Geo160 EssayTIMBUKTUSince the earliest of my academic career, I have always heard of Timbuktu but neverreally its history or recent events. After watching Abderrahmane Sissako’s Timbuktu film itgave us viewers a much more hands-on experience of what happened there. Timbuktu islocated in Mali which is located in the North-Western part of the African continent. Beforewatching the film I was unaware that Timbuktu had long been the center of Islamicscholarship, art, literature, and music. The film provided a very realistic perspective into howfundamentalist ideology can take over towns and villages leaving devastating impacts oncivilians. I think a large majority of present-day humans are unaware of how thesefundamentalist groups carry out their business. This film definitely opened my eyes to howthey take over and control civilizations with their usage of violence and terror.After reading the assignment two prompts for Timbuktu a few, in particular, caughtmy attention. After finishing this movie has my opinion changed about other Islamic militantgroups such as ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, or even the Taliban? Personally speaking, Iwould say no for a few reasons seen in the movie. Right at the beginning, we see the Tuaregrebels, Ansar Dine infiltrating the city and destroying Timbuktu’s cultural treasures andvalues. Shortly after UNESCO placed Timbuktu, Mali on the endangered list for worldheritage. Due to Timbuktu containing Islamic roots, Ansar Dine declared the Muslim Shrine“haram” followed by planning out to destroy seven of the sixteen mausolea’s. These
