Timbuktu's Female Scholar Who Defied the Saadian Occupation

Timbuktu: Africa's Forgotten Center of Knowledge — Fexingo History · Jul 13, 2026 · 6m · transcript

In this episode of Fexingo History, Lucas and Luna explore the little-known story of Nana Asma'u, a 16th-century female scholar in Timbuktu who defied the Saadian occupation. Under the brutal rule of Judar Pasha's Arma army, Asma'u — a member of the Aqit family — secretly taught women in her home, preserving a tradition of female literacy that had flourished under the Songhai Empire. We discuss the Tarikh al-Sudan's references to women in scholarship, the Aqit family's role in resisting Saadian censorship, and how Asma'u's underground classes kept alive the…