Gem of a collection

Anders Bjørkelo, Mahmoud Salih and Paul Wilson at The Sudan collection. Foto: Walter N. Wehus

The books are to be found inside a solid glass room, like a terrarium or home to particularly exotic fish, in the middle of the library. There are around 2,000 of them in addition to photographs, paintings, drawings, maps etc. They have many things in common: They are in one way or another about Sudan, most of them are very rare (not to say practically irreplaceable) and they belong to the Sudanese businessman Mahmoud Salih.

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Mr Salih is a man in his 70s of above average height who is wearing a dark suit and a gentle smile. At this moment, he is sitting in the front row of an audience at the Bergen Resource Centre for International Development, not far from the glass room containing the books. A number of Mr Salih’s fellow countrymen are also present, including the first Sudanese national to take a doctoral degree at UiB (Abdel Ghaffar, in 1974), the book collector Paul Wilson and many representatives of the Sudanese research community affiliated with UiB.

They are here for the opening of both the physical and the digital book collection that Mr Salih has placed in Bergen, and development researchers are thrilled that the treasure trove of books is now available.

Hotel nerves

The story starts earlier. Namely in late March 1997. Paul Wilson, a dealer in rare antiquarian books, is sitting at the Lion Hotel in Shrewsbury in England, but the sombre 17th century style of the historic hotel does not settle his nerves. Having invested a great deal of time, effort, money and love into building the Sudan collection, he is about to meet the man who has expressed an interest in buying the entire collection.

’What if I don’t like Mahmoud Salih’, Paul Wilson thinks to himself. The idea of selling the collection to someone he does not like is abhorrent.

As a professional book dealer, Mr Wilson has sold collections of books before. He has already sold several collections that he has put together himself and some of them were larger and more valuable than the Sudan collection. Nonetheless, this project has a special place in his heart. This project has really meant something to him.

Tickled his curiosity

It all started, as is often the case with librarians, with a single book. Or to be more precise, a 1938 volume entitled ‘Capital investment in Africa – Its Course and Effects’. It was written by Herbert Frankel, Professor of economy and economic history at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and it was practically impossible to get hold of.

Mahmoud Salih had been looking for it for ten years, driven by a curiosity stemming from a quote he had stumbled over, which spoke both to the business man and patriot in him: ”There can be no doubt that the economic development of the Sudan in the twentieth century has been a remarkable achievement and one which, in many respects, can be regarded as a model for other African Countries.”

Three years into his retirement and destiny ordained that he happened to mention the book by Frankel to a friend of his. A friend who only a few days later was able to send him a copy along with the message that there was more where it came from. It was simply a matter of contacting Paul Wilson.

The same Paul Wilson who now in March 1997 is feeling very, very lucky. Not only had his fear of not liking Mr Salih proved to be unfounded: The Sudan collection had now been sold, but Mr Wilson was allowed to keep it on his book shelves - with a standing order to increase it as much as possible.

A win-win situation

Nine years pass and the collection has doubled in size. Then one day in April 2006, Professor Anders Bjørkelo received an enquiry from an old friend that left him dumbfounded. Mr Salih asked if UiB, with its expertise in Sudan studies, would like to provide a home to the rare collection that was currently lying in boxes in London.

Mahmoud Salih had enjoyed good contact with UiB previously, and was well aware of the quality of the Sudan studies that were carried out at the university. The university management quickly said yes.

The process then, in the words of university librarian Tom Johnsen, went ’uncharacteristically quick’. In June of that year, the collection turned up on the university’s doorstep accompanied by two jolly northern Englishmen in a large lorry. And when the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic studies moved to the Jus 2 building at Nøstet, the library moved too.

Sudan’s heritage

And so we are back at the Bergen Resource Centre for International Development, inside the actual aquarium this time, inside the glass room in which the audience has been given permission to put on white cotton gloves and leaf carefully through the books, charts and paintings.

Mahmoud Salih speaks in a low voice and has a warm handshake. He tells us about how the collection will eventually return to Sudan, and how the five-year contract with the University of Bergen can be renewed. He tells us about the heat, the dust and the dry air that would destroy the collection in just a few years if it was not properly protected. He tells us that this is Sudan’s heritage before adding with a smile that this is irrelevant now as the collection is to be digitalised by UiB and 200 of the titles are already available online.

This is to be an important part of the collection at, among other places, Juba University in Sudan. Ole Gunnar Evensen explains why this is important:

Both Mr Salih and Mr Wilson seem to be happy with the location the collection has been given in the heart of the library at Nøstet. But the two men are not going to rest on their laurels.
There are still books on their list, such as the difficult to track down ”Giornale delle osservazioni fatte ne’ viaggio in Egitto, nella Siria e nella Nubia” av G. B. Brocchi.

Paul Wilson has made sure that a translator is at hand. Just in case.

Article from På Høyden.