War in Mali: Destruction of Timbuktu Monuments

Abstract

The historical and cultural heritage of the region contains a powerful potential for its preservation and development. The more vividly colored the cultural specificity of the region, more precisely, the cultural peculiarity (and isolation) of the people living in the territory of this region, the greater the historical depth of the cultural tradition that determines the specifics of the population of the region, the more stable the local subculture (in this context, the totality of people having common features of culture and corresponding identity), the more cohesive, more stable the social group. The destruction of the historical cultural heritage, the discrediting of culture, the destruction of the cultural symbols of a particular social community inevitably entails the blurring of its boundaries, the destruction of stable social ties, and the loss of collectively shared values. During the armed confrontation between government troops and jihadist gangs in the Republic of Mali, jihadists captured the ancient cultural capital of the Sahel, the city of Timbuktu. Islamists destroyed ancient mosques and mausoleums, burned ancient manuscripts and libraries in which they were stored. It was an attempt to prevent the formation of a single national community and to prevent the creation of a multicultural nation-state.