Portal:Mali
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Introduction
Mali (/ˈmɑːli/ (
listen); French pronunciation: [mali]), officially the Republic of Mali (French: République du Mali), is a landlocked country in West Africa, a region geologically identified with the West African Craton. Mali is the eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of just over 1,240,000 square kilometres (480,000 sq mi). The population of Mali is 18 million. Its capital is Bamako. The sovereign state of Mali consists of eight regions and its borders on the north reach deep into the middle of the Sahara Desert, while the country's southern part, where the majority of inhabitants live, features the Niger and Senegal rivers. The country's economy centers on agriculture and mining. Some of Mali's prominent natural resources include gold, being the third largest producer of gold in the African continent, and salt.
Present-day Mali was once part of three West African empires that controlled trans-Saharan trade: the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire (for which Mali is named), and the Songhai Empire. During its golden age, there was a flourishing of mathematics, astronomy, literature, and art. At its peak in 1300, the Mali Empire covered an area about twice the size of modern-day France and stretched to the west coast of Africa. In the late 19th century, during the Scramble for Africa, France seized control of Mali, making it a part of French Sudan. French Sudan (then known as the Sudanese Republic) joined with Senegal in 1959, achieving independence in 1960 as the Mali Federation. Shortly thereafter, following Senegal's withdrawal from the federation, the Sudanese Republic declared itself the independent Republic of Mali. After a long period of one-party rule, a coup in 1991 led to the writing of a new constitution and the establishment of Mali as a democratic, multi-party state.
Selected general articles
- Mali is a multilingual country. The languages spoken there reflect ancient settlement patterns, migrations, and its long history. Ethnologue counts more than 80 languages. Of these, French is the official language and Bambara is the most widely spoken. Altogether 13 of the indigenous languages of Mali have the legal status of national language. Read more...
A cercle is the second level administrative unit in Mali. Mali is divided into eight régions and one capital district (Bamako); the régions are subdivided into 49 cercles. These subdivisions bear the name of their principal city.
During French colonial rule in Mali, a cercle was the smallest unit of French political administration that was headed by a European officer. A cercle consisted of several cantons, each of which in turn consisted of several villages. In 1887 the Cercle of Bafoulabé was the first cercle to be created in Mali. In most of former French West Africa, the term cercle was changed to Prefecture or Department after independence, but this was not done in Mali. Read more...
The Music of Mali is, like that of most African nations, ethnically diverse, but one influence predominates; that of the ancient Mali Empire of the Mandinka (from c. 1230 to c. 1600). Mande people (Bambara, Maninke, Soninke) make up 50% of the country's population, other ethnic groups include the Fula (17%), Gur-speakers 12%, Songhai people (6%), Tuareg and Moors (10%) and another 5%, including Europeans. Mali is divided into eight regions; Gao, Kayes, Koulikoro, Mopti, Ségou, Sikasso, Tombouctou and Bamako (the eighth region, Kidal, was created in 1991).
Salif Keita, a noble-born Malian who became a singer, brought Mande-based Afro-pop to the world, adopting traditional garb and styles. He says he sings to express himself, however, and not as a traditional jeli or praise-singer. The kora players Sidiki Diabaté and Toumani Diabaté have also achieved some international prominence as have the late Songhai/Fula guitarist Ali Farka Touré and his successors Afel Bocoum and Vieux Farka Touré, the Tuareg band Tinariwen, the duo Amadou et Mariam and Oumou Sangare. Mory Kanté saw major mainstream success with techno-influenced Mande music. Read more...
The Ghana Empire (c. 700 until c. 1240), properly known as Wagadou (Ghana or Ga'na being the title of its ruler), was a West African empire located in the area of present-day southeastern Mauritania and western Mali. Complex societies based on trans-Saharan trade with salt and gold had existed in the region since ancient times, but the introduction of the camel to the western Sahara in the 3rd century CE opened the way to great changes in the area that became the Ghana Empire. By the time of the Muslim conquest of North Africa in the 7th century the camel had changed the ancient, more irregular trade routes into a trade network running from Morocco to the Niger river. The Ghana Empire grew rich from this increased trans-Saharan trade in gold and salt, allowing for larger urban centres to develop. The traffic furthermore encouraged territorial expansion to gain control over the different trade routes.
When Ghana's ruling dynasty began remains uncertain. It is mentioned for the first time in written records by Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī in 830. In the 11th century the Cordoban scholar Abuof traveled to the region and gave a detailed description of the kingdom. He claimed that the Ghana could "put 200,000 men into the field, more than 40,000 of them archers", and noted they had cavalry forces as well. Read more...- The Kénédougou Kingdom, also referred to as the Kenedugu Kingdom, (c. 1650–1898) was a pre-colonial West African state established in the southern portion of present-day Mali. Read more...
Mali, a large, landlocked, multicultural country in West Africa, consistently ranks low in the Human Development Index. The infrastructure of Communications in Mali, while underdeveloped, is crucial to the nation. Read more...
The Songhai Empire (also transliterated as Songhay) was a state that dominated the western Sahel in the 15th and 16th century. At its peak, it was one of the largest states in African history. The state is known by its historiographical name, derived from its leading ethnic group and ruling elite, the Songhai. Sonni Ali established Gao as the capital of the empire, although a Songhai state had existed in and around Gao since the 11th century. Other important cities in the empire were Timbuktu and Djenné, conquered in 1468 and 1475 respectively, where urban-centered trade flourished. Initially, the empire was ruled by the Sonni dynasty (c. 1464–1493), but it was later replaced by the Askia dynasty (1493–1591).
During the second half of the 13th century, Gao and the surrounding region had grown into an important trading center and attracted the interest of the expanding Mali Empire. Mali conquered Gao towards the end of the 13th century. Gao would remain under Malian hegemony until the late 14th century. As the Mali Empire started to disintegrate, the Songhai reasserted control of Gao. Songhai rulers subsequently took advantage of the weakened Mali Empire to expand Songhai rule. Read more...
Mali's transportation infrastructure is regarded as poor, even by regional standards, and deficiencies have limited economic growth and development. Nevertheless, improvements have been noted in the early 2000s. Most of the transportation in Mali consists of cars, planes, and boats. Read more...- Mali is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor and, to a lesser extent, forced prostitution. Within Mali, women and girls are forced into domestic servitude and, to a limited extent, prostitution. Malian boys are found in conditions of forced begging and forced labor in gold mines and agricultural settings both within Mali and neighboring countries. Reports indicate that Malian children are trafficked to Senegal and Guinea for forced labor in gold mines and for forced labor on cotton and cocoa farms in Côte d'Ivoire. Boys from Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger and other countries are forced into begging and exploited for labor by religious instructors within Mali and across borders. Adult men and boys, primarily of Songhai ethnicity, are subjected to the longstanding practice of debt bondage in the salt mines of Taoudenni in northern Mali. Some members of Mali's black Tamachek community are subjected to traditional slavery-related practices rooted in hereditary master-slave relationships.
The Government of Mali does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Despite these efforts, such as assisting with the identification and rescue of 80 child trafficking victims and drafting new anti-trafficking legislation, the government failed to show evidence of progress in prosecuting and convicting trafficking offenders, and did not take action on five pending cases of traditional slavery. Therefore, Mali is placed on Tier 2 Watch List for the second consecutive year. Read more... - This is a list of rivers in Mali. This list is arranged by drainage basin, with respective tributaries indented under each larger stream's name. Read more...
Following independence in 1960, Mali initially followed a socialist path and was aligned ideologically with the communist bloc. Mali's foreign policy orientation became increasingly pragmatic and pro-Western over time. Since the institution of a democratic form of government in 1992, Mali's relations with the West in general and the United States in particular have improved significantly. U.S.-Malian relations are described by the U.S. Department of State as "excellent and expanding," especially given Mali's recent record of democratic stability in the volatile area of West Africa and its avowed support of the war on terrorism. Mali is reported to be one of the largest recipients of U.S. aid in Africa.
Mali is active in regional organizations such as the African Union. Working to control and resolve regional conflicts, such as in Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, is one of Mali's major foreign policy goals. Mali feels threatened by the potential for the spillover of conflicts in neighboring states, and relations with those neighbors are often uneasy. General insecurity along borders in the north, including cross-border banditry and terrorism, remain troubling issues in regional relations. Read more...- Mali is heavily dependent upon foreign aid and is a major recipient of both multilateral and bilateral aid. Read more...
The Northern Mali Conflict, Mali Civil War, or Mali War refers to armed conflicts that started from January 2012 between the northern and southern parts of Mali in Africa. On 16 January 2012, several insurgent groups began fighting a campaign against the Malian government for independence or greater autonomy for northern Mali, an area of northern Mali they called Azawad. The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), an organization fighting to make this area of Mali an independent homeland for the Tuareg people, had taken control of the region by April 2012.
On 22 March 2012, President Amadou Toumani Touré was ousted in a coup d'état over his handling of the crisis, a month before a presidential election was to have taken place. Mutinous soldiers, calling themselves the National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and State (CNRDR), took control and suspended the constitution of Mali. As a consequence of the instability following the coup, Mali's three largest northern cities—Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu—were overrun by the rebels on three consecutive days. On 5 April 2012, after the capture of Douentza, the MNLA said that it had accomplished its goals and called off its offensive. The following day, it proclaimed the independence of northern Mali from the rest of the country, renaming it Azawad. Read more...- Mali is an Islamic society. Almost all people from Mali are MuslimsAn estimated 90 percent of Malians are Muslim, mostly Sunni belonging to Maliki school of jurisprudence influenced with Sufism. Ahmadiyya and Shia minorities are also present. the remaining 10 percent of Malians adhere to indigenous or traditional animist beliefs or Christianity. Atheism and agnosticism are believed to be rare among Malians, most of whom practice their religion on a daily basis, although some are Deist. Read more...
Sankore Mosque in Timbuktu
Tourism in Mali is not well developed. Due to issues with infrastructure, tourism had been slow to grow but had seen improvements prior to the 2002 Africa Cup of Nations. However, due to the Northern Mali conflict and threats from terrorism, all major tour operators have withdrawn services which saw a decrease in tourists from 200,000 in 2011 to 10,000 the following year. The nation has four UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including Timbuktu. Read more...- Mali has an extensive and well-known position within African literature. Read more...
The military of the Republic of Mali consists of the Army (French: Armee de Terre), Republic of Mali Air Force (French: Force Aerienne de la Republique du Mali), and National Guard (French: Garde National du Mali). They number some 7,000 and are under the control of the Minister of Armed Forces and Veterans. The Library of Congress as of January 2005 stated that "[t]he military is underpaid, poorly equipped, and in need of rationalization. Its organisation has suffered from the incorporation of Tuareg irregular forces into the regular military following a 1992 agreement between the government and Tuareg rebel forces."
In 2009, the IISS Military Balance listed 7,350 soldiers in the Army, 400 in the Air Force, and 50 in the Navy. The Gendarmerie and local police forces (under the Ministry of Interior and Security) maintain internal security. The IISS listed paramilitary total force as 4,800 personnel: 1,800 in the Gendarmerie (8 companies), 2,000 in the Republican Guard, and 1,000 police officers. A few Malians receive military training in the United States, France, and Germany. Read more...
Environmental issues in Mali include desertification, deforestation, soil erosion, drought, and inadequate supplies of potable water. Deforestation is an especially serious and growing problem. According to the Ministry of the Environment, Mali’s population consumes 6 million tons of wood per year for timber and fuel. To meet this demand, 4,000 square kilometers of tree cover are lost annually, virtually ensuring destruction of the country’s savanna woodlands.
One of Mali's major environmental issues is desertification. Mali has been in a drought for decades now and it is really affecting the country. Soil erosion, deforestation, and loss of pasture land are all major problems in Mali. Mali also has a shortening water supply. Read more...- The wildlife of Mali, composed of its flora and fauna, is widely varying from the Saharan desert zone (covering about 33% of the country) to the Sahelian east–west zone, to Mali, a landlocked francophone country in North Africa; large swathes of Mali remain unpopulated but has three sub-equal vegetation zones; the country has Sahara Desert in the north, the Niger River
Basin at its center and the Senegal River on the south.
The vegetation zones are the Saharan, the Sahel, and the Sudan–Guinea Savanna. Mali has many protected areas which include two national parks, one biosphere reserve, six faunal reserves, two partial faunal reserves, two sanctuaries (one is a UNESCO designated World Heritage Site), one chimp sanctuary, and six game reserves. and three Ramsar Sites. Read more...
Ebola virus disease in Mali occurred in October 2014, leading to concern about the possibility of an outbreak of Ebola in Mali. A child was brought from Guinea and died in the northwestern city of Kayes. Mali contact traced over 100 people who had contact with the child; tracing was completed in mid-November with no further cases discovered. In November, a second unrelated outbreak occurred in Mali's capital city, Bamako. Several people at a clinic are thought to have been infected by a man traveling from Guinea. On January 18 Mali was declared Ebola-free after 42 days with no new cases. There had been a cumulative total of eight cases with six deaths.
As of late 2014, the Ebola virus epidemic in Mali's southern neighbors Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea has led to thousands of deaths. Mali, a country of about 16.5 million people, was ranked as one of the top four countries at risk for an outbreak prior to its first reported case. Read more...
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This portal may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: cohesion, chronology, headings, layout and structure in body of article. Please help improve this portal if you can; the talk page may contain suggestions. Mali Empirec. 1230–1670 
Extent of the Mali Empire (c. 1350)Capital Niani; later Kangaba Common languages Malinké, Mandinka, Fulani, Bozo Religion African Traditional Religion, Islam Mansa (Emperor) • 1235–1255Mari Djata I (first) • c. 17th centuryMahmud IV (last) Legislature Gbara Historical era Postclassical Era • Establishedc. 1230 1559 • State divided among emperor Mahmud Keita IV's sonsc. 1610 • Niani sacked and burned by Bamana Empire1670 Area 1250 100,000 km2 (39,000 sq mi) 1312 1,294,994 km2 (500,000 sq mi) 1380 1,100,000 km2 (420,000 sq mi) 1500 400,000 km2 (150,000 sq mi) Currency Gold dust
(Salt, copper and cowries were also common in the empire)Preceded by Succeeded by 
Ghana Empire
Gao Empire Songhai Empire
Jolof Empire
Kaabu Empire
Empire of Great Fulo
The Mali Empire (Manding: Nyeni or Niani; also historically referred to as the Manden Kurufaba, sometimes shortened to Manden) was an empire in West Africa from c. 1235 - 1400. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita and became renowned for the wealth of its rulers, especially Musa Keita. The Manding languages were spoken in the empire. It was the largest empire in West Africa and profoundly influenced the culture of West Africa through the spread of its language, laws and customs. Much of the recorded information about the Mali Empire comes from 14th-century North African Arab historian Ibn Khaldun, 14th-century Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta and 16th-century Moroccan traveller Leo Africanus. The other major source of information is Mandinka oral tradition, through storytellers known as griots. Read more...
Mali, one of the world’s poorest nations, is greatly affected by poverty, malnutrition, epidemics, and inadequate hygiene and sanitation. Mali's health and development indicators rank among the worst in the world, with little improvement over the last 20 years. Progress is impeded by Mali's poverty and by a lack of physicians. The 2012 conflict in northern Mali exacerbated difficulties in delivering health services to refugees living in the north.
A new measure of expected human capital calculated for 195 countries from 1990 to 2016 and defined for each birth cohort as the expected years lived from age 20 to 64 years and adjusted for educational attainment, learning or education quality, and functional health status was published by The Lancet in September 2018. Mali had the fifth lowest level of expected human capital countries with 3 health, education, and learning-adjusted expected years lived between age 20 and 64 years. This was a notable improvement over 1990 when its score was 0, the lowest of all. Read more...- Child Marriage in Mali. In 2017 in Mali, 52% of girls are married off before the 18 yo. 17% are married before they turn 15. Mali is the 5th highest nation in the world for child marriage.
Despite a slight decrease in child marriage rates over the past 30 years, child marriage is still common across Mali with more than 1 in 2 girls married before their 18th birthday. Read more...
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Did you know...
- ... that Malian taekwondo practitioner Ismaël Coulibaly won a gold medal at the 2015 African Games?
- ... that actor Art Malik wanted viewers of Holby City to perceive his character Zubin Khan as an "educated Muslim man"?
- ... that a letter authored by Ali, the first Shia Imam, to Malik al-Ashtar, governor of Egypt, includes a model for governing based on justice for every place and every time?
- ... that Lasith Malinga is the only bowler to take a six-wicket haul in the Big Bash League?
- ... that a clinic in Mopti, Mali, is named after Werner Bardenhewer, born 90 years ago today, who was for decades priest of St. Bonifatius, Wiesbaden, and then founded a charity group?
- ... that the documentary film Highway of Tears was created to draw attention to Canada's unsolved Highway of Tears murders, and won an award at the Malibu Film Festival?
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Selected images
Malian tea
Konoguel Mosque tower
Kalabougou potters
The Tuareg are historic, nomadic inhabitants of northern Mali.
Mali map of Köppen climate classification
WWI Commemorative Monument to the "Armée Noire"
Cotton processing at CMDT
Griots of Sambala, king of Médina (Fula people, Mali), 1890
A mosque entrance
Former President of Mali Amadou Toumani Touré and Minister-president of the Netherlands Mark Rutte
The extent of the Mali Empire's peak
Landscape in Hombori
Satellite image of Mali
A market scene in Djenné
High school students in Kati
Tuareg separatist rebels in Mali, January 2012
Malian children playing football in a Dogon village
A Bozo girl in Bamako
The pages above are from Timbuktu Manuscripts written in Sudani script (a form of Arabic) from the Mali Empire showing established knowledge of astronomy and mathematics. Today there are close to a million of these manuscripts found in Timbuktu alone.
Village in the Sahel region
Ex-Malian Transition President Dioncounda Traoré
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In the news
- 23 March 2019 – Northern Mali conflict
- March 2019 attacks against Fulani herders
- At least 134 Fulani herdsmen are killed in an attack on the villages of Ogossagou and Welingara by gunmen in Mali. (Reuters)
- 25 February 2019 – 2019 Piper PA-46 Malibu crash
- The Air Accidents Investigation Branch of the United Kingdom issues an interim report revealing the pilot, David Ibbotson, held only a private pilots licence and could not transport paying passengers within the European Union. Ibbotson and Argentinian footballer Emiliano Sala both died in the accident. Cardiff City FC announce "grave concerns" over Ibbotson's licence. (BBC)
- 9 February 2019 – 2019 Piper PA-46 Malibu crash
- The family of pilot David Ibbotson launch a GoFundMe campaign to locate and recover his body, raising thousands of pounds within hours. Footballer Emiliano Sala's body was recently found in the wreckage and recovered two weeks after the plane first went missing. (BBC)
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