I | INTRODUCTION |
Mali
(country), landlocked country in northwestern Africa. Desert covers much
of Mali, and the country is thinly populated. The southern part of the country
is well watered by the Niger River, and most of Mali’s people live in valleys
along the Niger or the Sénégal rivers. The people in this largely rural country
live primarily by farming and fishing. Drought is a recurrent problem, often
bringing famine with it. The largest city is Bamako, Mali’s capital, which has
about 1 million people.
Although Bamako is the capital, the town of
Tombouctou, or Timbuktu, is far more famous. Founded in the 11th century, this
trading post on the southern edge of the Sahara was celebrated for centuries for
its splendor. Camel caravans, carrying gold and ivory, passed through it. So did
slaves. Tombouctou linked the rest of West Africa with the Mediterranean Sea to
the north. In time, to Westerners it came to stand for all that was remote,
mysterious, and unimaginable.
From the 5th century through the 19th century,
Mali was the core of a series of West African empires that sought control of
Tombouctou’s lucrative caravan routes and the gold to its south. In the late
19th century Mali became a colony of France. Under French rule the territory was
known as the French Sudan. In 1960 Mali gained independence, taking the name of
one of the medieval empires that had formed in the region. Mali has struggled
economically since independence. In 2007 the United Nations Development Program
ranked Mali 175th out of 178 countries on the human development index, a measure
of poverty, literacy, life expectancy, and other criteria of a nation’s
well-being. The World Bank had previously classified Mali as one of the poorest
countries in the world.
French remains the official language of Mali,
and Islam is by far the major religion. However, the people of Mali belong to a
number of ethnic groups and speak a variety of African languages.
II | LAND AND RESOURCES |
Most of Mali consists of low plains broken
occasionally by rocky hills. The country has three natural regions. The southern
region is a tropical grassland, or savanna, with occasional scattered trees. The
central region is a semiarid belt known as the Sahel. The vegetation here
consists of thorny plants and shrubs. The northern region lies within the
Sahara, a vast desert that extends over northern Africa.
Mali has two major rivers, the Niger and the
Sénégal. Both of them flow through the southern part of the country. The Niger
turns east in the Sahel and cuts a large arc through the region. Between the
town of Mopti, where the Bani River flows into the Niger, and the city of
Tombouktou is a large inland delta with river channels and many lakes. The
Sénégal and its tributaries flow northward in the extreme west of Mali. High
ground is found in the southwest, where sandstone plateaus ring the plains of
the Niger and Bani river basins.
In the southeast are the Hombori Mountains,
the highest peaks in Mali. Hombori Tondo, the highest point, rises to 1,155 m
(3,789 ft) above sea level. The Bambouk and Mandingue mountains are in the
southwest.
Mali is bounded by Algeria on the north; by
Niger on the east; by Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, and Guinea on the south; and
by Senegal and Mauritania on the west. The area of the country is 1,240,192 sq
km (478,841 sq mi), making it the largest country in West Africa.
A | Climate |
The climate of the parts of Mali not in the
Sahara is hot and dry with average temperatures ranging from about 24° to 32°C
(about 75° to 90°F) in the south. Temperatures are higher in the north. The
hottest weather comes just before the rainy season of June to September. Annual
rainfall declines from about 1,400 mm (about 55 in) in the south to some 1,120
mm (some 44 in) at Bamako and less than 127 mm (5 in) in the Sahara of the
north. Periodic droughts cause considerable hardship in this largely
agricultural country. Because of the short rainy season, water shortage is a
major problem.
B | Natural Resources |
Mali is a predominantly agricultural
country. The country’s most valuable resource is the Niger River, which abounds
in fish; its waters are used for irrigation. Mali’s mineral resources include
gold, salt, phosphate rock, iron ore, diamonds, and uranium. Gold is the most
important mineral being mined.
C | Plants and Animals |
In the southern Saharan zone of Mali are
found mimosa and gum trees; in the central region, thorny plants; and in the
south, kapok, baobab, and shea trees. Animals include cheetah, oryx, gazelle,
warthog, lion, leopard, antelope, and jackal.
D | Environmental Issues |
Mali’s environment suffers from an ongoing
drought that has lasted for decades. Despite the drought, most of the population
depends on agriculture for its livelihood. Traditional fuels, particularly wood
and charcoal, provide the bulk of all energy used in the country. Drought,
deforestation, and increased farming of marginal lands have caused soil
degradation and dramatic desertification in Mali, and the Sahara has expanded
southward at an alarming rate. The drought and loss of habitat, combined with
poaching of threatened species, has helped drive animal species to the brink of
extinction.
The country also suffers from water
pollution due to poor sanitation. Only a small percentage of all Malians have
access to adequate sanitation. As a result, water from rivers and wells is often
contaminated with bacteria, and much of the population lacks access to safe
drinking water.
The government of Mali has protected some
areas as natural parks or preserves. It has ratified international environmental
agreements pertaining to biodiversity, climate change, desertification,
endangered species, and ozone layer protection.
III | PEOPLE |
Many different ethnic groups live in Mali.
About half of Mali’s people speak related Mande languages. The Bambara are the
largest Mande-speaking group and make up about a quarter of Mali’s population.
They are descended from the people who founded the Mali Empire in western
Africa. Today, they live along the Niger River. According to the 1987 census,
Mali had 7,696,348 people. The 2008 estimated population was 12,324,029.
Mali’s other major ethnic groups, besides
the Bambara, are the Dogon, Fulani, Mandinka (also known as Mandingo or
Malinke), Senufo, Songhai, Soninke, and Tuareg. The Dogon and Senufo are
cliff-dwelling people who live in south-central Mali. The Mandinka, like the
Bambara, are Mande-speaking and live mainly by farming and fishing. The Songhai
are farmers in southeastern Mali, and the Soninke are mainly traders in the
northwestern region. The Fulani have traditionally been cattle herders; they
speak a language called Fulfulde. Nomadic Tuaregs and other Berbers roam the
Sahel and parts of the Sahara. The Tuaregs have kept Berber as their
language.
Islam is the religion of about 80 percent of
Mali’s population. Most of the remainder follow traditional African religions.
Less than 2 percent of the people are Christians. French is the official
language of the country, but African languages, such as Bambara and Songhai, are
widely spoken.
A | Principal Cities |
The largest city in Mali is Bamako
(population, 2003 estimate, 1,264,000), the capital. Bamako is situated on the
Niger River, in southwestern Mali. A large market fills the center of the city.
Other cities include Ségou (107,000); Sikasso (90,000); Mopti (86,000); Gao
(63,000), and Kayes (62,000). Ségou and Mopti, both located on the Niger, are
important fishing centers. The port city of Mopti is at the point where the Bani
River joins the Niger.
Djenné is a town of mud brick houses and a
magnificent mosque, also built of mud brick. Although the current mosque dates
from the early 20th century, it is based on the original 13th-century design.
The mosque at Djenné has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Tombouctou was important for centuries as
a trading post on the caravan routes that linked West Africa with the
Mediterranean. Because of its situation in the African interior, near the
southern edge of the Sahara, Tombouctou came to stand for everything distant and
unreachable to Western people. Tombouctou is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site
and the most popular tourist destination in Mali.
B | Education |
Education is free and officially compulsory
between the ages of 7 and 16. However, only 58 percent of Malian children of
primary school age attended schools in 2002–2003. Only 57 percent of men and 43
percent of women in Mali are literate. Bamako has colleges of administration,
medicine, law and economics, education, and engineering.
C | Art and Music |
West Africa is the home of many of the
sculptural traditions for which African art has become internationally known.
Among these are the carvings of the Dogon and Bambara of Mali. Terra cotta
sculptures have been uncovered from a large burial site at Djenné. These
sculptures include images of people on horseback and standing and seated figures
of both men and women, many with elaborate jewelry and decorative marks on the
skin made by scarring. Since most of these sculptures were unearthed in the
course of unauthorized digging, little is known about their context or original
use.
Djenné is also known today for its
immense mud-built Friday Mosque. Built in 1906-1907, it is the third of a series
of grand mosques on this site dating back to the 13th century, and one of the
most impressive achievements of African architecture.
Although Islam has been a constant
presence in Mali for many centuries, many of the local peoples outside the towns
resisted conversion, at least until recently. The Dogon fled to the isolated
Bandiagara cliffs in south-central Mali sometime between the 10th and 13th
centuries rather than convert to Islam. There they have held on to their ancient
traditions, including masked religious dances and figural sculpture. A number of
figures, together with fragments of textiles and other objects dating from the
11th century, have been found in burial caves above Dogon villages and are
attributed by some scholars to a people known as the Tellem.
The Bambara live in the countryside
around the Malian capital Bamako. Among their numerous art forms are large
wooden sculptures, mostly of women, used in the initiation and annual ceremonies
of associations called Jo and Gwan. Elegant carved wooden antelope headdresses,
called chi wara, were used in dances by associations that honored the
strongest farmers. The Bambara are also noted for their bogolanfini cloth, made
by a unique method in which patterns are outlined in a dark mud dye on locally
woven narrow-strip cloth.
The music of Mali, which stands at the
cultural crossroads of North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, merges Islamic
influences of the north with the rhythmic complexity of music to the south. For
thousands of years, professional musicians called griots played an important
role as historians in the kingdoms that developed in Mali. Among the Mande
people, professional bards still recount the histories of powerful lineages and
offer counsel to contemporary rulers. Perhaps because of a strong female griot
tradition, women have attained more success in popular music in Mali than in any
other African country.
Contemporary musicians such as Salif
Keita of Mali carry on the griot tradition. Keita is descended from 13th-century
Malian ruler Sundiata Keita, and his music is suffused with the ancient
traditions of the West African griots, as seen in his song “Mandjou,” written in
praise of Guinean president Ahmed Sékou Touré. The melodic inflections of his
singing also show the Malian inheritance of Islamic music, as well as the
increasing influence of jazz and rock music.
Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré comes
from the village of Niafounké, where life centers around the Niger River, and he
sings predominantly traditional songs about village life. His adaptation to the
guitar of West African vocal and instrumental music shows striking similarities
to the early development of African American blues. He has toured
internationally and collaborated on recordings with numerous Western
musicians.
Drums are important in West African
music, although many other types of percussion instruments are used as well. The
West African hourglass-shaped tension drum is sometimes called a talking drum
because it can be used to imitate the pitch contours of speech. The balo (or
balaphon) is a xylophone constructed of a frame with 17-19 keys, each suspended
over a hollowed-out gourd resonator, tuned to a seven-note scale. Found
throughout the Mande cultures of West Africa, it is played only by male griots,
usually as an accompaniment to poetry that is sung.
IV | ECONOMY |
Mali is one of the poorer African countries.
The economy’s largest sector is agriculture. Drought has hampered the country’s
economic development, as have inadequate transportation facilities, especially
rail and road links to the sea. The Niger River remains a major transportation
route within Mali. Most of Mali’s energy comes from hydroelectric power but is
insufficient to meet the country’s needs.
A | Agriculture and Fishing |
The cultivation of food crops occupies 86
percent of the economically active population of Mali. Agriculture also
contributes more to the gross domestic product than any other sector. Crops
grown in Mali depend almost entirely on irrigation or flooding from the Niger
River and its tributaries. The main crops are millet, rice, sorghum, corn, and
sugarcane. Livestock raising, principally in the north, also makes a significant
contribution to the food supply. Livestock are also exported. The country has
millions of cattle, goats, and sheep, although herds were decimated in a drought
of the mid-1980s. Mali is one of the major producers and exporters of cotton in
Africa, and 160,000 tons of cotton were harvested in 2006.
Fish from the Niger are important to the
diet of the people living along the river. The fishing industry produces a
surplus, and these fish are dried and smoked for local use and for export.
B | Manufacturing and Mining |
Industrial output in Mali is small and
mainly based on local raw materials, including the processing of cotton and
other crops. Consumer goods for local use are also produced. The manufacturing
center is Bamako.
Mineral resources are being surveyed, and
gold, salt, marble, and phosphate rock (used for fertilizer) have been
exploited. Deposits of other minerals have been reported but are not extracted
in significant amounts. They include bauxite, copper, iron ore, manganese, and
uranium. Gold is by far the most import mining product.
C | Currency, Banking, and Trade |
The monetary unit is the CFA franc,
consisting of 100 centimes (523 francs equal U.S.$1; 2006 average). The Central
Bank of the West African States assumes Mali’s central banking functions.
Most foreign trade operations are in the
hands of the state. Principal exports include gold, cotton, livestock, processed
foodstuffs, and mangoes. The value of exports in 2001 was $519 million. Imports,
typically petroleum products, motor vehicles, food products, machinery, and
chemicals, amounted to $1,013 million. Chief purchasers of Mali’s exports are
Belgium, China, Spain, France, Côte d’Ivoire, and Germany; leading sources of
imports are Côte d’Ivoire, France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, China, Germany,
and Spain.
D | Transportation and Communications |
The Niger is the lifeline of Mali. During
the rainy season (June to September) and for a few months afterward, most of the
course of the Niger is navigable by larger ships, while canoes and small craft
can use the river year-round. The Sénégal River is navigable from Kayes to
Saint-Louis, in Senegal. A railroad links Koulikoro, Bamako, and Kayes with the
port of Dakar in Senegal. Mali has 18,709 km (11,625 mi) of roads, of which 18
percent are paved. The country’s main road links Bamako with Gao at the edge of
the Sahara. An international airport is located near Bamako. Air Mali, the state
airline, offers international and domestic service. Telephone, telegraph, and
radio services are publicly owned and operated.
V | GOVERNMENT |
A constitution approved by popular referendum
in 1992 established Mali as a multiparty republic with a directly elected
president. The president is elected to a five-year term and is limited to two
terms in office. This official appoints the prime minister, who selects the
other members of the council of ministers. The unicameral National Assembly
consists of 147 deputies elected to five-year terms.
Until 1991, Mali was governed under a
constitution drawn up in 1974 and made effective, with amendments, in 1979.
Elected twice without opposition, President Moussa Traoré ruled as a dictator
through the nation’s sole legal political party, the Democratic Union of the
Malian People, founded in 1976. After a coup in March 1991, this party was
dissolved.
For the purposes of regional government, Mali
is divided into eight administrative regions plus the capital district of
Bamako. The larger towns have elected mayors and council members.
VI | HISTORY |
The recorded history of the area now
included in Mali goes back to writings, largely Arabic, of about the 4th century
ad. Between then and the 19th
century, Mali was the core area of the great empires of the western Sudan:
Ghana, Mali, and Songhai. Such cities as Djenné, Tombouctou, and Gao became
centers of trade, learning, and culture.
A | The Early Empires |
The kingdom of Ghana originated early in
the Christian era and reached its apogee between 950 and 1050. For most of its
history it was ruled by Mande-speaking Soninke people. By the 8th century it was
known to the Muslim world as “the land of gold.” This metal was traded from the
gold fields further south in Ghana proper and from there across the desert by
Berber nomads in exchange for salt and other commodities from North Africa.
Ghana declined after the 11th century. Its capital at Koumbi Saleh, north of
modern Bamako, was captured in 1076 by Berber forces who owed allegiance to the
Almoravid dynasty. After the Almoravid invasion many of the peoples of the
kingdom of Ghana embraced Islam, but the empire itself disintegrated.
The Mali Empire originated in the 11th
century, but its period of greatness began under Sundiata Keita, who ruled from
around 1235 to 1255. By this time the empire stretched westward from Gao to
Tekrur (in modern Senegal) and had become one of the world’s largest suppliers
of gold.
The most famous king of Mali was Mansa
Musa, who ruled in the early 14th century. His pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 with
500 slaves and some 50,000 ounces of gold to distribute along the way startled
the Mediterranean world by its splendor. Mansa Musa brought back with him Muslim
scholars and architects to enhance the reputation for learning and culture of
cities such as Tombouctou and Goa. When he died, he left an empire extending
across the southern Sahara and the grasslands fringing the Niger River. The Arab
traveler Ibn Battūta, who visited the empire a few years later, found there a
rule of law that might well have been envied in medieval Europe.
Mali declined in the later 14th and 15th
centuries. Its decline was due less to internal instability than to pressures on
its frontiers from the Mossi people in the south, the Wolof and Tekrur in the
west, and the desert Tuareg in the north. In the 15th century its role in the
area was slowly taken over by the Songhai kingdom of Gao.
The Songhai Empire, whose capital was at
Gao, is believed to have begun around the 9th century. For a short time in the
14th century, it formed the easternmost province of Mali. It recovered its
independence in 1335 but did not begin to expand until more than a century
later, during the reign of King Sunni Ali, from 1464 to 1492. Timbouctou was
taken from the Tuareg in 1468, and the whole area of the middle Niger delta was
under Songhai control by about 1478. The reign of Sunni Ali was marked by the
construction of a canal linking Tombouctou with the Niger. A second canal
project had to be abandoned because of Mossi raiders. It would have extended
some 400 km (250 mi) into the desert and linked the Niger with the commercial
center of Oualâta (Walata, in what is now Mauretania).
After Sunni Ali died one of his leading
counselors usurped the throne and was proclaimed Askia Muhammad. He ruled from
1493 to 1528. During his reign Songhai extended its authority eastward to the
Hausa states (in what is now northern Nigeria), which were forced to pay
tribute, and westward to the borders of Tekrur in Senegal. To the north, various
trading centers were wrested from Tuareg control. In the south, however, Songhai
arms were less successful, for although the Mossi capital was destroyed the
Mossi kingdom was never subjugated.
At the end of the reign of Askia Muhammad,
the Songhai were beset by a series of internal struggles for power. As a result
of these struggles the empire was weakened and the sultan of Morocco, Ahmad
al-Mansur, was encouraged to try to break Songhai power. The Songhai army was
finally defeated near Gao in 1591 by Judar Pasha, a Spaniard in the service of
the sultan, and the Songhai empire was absorbed into the Moroccan territory of
Tombouctou.
B | Moroccan and French Rule |
The Moroccans, however, never really
controlled the sprawling empire. Most of the Moroccan soldiers married local
women, and their sons came to constitute a military caste known as the Arma,
which selected the pashas (local leaders). The countryside was fleeced by the
pashas and army. But by 1780 these authorities were so weak that the area broke
up into petty states. Only the Bambara states of Ségou and Kaarta were
stable.
In the 19th century unifying tribal
movements emerged ender the banner of Islam and the leadership of Umar Tal, a
Muslim preacher, and military leader Samory Touré. Umar declared a holy war,
armed his followers with guns, and formed a theocratic empire that extended from
Tombouctou to the headwaters of the Niger and Sénégal. His son and successor,
Ahmadu, was defeated by the French in 1893. South of Umar’s empire, Samory
united Mandinke peoples into an Islamic state that provided stiff resistance to
French troops as they advanced into the area.
By the 1890s, after the defeat of Ahmadu
and Samory, French administration was installed in the area. In 1904 what is now
Mali was made part of the French colony of Haut-Sénégal-Niger. In 1920 the name
Sudan was restored, and as the French Sudan it was made a constituent territory
of French West Africa.
African political activity was banned by
the French in Mali until after World War II (1939-1945). Various parties that
were then formed eventually merged to form the Sudanese Union, a militantly
anticolonial party. It gained strength rapidly during the 1950s. In 1956 France
passed a reform that gave autonomy to leaders from within its colonial
territories. By the time the reforms took place in 1957, the union was the main
party.
In 1958 a referendum was held. Instead of
voting to separate itself completely from France, the Sudanese Union accepted
the alternative of autonomy within the new French Community as the Sudanese
Republic. It then sought to unite several French West African states in a new
political federation. But only Senegal and Sudan agreed and in 1959 formed the
Federation of Mali.
C | Independence |
Mali proclaimed its independence in June
1960, with Modibo Keita as president. The federation broke up in September, the
former French Sudan retaining the name Mali and Keita remaining president of the
new Republic of Mali. Underlying the breakup was a conflict over economic
gradualism and radicalism, between a broadly pro-French and a strongly
pan-African orientation. Mali undertook the later course. After independence
Mali pursued a policy of economic development along socialist lines.
C1 | Keita’s Presidency |
President Modibo Keita committed the
ruling political party, the Sudanese Union, to a policy of consolidating state
power for the purpose of modernizing the country. Ideologically, the party was
inspired by a combination of Marxist ideas, pride in the country’s political
heritage, and a sense of mission derived from Islam. Organizationally, it was
both a mass party and an alliance of major regional leaders. It absorbed all
organized opposition parties and controlled most voluntary associations, such as
labor unions, women’s organizations, youth groups, and veterans’ clubs, leaving
no legitimate outside channels for the expression of political dissent. The
party and the government had parallel structures.
The new Mali franc, with little
foreign-exchange backing, could not be used for international payments. Adding
to the country’s financial strain were inefficient state-owned firms, which
Keita expanded. By mid-1967 he had to agree to broad French supervision of the
economy so Mali could reenter the French franc zone. Opposition to his policies
within the Sudanese Union caused Keita to suppress dissent, until he was
overthrown in 1968 by a military committee of national liberation.
C2 | Military Rule |
In 1969 the leader of the military
junta, Lieutenant Moussa Traoré, emerged as president and premier. His
government modified the economic policies of Keita, but not until 1976 did
Traoré allow a political party to form, the Democratic Union of the Malian
People. He then blocked the start of its activity for three years.
Traoré’s rule was marked by four coup
attempts, numerous cabinet shuffles, and growing unrest among students and
unemployed graduates. Searing droughts in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, coupled
with low cotton prices and extremely bad economic management, left the Malian
people among the world’s poorest. Many leading nations provided aid, but ties
were slowly reduced with China and the Soviet Union. As the only candidate for
the presidency, Traoré was returned to office in 1979 and 1985.
A border war with Burkina Faso (Upper
Volta) was halted by a cease-fire in late 1985. Under pressure from its
creditors, Mali restructured its economy in the late 1980s to privatize
unprofitable government enterprises. Traoré was overthrown in 1991 by a group of
army officers, led by Lieutenant Colonel Amadou Toumani Touré, who pledged to
return the country to democratic rule. Swiss authorities later revealed that
Traoré had transferred $1 billion to personal bank accounts over the years.
D | Recent Developments |
A new constitution providing for a
multiparty republic was approved in 1992. Alpha Oumar Konaré, leader of the
Alliance for Democracy in Mali, became the country’s first democratically
elected president later that year. Rioting students opposed to Konaré’s
austerity measures damaged numerous government buildings in Bamako in April
1993. An attempted coup by supporters of Traoré collapsed in December of that
year.
From 1990 on, strife in the north has
become a focus of concern for Mali’s government. After the drought of the 1980s
ended, Tuareg who had migrated to Algeria and Libya began to return to West
Africa. Fighting broke out between the settled African population and the
nomadic Tuareg. At the same time the region became involved in a general
rebellion of Tuareg demanding greater autonomy from the governments of Mali,
Niger, and Algeria, whose borders cross traditional Tuareg territory.
In 1992 a peace agreement, the Bamako
Accord, was reached with the main Tuareg groups. Conflict between the army and
smaller Tuareg groups continued into 1995. In 1996 more than 2,000 Tuareg former
rebels were integrated into the regular army. Thousands of Malian Tuareg
refugees were repatriated from Niger.
In addition to a troubled economy and the
Tuareg rebellion, Konaré also had to deal with the trials of former president
Moussa Traoré. In 1993 Traoré was sentenced to death for his role in the deaths
of protesters a few years earlier. This sentence was commuted to life
imprisonment by Konaré, but in 1998, Traoré, his wife Mariam Cissoko, and his
brother-in-law Abraham Cissoko, went on trial for embezzlement. All three were
sentenced to death in 1999, but the death sentences were commuted in 1999 to
life imprisonment and hard labor. Before leaving office in 2002, Konaré
announced that he had pardoned them.
In the meantime, democracy was having a
hard time. The constitutional court declared that legislative elections held in
1997 were invalid because of fraud and lack of organization. Opposition groups
urged that presidential elections scheduled for May be postponed. The elections
were held nonetheless, although all but one of the opposition groups boycotted
them. Konaré was elected to a second five-year term. Former U.S. president Jimmy
Carter visited Mali in 1998 to mediate between the government and the
opposition. Despite Carter’s recommendation, the opposition continued to call
for Konaré’s resignation. For the 2002 presidential election, 24 candidates
registered. Touré, the leader of the 1991 coup, was elected president, after two
rounds of voting.
Touré was reelected in 2007. The
constitutional court declared that he won the first round of voting with more
than 70 percent of the vote, more than enough to avoid a runoff.
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