Centre for Research and Documentation in Trans-Sahara Studies

The Sahara has never been a barrier so much as a meeting place. Trade in salt, kola, cloth and books ran across it for centuries, and with it went languages, faiths, ideas and people. The Centre studies that world as one region rather than as two, which is why its work draws on history, linguistics, economics and anthropology together.

Its documentation work is the other half of the Centre’s purpose: the manuscripts, letters, maps and oral accounts of the trans-Sahara are scattered and easily lost, and the Centre collects, describes and preserves them so that they remain available to scholars.

• The history of the trans-Sahara routes, and of the states and empires that grew along them.
• The languages of the region, their documentation and their translation.
• Trade and migration across the Sahara, past and present.
• Documentation and archives: the collection, description and preservation of the region’s manuscripts and records.