Timbuktu, And How A Library Beat Al Qaeda
<p>They called her “Bouctou” — the one with the big belly-button.</p>
<p>When they migrated north in September, the Arab caravans would leave their baggage in her care.</p>
<p>On their way back, they would tell friends of their destination: “We are going to Tin-bouctou,” they would say, the well of Bouctou.</p>
<p>When I was a kid, I hitch-hiked to Timbuktu. Back home, I had I worked in a fast-food restaurant to get the travel money. I had always wanted to go to Africa, and I was captured as a child by that old rhyme:</p>
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