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Mali

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Mali, officially the Republic of Mali (French: République du Mali), is a landlocked nation in Western Africa. It is the seventh largest country in Africa. It borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its straight borders on the north stretch into the centre of the Sahara, while the country's south, where the majority of inhabitants live, features the Niger and Senegal rivers. Formerly French Sudan, the country is named after the Mali Empire. The name of the country comes from the Bambara word for hippopotamus (with the animal appearing on the 5 franc coin), the name of its capital city, Bamako comes from the Bambara word meaning "crocodile's back".

History

The Mandé peoples settled the Sahel (including present-day Mali), and formed a succession of Sahelian kingdoms, including the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire, and the Songhai Empire. Timbuktu was a key city in these empires as an outpost for trans-Saharan trade and a center for scholarship. The Songhai Empire declined under a Moroccan invasion in 1591.

Mali was invaded by France starting in 1880, which organized it as an overseas territory. The colony, which at times also included neighbouring countries, was known as French Sudan or the Sudanese Republic. In early 1959, the union of Mali and Senegal became the Mali Federation, which gained independence from France on June 20, 1960. Senegal withdrew from the Mali Federation after a few months. The Republic of Mali, under Modibo Keïta, withdrew from the French Community on September 22, 1960.

Modibo Keita was deposed and imprisoned in a coup in 1968. Mali was then ruled by Moussa Traoré until 1991. Anti-government protests in 1991 led to a coup, a transitional government, and a new constitution. In 1992, Alpha Oumar Konaré won Mali's first democratic, multi-party presidential election. Upon his reelection in 1997, President Konaré pushed through political and economic reforms and fought corruption. In 2002 he was succeeded in democratic elections by Amadou Toumani Touré, a retired General, who had been the leader of the military aspect of 1991 democratic uprising. Today, Mali is one of the most politically and socially stable countries in Africa.

Politics and government

Mali is a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Mali is both head of state and head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the National Assembly of Mali. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislatures.

The current government operates under the 1992 Constitution of Mali, approved by a referendum on 12 January 1992 after being drawn up by a national conference in August 1991. The constitution provides for multi party democracy within a semi-presidential system.

Official holidays in Mali

Fixed holidays

Moveable holidays

Dates according to Christian and Muslim calendars:

Regions and cercles

Mali is divided into 8 regions (régions) and 1 district, and subdivided into 49 cercles, totalling 288 arrondissements.

The regions and district are:

Geography

At , Mali is the world's 24th-largest country. It is comparable in size to South Africa, and is nearly twice the size of the American state of Texas.

Mali is landlocked and has a subtropical to arid climate. It is mostly flat, rising to rolling northern plains covered by sand, with savanna around the Niger River in the south. The Adrar des Ifoghas lies in the northeast. Most of the country lies in the Sahara, which produces a hot, dust-laden harmattan haze common during dry seasons and leads to recurring droughts. The nation has considerable natural resources, with gold, uranium, phosphates, kaolinite, salt and limestone being most widely exploited.

See List of cities in Mali

Economy

Between 1987 and about 1995, Mali implemented an economic adjustment programme that resulted in economic growth and a reduction in financial imbalances. This was reflected in the increased GDP growth rates (9.6% in 2002) and decreased inflation. GDP in 2002 amounted to US$3.2 billion, made up of agriculture 37.8%, industry 26.4% and services 35.9%.

Effective implementation of macroeconomic stabilization and economic liberalization policies and the stable political situation resulted in good economic performance and enabled Mali to strengthen the foundations for a market-oriented economy and encourage private sector development, backed up by significant progress in implementing the country’s privatization programme. Agricultural reform measures were aimed at diversifying and expanding production as well as at reducing costs.

Mali’s economic performance is fragile, characterised by a vulnerability to climatic conditions, fluctuating terms of trade, dependence on ports in neighboring countries.

Mali produces cotton, cereals and rice. Although locally produced rice now provides competition to imported Asian rice, Mali's primary export is cotton. Livestock exports and industry (producing vegetable and cottonseed oils, and textiles) have experienced growth. Although most of Mali is desert or semi-desert, the Niger River is a potential irrigation source. Exports are in three primary sector products (56% gold, 27% cotton, 5% livestock. Cote d’Ivore is where most of the country’s trade goes through and the crisis previously experienced here had a negative effect on Mali’s economy.

The mining industry in Mali has recently attracted renewed interest and investment from foreign companies. Gold (Now fourth in the world for export) and phosphate are the only minerals mined in Mali although deposits of copper and diamonds do also exist. The emergence of gold as Mali’s leading export product since 1999 has helped mitigate some of the negative impact of the cotton and Côte d’Ivoire crises.

The development of the oil industry is important due to the country’s dependence on the importation of all petroleum products from neighbouring states. Electricity is provided by the parastatal utility, Electricité du Mali.

Demographics

Ethnic groups Mandé 50% (Bambara, Malinke, Soninke), Peul (Fula/Fulani) 17%, Voltaic 12%, Tuareg and Moor 10%, Songhai 6%, other 5%

Religions Muslim 90%, indigenous beliefs 9%, Christian 1%

Culture

Approximately 90% of Malians follow Sunni Islam, but not always to the exclusion of traditional religious beliefs and practices. Muslims have their own educational systems, leading in some cases to the equivalent of baccalaureate and doctoral studies. An increasingly large number of Muslims make the pilgrimage to Mecca and study in Arab countries. Christians comprise about 1% of the population, although under French colonial rule the introduction of missionaries into predominantly Islamic areas was encouraged.

Literacy in French, the colonial language, is low and is concentrated in the urban areas. However, about 60% of the population is literate, although not necessarily in French: many are literate in Bamanakan (the largest spoken language), which has its own alphabet known as N'Ko. Others are also literate in Arabic, having attended Koranic school. One of the oldest universities in the world—Sankore, in Timbuktu—dates to the 1400s.

The music of Mali is best known outside of Africa for thekora virtouso Toumani Diabaté, the late roots and blues guitarist Ali Farka Touré and his successors Afel Bocoum and Vieux Farka Touré, the Tuareg band Tinariwen, and several Afro-pop artists such as Salif Keita, the duo Amadou et Mariam, and Oumou Sangare.

Miscellaneous topics

References

External links

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Overviews and country profile

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Last updated on Thursday March 13, 2008 at 15:33:44 PDT (GMT -0700)
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