Due to these attacks, many families with the help of state officials began creating plans to protect these documents in their private homes. As the rebel attacks continued, they realized they needed to find an even safer place to protect the ancient manuscripts. Believing that Timbuktu was no longer safe, "We realized we needed to find another solution to take the entirely out of Timbuktu itself. It was very difficult. There were loads of manuscripts. We needed thousands of metal boxes and we didn't have the means to get them out. We needed help from the outside. It was very risky. We evacuated the manuscripts in cars, carts, and canoes. One cart could only take two or three metal boxes at most, so we did it little by little," (BBC.com) says Haidara. All this cost a great deal of money, so it was essential that they found funding. Dr. Haidara, the mastermind of the manuscript rescue, was able to find funding through the Prince Claus Foundation in the Netherlands, the German Foreign Office, and elsewhere.
The rescue efforts were highly successful, and in January of 2013, when two libraries were torched, the manuscripts had already been brought to the capital, Bamako, where they could be guarded, restored, and digitized. Although the documents were locked into safety and couldn't be further destroyed by the rebels, the Malians had one last fear. The Timbuktu climate was dry, hot, and arid, while the Bamako climate was rainy, moist, and humid. What would happen to these priceless indentures which held their entire history and culture of their ancestry in this newly found climate? As this worry grew greater and greater among the Malian people, a final solution was created. Special warehouses were built, with a climate unique to that of Timbuktu's, so the ancient texts could be forever preserved until they day they could be retired safely to their homeland in Timbuktu.
The Ancient Malian Manuscripts in their Current Form
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