 AP Photo For many people, Timbuktu has long represented the essence of remoteness: a mythical, faraway place located on the boundaries of our collective consciousness. But like many of the myths associated with colonialism, the reality is very different. TAGGED: Timbuktu, Mali, AfricaRECOMMENDED ARTICLES| When it comes to distant destinations, no name is quite so evocative, so utterly haunting, as Timbuktu. Used by us all to connote a far-flung spot off all the maps, it’s somewhere that a great deal of Americans don’t... more ›› |
| Today’s Puritans are the Salafists, who follow the strict Wahhabi form of Islam practised in Saudi Arabia, and equate mystical Sufism with black magic. more ›› |
| Global powers, both new and old, are jostling for influence in Africa. This renewed ‘scramble for Africa’, to borrow a term from history, is largely to gain access to increasingly scarce natural resources such as oil... more ›› |
| On her trip to Africa earlier this month, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made the case for US companies as effective commercial partners that can help facilitate broad-based economic growth on the continent. “The... more ›› |
| Of course history repeats itself—constantly. Only, every once in a while the players change. Then these players, the big boys of history you might say, do exactly what their antecedents (many of them old enemies) used to do, or... more ›› |
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