Haidara entered the traditional dwelling stitched together from goat skins and sat on the ground in the semi-darkness.
Haidara made small talk.
Haidara ran out to the market and returned with half of slaughtered lamb and a kilogram bag of tea.
Haidara could not accept it.
Haidara heard a knock on his door.
Haidara handed out the equivalent of thousands of dollars-- Kuwait and Saudi Arabia had subsidized the effort-- and left with more than 1,000 manuscripts.
Haidara headed back up river to Timbuktu, his boat riding low in the water, weighed down with foot lockers and piles of camel skin sacks.
Haidara , meanwhile, was growing despondent the library he had dreamed of creating for five years was going nowhere.
Haidara , a bushy haired and youthful 33-year-old nods.
Haidara expressed his gratitude.
When Haidara stepped outside the hut later that morning, he stared in astonishment.
Abdel Kader Haidara had a unique story, a pretty extraordinary story.
"People also sensed that Haidara was playing fair.
'No,' Haidara said. Haidara gave him 100,000 CFA.
Couldn't find Haidara at that time.
low-tech smuggling operation that Abdel Kader Haidara then engaged in, because he believed that at some point-- although they had not specifically threatened
'I'm from Timbuktu,' replied Haidara in Tamasheq, the language of the Tuaregs.
Haidara opened the trunk and poured through the volumes.
It was, Haidara realized, a masterpiece.
Haidara said.
For hours, Haidara gave Gates a tutorial on Timbuktu's literary heritage, describing the rise of the University of Sankore and its illustrious roster of biographers, jurists,
Gates said when Haidara informed him several months later that the library was complete.
A few months later, Haidara again called Gates at Harvard.
'I need another grant to build another library,' Haidara said.
Luckily, Haidara had not yet started moving is manuscripts into the new library.
And he has made contact with Abdel Kader Haidara .
asked Haidara .
In the murkiness before dawn, Haidara could barely see what was lying there.
And he and the film crew follow his guide through the back alleys to Haidara 's house.
A big delegation of Americans is here in Timbuktu,' Gates' guide informed Haidara on the morning of the Harvard professor's arrival.
'I know,' Haidara said, 'but there was a slight miscalculation.'
During that trip, I met this gentleman, Abdul Kader Haidara .
And as they sat eating in the sand with the man's family, Haidara gently broached the subject of the manuscripts.
asked Haidara .
In his first year of work at the Ahmed Baba Institute, Haidara managed to acquire as many manuscripts as the previous team of eight prospectors
Haidara sensed that the visit could be an opportunity for him.
Haidara lay down a carpet and gathered the best manuscripts in his Timbuktu collection.
Gates asked Haidara in a scene captured on camera.
'We can't do that without first having a building,' Haidara replied.
asked Gates, still annoyed by Haidara 's high-handedness.
As Haidara explained it, after many years of little or no rainfall in Timbuktu,
And of course, that was a high point for Haidara .
After nearly being run out of Gorma Rharous, the first town he visited, Haidara returned there a year later.
So Gates gets to Timbuktu, and shows up with a certain plan, has never heard of Haidara , has a certain plan of going to the mosque and filming there.
"But when they reach their hotel, their translator guide, and acquaintance of Haidara , approached them with a different proposal.
Not a word was spoken about Haidara 's stymied
Three months later, on the strength of Gates' recommendation, the Mellon Foundation awarded Haidara grant of nearly $100,000 for the creation of a new manuscript center in Timbuktu.
The whole situation was so quote 'absurd' unquote, said Gates, and Haidara 's demand for more money so audacious that it evoked more amusement than outrage.
On January 13th, 2000, in a ceremony attended by many luminaries, the Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library officially opened its doors to the world."
And by then, that was when I said, yeah, this story, with all the background, and Haidara 's life, and the rise of jihadism in North Africa, I said, you know,