Arab. He was not too impressed with the area, writing, The city presented, at first sight,
nothing but a mass of ill-looking houses, built of earth. Nothing was to be seen in all directions,
but immense quicksands of yellowish white color ….. the most profound silence prevailed.
24. If you were an explorer meeting foreign people on foreign land for the first time, how
would you convey to them, "I come in peace".
Judith Matlloff (from the newspaper, The Christian Science Monitor) reported, Mali's "blue men"
of the desert have a word for their ancient nomadic life - adima, or "very far from town." These
wandering camel herders known as the Tuareg have various phrases for sand and wind. But the
Tuareg language lacks the vocabulary to describe their current condition: "displaced" and "lost
roots".
Thousands of Tuareg fled Mali in 1990 when some of their more radical brothers rose up in a
rebellion backed by Libya. They fled as much as a month into the desert, traveling at night, using
the stars to navigate by. They settled in refugee camps in neighboring countries, waiting for
peace to come. A 1992 peace accord finally achieved calm, and they have been straggling back
since, hoping to resume their old lives. But with the loss of their animals and new sedentary
habits learned in the camps, many members of this 1,000-year-old culture are going through
what the West would describe as an identity crisis The Tuareg are caught between economic
necessity and a yearning for the old ways.
25. Explain where else in the world this situation exists.
26. Explain where this situation exists in the U.S.
Instead of roaming with their herds deep into the desert, many Tuareg now hover around the
outskirts of this ancient trading post. They live off United Nations handouts, staying close to
wells and make a living selling camel rides and leather handicrafts to tourists.
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Some foreign observers say this coming to terms with the 20th century will ensure the survival of
one of Africa's genuine nomadic groups, known as the blue men. Since the Tuaregs began
returning, there have been some incidents of banditry and prejudice from the days when Tuaregs
stormed in on camels to raid the town. But by all accounts, their reentry into society has been
fairly easy, with other Malians accepting their return with little hostility. But the erosion of old
ways has divided many Tuareg families. They would like to go back to the nomadic life but
agree it is important for children to be able to receive an education in schools. Chief Aly
Moubaye, who presides over a desert settlement of 200 people, said: The UN gives us food. God
gives us hope to bring back the old days.
27.Write an essay, story or poem about the Tuaregs, either their past or current life.
Timbuktu is still very simple in its way of life. Some people would think, "What a shame that
these people don't have a modern civilization". On the other hand, some people envy this old
fashioned way of life, surrounded by the silence of the great desert.
28. What are 3 great things about a city, and 3 great things about a quiet, secluded place?
29. Which city and what quiet place would you choose to go to and why?
One difference between life in the United States vs. Mali is that the death penalty in Mali was
abolished in 1997. Prison conditions generally (according to The United States State
Department) are described this way:
Prison conditions are poor, and the judicial system's large case backlog results in long
periods of pretrial detention…. characterized by overcrowding, inadequate medical
facilities, and limited food supplies. Juvenile offenders are usually held in the same
prison as adult offenders but are kept in separate cells. Women are housed in the same
prison facility as men but live in a separate compound. In extreme cases, individuals
have remained several years in prison before coming to trial. Local lawyers have
estimated that about half of prison inmates are pretrial detainees. Bail does not exist. On
occasion the authorities release defendants on their own recognizance.
One African who was incarcerated in the United States was a refugee slave from the South.
Slavers had brought him to America from West Africa – his hometown was Timbuktu. It was in
1850 that the first miners started to pan along the Yuba at what was to be known as Timbuktu,
and this slave was included in a party of miners. He was a hard worker and when he discovered
the yellow metal in his pan, he asked if he could call the place Timbuktu. They agreed and the
town received the name, (with some American changes in spelling.) The town grew steadily until
it became home to 1,200 people. Then the gold ran out and Timbuktu became a ghost town. In
New Jersey, one of the stops on the Underground Railroad was a town named Timbuktu! Maybe
another slave from Mali brought that town its name.
30. How would you compare slavery vs. African imprisonment, and both to incarceration
in the United States?
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Prior to the Civil War, slaves escaped from southern plantations and made their way to the
Underground Railroad by means of the constellation, the Big Dipper ("Drinking Gourd") and the
North Star. A carpenter called Peg Leg Joe, (the "old man"), traveled from farm to farm and
plantation to plantation, teaching slaves a song that would remind them of his instructions to find
their way northward.
When the Sun comes back
And the first quail calls
Follow the Drinking Gourd.
For the old man is a-waiting for to carry you to freedom
If you follow the Drinking Gourd.
The riverbank makes a very good road.
The dead trees will show you the way.*
Left foot, peg foot, traveling on,
Follow the Drinking Gourd.
The river ends between two hills
Follow the Drinking Gourd.
There's another river on the other side
Follow the Drinking Gourd.
When the great big river meets the little river**
Follow the Drinking Gourd.
For the old man is a-waiting for to carry you to freedom
If you follow the drinking gourd.
*Dead trees were used as markers with charcoal and mud drawings of a peg leg and a foot.
**At the confluence of the Tennessee River and the Ohio River (over 800 miles north of Mobile,
Alabama), Underground Railroad guides would meet fugitive slaves on the northern bank and
transport them to safer regions. A slave who left a farm or plantation in southern Alabama or
Mississippi in the winter would arrive at the Ohio river about a year later, the best time to cross,
when one could simply walk across the ice.
31. Why were these directions given in the form of a song?
32. Where else do people navigate using the stars?
For the many African Americans who lived in the Slave States prior to and during the American
Civil War, the Underground Railroad provided the opportunity and assistance for escaping
slavery and finding freedom. One of the most curious characteristics of the Underground
Railroad was its lack of formal organization. No one knows exactly when it started, but there
were certainly isolated cases of help given to runaways as early as the 1700's. By the early 19th
century, there were organized flights to freedom. Much of the early help was provided by Quaker
abolitionists in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
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33. Why would those abolitionists have been part of the Underground Railroad when it
meant severe punishment if they were captured?
34. What do today's "abolitionists" oppose?
A National Geographic article [Charles H. Blockson, Escape from Slavery: The Underground
Railroad] says: it was a network of paths through the woods and fields, river crossings, boats
and ships, trains and wagons, all haunted by the specter of recapture.
35. Write a entry in the diary (a first-person account) of an escaped slave.
36. Write a entry in the diary of an abolitionist working for the Underground Railroad.
As she had hoped, in coming to Mali, Molly did learn about African people. But it was a story
she already knew and it was the story of all people. At any time in history, anywhere in the
world, people destroy and they create; they thrive and they suffer; they attack and they live in
harmony. She came home overwhelmed at the history, culture and land of just this one small
corner of the continent of Africa. Nothing here was common to her home in Maine, it had
seemed, but she came back filled with the awareness of her membership in The Family of Man.
Maybe it was time to stop traveling, she thought, and start working for a peaceful planet.
One thing she learned, she told Dwayne, was this poem:
Salt comes from the north
Gold Comes from the south
Money comes from the country of the white peoples
But the word of God, knowledge, stories, and nice folk tales
Can only be found in Timbuktu.
He was very proud of her!
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1. Look at the map below: Molly will be travelling from Bar Harbor to Brunswick. Why
would this be called "down east?"
Maine is known as the "Pine Tree State" for obvious reasons. We Mainers are referred to as
"Maineiacs," again for obvious reasons. Our license plates say "Vacationland" (meaning give us
your tourist dollars.)
2. What is your state called? What nickname does your state or its residents have?
3. What word would rhyme with your state if you were writing a poem about it?
When Molly opened her
Guide to Maine, she looked at
this map very carefully.
4. What is the capital city of
Maine?
5. What Canadian provinces
border Maine on the
northeast and which on the
northwest?
6. If you crossed the border
into Canada what differences
would you notice?
7. What's a popular inland
vacation spot in summer?
What's the snowiest?
8. What would you do in Bar Harbor in the summer? In Presque Isle in the winter?
9. Would you like to visit Maine? Explain.
10- Name all the states in our country that begin with the letter M.
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Victor didn’t care if he was a "Boy" -- he wanted adventure. He got it. World travel, hurricanes,
typhoons, and finally---shipwreck. On November 8, 1889, Victor’s sister wrote the following
letter from Philadelphia to Arthur Sewall’s shipyard in Bath:
Gentlemen:
I write to you in the greatest anxiety for news of my brother Victor who was on board
your ship Chesborough when she was wrecked. We have heard that four are saved. Who are
they? I am so anxious and anything at all which you are able to tell us—especially if you could
assure us of his safety—would be most gratefully received..
Hoping for an early reply, I am,
Yours Very Truly, Leonora Boeck
In the days before telephones and e-mail, it must have been very hard for people to have to wait
to find out what had happened to someone they loved.
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