Libraries are a treasure trove of stories, history, and a collection of books that you will not find anywhere else and a perfect embodiment of the importance of books in our lives and why reading matters. Many of them look fabulous and loom over their surrounding locations, as if to say, “This is what really matters.” They are also the perfect juxtaposition of the old books with the new and the combination form the best perfume and a sensation that you may not find anywhere else. If you are crazy enough you can travel to Dubai and visit the perfume man who creates the perfume smell of the things we love. Wouldn’t that be an experience in and itself even though it sounds wildly crazy?

If you have ever visited a library on a  warm summer’s day then you may encountered a book that you have never seen or heard about before but once you began reading the book you didn’t want to put it back on the shelve and a few hours visit turns into a whole day and perhaps even trying to sleep there. Although, you realize you have to take the book home and then you result to borrowing. Is there a better place to daydream and get inspired. Libraries are a great institution but with books being easier to access online people are finding it no longer necessary to go to the library. But until online can give us that library perfume experience we will be here for library visits. Here are our top ten libraries in Africa that are worth a visit.

1. Timbuktu Manuscript Libraries | Mali

Timbuktu’s main library, officially called the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Islamic Studies and Research, is a treasure house containing more than 40,000 manuscripts covering centuries of Mali’s history and the manuscripts are amongst Africa’s greatest written legacy. Named after the famous medieval writer and scholar, the manuscripts are housed in a purpose-built 4,600 sq metre (50,000 sq ft) complex completed in 2009. Designed by South African architects and replacing a crumbling 40-year-old building, the new institute features air conditioning to preserve the manuscripts and an automatic fire-fighting system.

During the conflict of 2012–2013, more than 4,000 of the 40,000 manuscripts kept at the Ahmed Baba Institute were lost. Some were burnt or stolen, while more than 10,000 remained in a critical condition. The inhabitants of Timbuktu helped save their precious heritage by secretly spiriting away more than 300,000 manuscripts to the capital, Bamako. Other texts were sheltered between mud walls or buried. Some manuscripts are owned by local families and form part of the heritage of Mali and the world. They have been kept in private libraries for centuries. After some manuscripts were exported by colonizers, the families began hiding their documents again, creating underground passageways or rooms hidden behind walls in their homes. Some of these collections can be found in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Fonds Archinard, Fonds Oumarien, which can be consulted through Gallica).

The oldest manuscripts date from the 11th century and the most recent from the 20th century. Some families have built up important libraries. The most learned and the richest appealed to copyists and calligraphers to enrich their libraries. The copyists were also calligraphers. Copyists still ply their trade today.

Hassan al-Wazzan, known as Leo Africanus, reported that the book trade was the most important in Timbuktu: “We sell many that come from the Berbers [Maghreb]. We receive more profit from these sales than from any other goods.” A number of professions were required in the production of manuscripts, using various manufacturing techniques and materials.

The manuscripts are the city’s huge and priceless cultural heritage, a legacy of its medieval status and bear witness to the richness of African history and intellectual life.

       2.  Port Elizabeth Main Library | South Africa

The splendid old Port Elizabeth Main Library is situated in the North-Western corner of Market Square. Port Elizabeth News Society established a public subscription library in 1845. Initially meeting in a small room, the organization quickly generated enough money to purchase the entire facility.

The government then rented the building as a courthouse for half a century before demolition and replacing it with the current facility. This facility opened on July 31, 1902. In the 1960’s, plans were mooted to demolish the building in order to make way for the erection of a Provincial Administration block, which would include space for a Provincial Library Service. Fortunately, this never happened, and in 1983, the building was declared a historic monument.

Today it is the only historic building in South Africa built as a Public Library which is still functioning as a public library. In 1965, after a public referendum was held, the assets of the Port Elizabeth Public Library and the North End Library were handed over to the Port Elizabeth Municipality and, together with the assets of the Walmer Library, formed the nucleus of the municipal Port Elizabeth Public Libraries.

       3. Kenya National Library | Kenya

Kenya National Library Kenya is a state corporation established by an Act of Parliament Cap 225 of the Laws of Kenya (1965) to provide library and information services to the Kenyan public. Its Board is currently under the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage. The library’s headquarters is located at the Maktaba Kuu Building in Nairobi. At inception the headquarters the library was housed in a temporary building where it opened its doors to the public in 1969. This stunning structure was restored and reopened in 2020.

The restored Kenya National Library’s welcome desk is ornamented with relief sculptures of drums, emphasizing the building’s central motif and the significance of drums in African culture. The library’s unique features include a 300-seat children’s theatre. It has a 50-seat senior citizen section, and four auditoriums with 1,200 people. It’s one of the African Libraries that has a design that has room to exhibit the work of local authors and artists. The library also has a section for disabled patrons. You will find books and other materials available in various formats, including Braille, audiobooks, and large print. Additionally, the Sanaa Centre, a 500-seat gallery, is open for local artists to exhibit their work.

       4. AddisQelem Library | Ethiopian

A cutting-edge library in Addis Ababa and was officially opened in January 2022. with over 1.15 billion books in its collection. It is a 19,000-square-meter state-of-the-art library that holds 1.4 million volumes, 15 terabytes of manuscripts (240,000 eBooks) & a 1.5km long bookshelf. It serves 3,500 people at a time. It includes approximately 240,000 paperless books and 300,000 essays for parents and children to read together. 

The library features a children’s reading and sleeping area, sufficient Braille volumes for the blind, a contemporary canteen and conference room, eight book and associated businesses, an amphitheater and playground, and secure parking for 115 automobiles at a time. 

       5. National Library | South Africa

The country’s first library was founded in 1818, is the custodian of South Africa’s collective national heritage materials and the national depository of published output materials in the country. The library is mandated by the National Library of South Africa Act to collect and preserve published documents and make them accessible to all and to ensure that knowledge is not lost to posterity. The National Library of South Africa, as we know it today, was formed on November 1st. 1999 as a result of the amalgamation of the two former national libraries: the South African Library in Cape Town and the State Library in Pretoria. The collections of the library contain a wealth of information, including rare manuscripts, books published in South Africa, periodicals, government publications, official foreign publications, maps, technical reports, Africana and newspapers.

In 1873 it was designated as a legal deposit library for the Cape Colony, getting copies of all works published there. There was an expansion of the library’s legal deposit requirement to span the entire country in 1916. The library now has one of the most remarkable and comprehensive collections on the continent.

       6. Al-Qarawiyyin Library | Morroco

The al-Qarawiyyin Library in Fez, Morocco is the oldest working library in the world, founded in 859 CE. The library was founded by Fatima Muhammad Al-Fihri Al-Quraysh. In March 2016 the library re-open after months of restoration. The al-Qarawiyyin, which includes a mosque, library, and university, was founded by Fatima El-Fihriya, the daughter of a rich immigrant from al-Qayrawan modern day Tunisia.

The al-Qarawiyyin Library was created by a woman, challenging commonly held assumptions about the contribution of women in Muslim civilization. Well educated and devout, she vowed to spend her entire inheritance on building a mosque and knowledge center for her community. According to UNESCO, the result is the oldest operational educational institution in the world, with a high-profile role call of alumni. Mystic poet and philosopher Ibn Al-‘Arabi studied there in the 12th century, historian and economist Ibn Khaldun attended in the 14th century, while in medieval times, Al-Qarawiyyin played a leading role in the transfer of knowledge between Muslims and Europeans.

Al-Qarawiyyin university is only 30 years younger than the city of Fez itself. Around the same time the library was being built, algebra (itself a Muslim invention) was just making its way into Europe. It’s fitting, then, that the library contains not only a treasure trove of priceless religious texts, but also numerous mathematical and scientific works as well. Thanks to Aziza Chaouni, its beautiful fountains and gorgeous white-columned passageways are now open to the public as well. As you browse through several centuries of renowned scholars, you’ll be following in the footsteps of some of the most ambitious and brilliant women in history.

       7. Saint Catherine’s Monastery Library | Egypt

The renowned Eastern Orthodox Monastery of St. Catherine’s on Mt. Sinai was constructed by the Byzantine Emperor, Justinian I, in the late sixth century AD over the relics of the martyred saint and the place of the biblical burning bush as identified by St. Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor, Constantine. 

It is home to reputedly the oldest continuously run library in existence today. Its holdings of religious and secular manuscripts are legendary and allegedly second only in number to the collection held by the Vatican: from bibles, to patristic works, to liturgies and prayers books, and on to legal documents such as deeds, court cases, Fatwahs (legal opinions).  The greater proportion of the manuscripts were copied in Greek, and then in Syriac, Georgian, Coptic, Armenian, Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, and Ethiopic, as well as Old Church Slavonic.

In 1949, Kenneth W. Clark, led an expedition to the Middle East under the Auspices of the Library of Congress and its partners, to microfilm old manuscripts in various libraries of the Middle East, the largest and most isolated of which was that at St. Catherine’s. His group evaluated the 3,300 manuscripts held there and chose 1,687 for filming. 

       8. Balme Library | Ghana

The University of Ghana’s Balme Library is one of the best African Libraries for research. The Library was established in 1948 is located on the main campus of the University of Ghana. The Balme Library was named after David Mowbray Balme, the first Principal of the University of Ghana. The Library is the main library of the University of Ghana and is also the largest within the University of Ghana Library System. It is endowed with information resources, IT infrastructure and expert staff.

Since its establishment in 1948, the library has gone through successive growth with its printed book collection totaling over 400,000 volumes. The library subscribes to an increasing number of online databases including electronic journals (e-journals) and electronic books (e-books). The library’s collection includes Arabic books and a sizable African collection of books and primary source materials from countries throughout the continent.

       9. Library Of Alexandria | Egypt

The Library of Alexandria is one of the most famous African libraries. This library, located on the shores of Alexandria, has enough space for nearly eight million books. Approximately one million books are currently in the collection, half of which was a gift from the National Library of France.

The library houses Africa’s most extensive collection of French-language literature and is the world’s sixth-largest. The remainder is primarily in Arabic and English. Additionally, the library features a conference center, four museums, 19 art galleries, a manuscript restoration facility, and a multimedia collection.

       10. Kwasu Library | Nigeria

The institution library was established in 2009. It was set up in the College of Pure & Applied Science before the building was moved to College of Agriculture & Veterinary with the virtual library brought about in 2012. The main library is at Molete, a reading section at Oke Osi and Ilesha-baruba. The library building was opened to public in 2020 after it was commissioned and named after president Muhammad Buhari on July 6, 2019. The structure is located in the Kwara State University campus in Ilorin, Nigeria.