![schließen](/images/cookie_close.png)
In the 17th and 18th centuries Dutch settlers shipped thousands of slaves to the Cape Province, including Muslims from Southeast Asia who wrote in Arabic. Interaction with slave owners and native slaves led to the development of various hybrid languages, which can also be found in countless manuscripts. The Tombouctou Manuscripts Projects today aims to identify and decipher these languages. Prof. Dr. Shamil Jeppie and his team have support, among others, from Mauritania, to be more precise, the University of Nouakchott. The goal of such inter-African knowledge transfer is to put each of the manuscripts from Timbuktu in its specific context as regards the history of its creation and circulation, and to tap into the various discourses woven into this unique written legacy of the African continent.