Amadou Hampate Ba quotes:

In Africa, when an old man dies, it's a library burning.

Writing is one thing and knowledge is another. Writing is the photographing of knowledge, but it is not knowledge itself. Knowledge is a light which is within man. It is the heritage of all the ancestors knew and have transmitted to us as seed, just as the mature baobab is contained in its seed.

Every old man that dies is a library that burns.