Douglas, Thanks for the information. One of my ancestors was brought here from Guinea, and was a descendant of the Mali. Her people are the Malinke one of the ruling tribes of Guinea. I did quite a bit of research on the Mali and Sondiata Keita, and on Timbuctu. They were a literate and cultured people, who were brought down by invasions and wars. Anita -- "J. Douglas Deal" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: If we're adding West Virginia to this list, maybe we should take Mali off. Its major city Timbuktu has incredible old libraries of materials in Arabic, holdings that tell major parts of the world's history told nowhere else--not even on Google. See: http://www.sum.uio.no/research/mali/timbuktu/ Douglas Deal Professor of History and Chair of History Department State University of New York at Oswego Oswego, NY 13126 [log in to unmask] (315)-312-5632 To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html