In most of the the world Timbuktu refers to the former university city and metropolis in northern Mali, long since deprived of its glory. In England it's an expression for any place really distant. But in Sweden the first thing that comes to mind is the hip hop artist.
Yesterday he had an hour on Swedish radio in the annual summer series. A good hour, on racial identity, music and his first encounter with the city he chose as his stage alias.
Here's his talk. Unfortunately the music in the show (which most likely will prove to have been the best selection this summer) is reduced to short previews in the online version.
One interesting part is the one about the old Malian emperor Mansa Mousa's trip to Mecca, during which he singelhandedly started a financial crisis in Egypt by giving away huge amounts of gold, overflowing the local market. I mentioned the same episode (originally told by medieval Egypt historians) in a piece I wrote a couple of years ago on the history of the various Malian empires (in Swedish).
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