Mali

On this page you find general information about Mali. On the pages "tours" and "request" you'll find more detailed descriptions about the countries tourist sites. On the page tours you can find a description of the journeys we propose you. On the page request you can indicate your special wishes on a form and send it to us, so we can compose a private journey for you.

Introduction

Mali, from the sandy downs in the North to the savanna in the South, is a chain of fantastic landscapes, with lively and colored markets, limen mosques with a sober architecture, often majestic. Not to forget its fascinating river, the Niger, that runs generously through the country, giving live to the dry soil.

Watch men's dignity and women's gracefulness. They are the descendants of the greatest African empires. The history that presses hard on their shoulders doesn't harm their humor, their spontaneity, their kindness and their amazing hospitality.

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Maps of Mali

Mali in Africa The main tourist sites

Dogon Country

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The history of the country

The empire of Ghana, ± 700 – 1100. Capital Koumbi Saleh (near Nioro du Sahel). The Soninké were the rulers of ancient Ghana. The economy was based on trans-Saharan trade with North Africa, which was interested by gold, salt and slaves. In the 10^th century the kingdom reached its height, thanks to the Southern provinces where much gold was found. But, from the 11^th century on, the power crumbled when the Almoravides Muslims took some of the Southern provinces. Modern historians, however, have seriously challenged the hypothesis of Almoravid military conquest and political influence over the medieval Ghana Empire. It seems more probable that Islam spread to Sudanese Africa peacefully and gradually through trans-Saharan trade. The acceptance of Islam by the rulers of Ghana, Mali and Songhay in c. 1000 encouraged trade between the empires and North Africa. The introduction of Islam also instituted more cosmopolitan social structures, such as universities, world religions and, especially, centralized state systems and military forces. These historians think that a nomadic raid sacked Ghana’s capital in 1076, after which the empire fell apart.

NB By that time only the elite converted to the Islam.

The empire of Mali, ± 800-1550. When Ghana fell apart, several smaller states emerged, including Kangaba out of which the empire Mali arose. It’s under the authority of Soundiata Keita (1235-1255) that the empire became powerful. He defeated the nearby kingdom of Susu, which had been led by Sumanguru Kanté, in 1235. As Ghana, Mali also based its wealth on gold. Mali reached its peak under Mansa Moussa (1305-1339), one of the successors of Soundiata Keita. By that time, the empire provided two thirds of worlds gold. On his journey to Mecca in 1324, Mansa Moussa distributed so much gold in Cairo (the estimations vary between 1000 and 10.000 kg), that the gold rate fell with ± 15% for 10 years! But he also spent his wealth to more permanent effect, for example, the building of the mosques of Gao and Djenné. But the empire was huge (At its peak, the Mali Empire extended across West Africa to the Atlantic Ocean and incorporated an estimated 40 to 50 million people) and didn’t resist, in the 15^th century, the Songhai revolt, the Mossi plundering in the South, the Touareg attack in the North.

Territorial position was one of the greatest differences between Ghana and Mali. And also, the kind of ties Mali was able to make with peoples outside of Africa, is one of the great differences between the two empires. Mali was much more international than Ghana was.

The empire Songhai, ± 1300-1600

The Songhais had to wait till 1464 to edify an immense empire, under the authority of Sonni Ali Ber. Askia Mohammed (1493-1521), successor of Sonni, expanded the empire. Gao was the political and administrative capital. But Timbuktu imposed itself as the capital for trade, religion and intellectual development and lived its golden age; many lettered people, the philosophers and spiritual guides lived in Timbuktu. After reaching a peak of power and influence during the first decade of the sixteenth century, Songhai’s power began to decline. Religious controversies led to a series of disputed successions and brief civil wars. Portuguese trade (from ± 1450 on) with the gold fields cut into Songhai’s commercial advantage as a desert-edge state. Meanwhile, Morocco was growing in power north of the desert. In the 1550s a Moroccan army crossed the desert and defeated Songhai.

After that date many kingdoms succeeded each other till the arrival of the French:

The Bambara kingdom of Segou (Coulibaly and Diarra) 1712-1818. In 1818 Sekou Amadou, the Peulh of Macina, defeated the Bambara. In 1861 the town of Segou was taken by El Hadj Omar, who forced all the habitants to convert to the Islam.
The Toucouleur kingdom in the West (El Hadj Omar Tall), 1852-1864
The Senoufo kingdom in the South (Tiéba et Ba Bemba Traoré).
Samory Touré (Malinké), last resistant fighter against the French for 18 years; he still is the most famous of the last black generals and strategist of West Africa.

The French conquest started truly in 1854, with the nomination of colonel Faidherbe as the leader of the Senegal colony, and the construction of the Medine fortress in 1855, near Kayes. The French troupes were initially slowed down by El Hadj Omar Tall, the leader of the Toucouleur Empire, that fought as hard against the colonial occupants as to convert the pains kingdoms to the Islam. The fights between the various kingdoms facilitated the progression of the French troupes. Towards 1914, the colonial conquest was achieved.

Independence : Named High Senegal - Niger, and later French Sudan, Mali remained a French colony until 1956. In 1958, it entered in the French community. Sudanese republic in 1959, it tempted a federation with Senegal that failed. Mali became independent September 22, 1960. Modibo Keďta was its first socialist President. Moussa Traoré, to the head of a military committee, reversed it (1968) and was to his tour reversed by a stroke of state (March 26, 1991) on popular revolt bottom.

Multipartisme was instituted and Alpha Oumar Konaré became the president of the third Republic in April 1992. He was reelected in 1997 and yielded room in May 2002 to Amadou Toumani Touré.

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The people of Mali

The country counts more than 11 millions of inhabitants. More than 80% are Moslem, what doesn't stop them from exercising some animist rituals to tempt to solve their problems. The people of Mali form a mosaic of ethnic groups that descended from many miscegenation's.

The Mandingo group

The Mandingo group (original from the Mandingo mountains) is majoritary (about 50% of the population). It contains the following people:

The Bambaras : ± 3 millions, cultivators living between Bamako and Segou,

The Malinkés : ± 600.000, cultivators as well, living south of the line Kayes-Bamako,

The Soninkés (Marka) : ± 750.000, cultivators, in the Kayes region; they are traditionally big travelers. Numerous are those who moved to the costal countries or to France,

Dogons : ± 500.000, cultivators, very well known worldwide; they settled down along the cliff of Bandiagara, which is about 200 km long and 200 m high, in order to escape Islam,

The Bozos and Somonos : ± 150.000, settled fishermen, living along the Niger and the Bani,

The Khassonkés, cultivators, people from the Khasso, between Kayes and Bafoulabé.

Other people

In the North of the country, various groups of nomads represent 40% of Mali's population:

The Moorish, descendants from a mixture between Berbers, Arabs and Black people, live along the frontier with Mauritania,
The Fulani : ± 1 million, cattle breeders, living everywhere in the median fringe of the country,
The Tuaregs : ± 500.000, living north of Timbuktu and Gao,
The Songhais : ± 600.000, the only sedentary people in the North, living in the Niger valley, from Macina to Say.

In the South of the country, some ethnic groups (± 10% of the population) are divided up between Mali, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso :

Sénoufos,
Bobos,
Mossis,
Miniankas.

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The economy

Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world and has known big economic and social problems: the weight of exterior debts, difficulties to satisfy the numerous social and educational demands … The government had tempted to solve them as well as it could by negociating hard with the IMF, the World Bank, investing people and other friends of Mali. Today, far from being rose, the economy started living again thanks to cotton and gold exportation, and the energy production by the Manantali dam together with Senegal and Mauritania.

The economy is built on agriculture (millet, sorghum, peanuts) and cattle breeding. Cotton (of excellent quality) is very developed in the South (Koutiala, Kita, Sikasso). Important herds are bred in the sahelian zone (causing overgrazing problems) ; a big part of the cattle is exported, on foot, to the coastal countries. Fishing is also not to neglect, above all in the interior delta of the Niger.

The main export products are: cotton, gold, leather, pelt, fruit and vegetables, sheep, cows and cereales.

The main import products are: petrol products, food, pharmaceutical products, and cars

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Facts and statistics

Capital : Bamako

Area: 1,240,000 km² (roughly three times the size of California)

The Sahara covers two thirds of the area, a sahelian zone in the centre, soudanese and pre-guinean zones in the South-West.

Population: 10,440,000
(49.5% male, 50.5% female; 47% under 15 years of age)

Population density: 7.9 persons per km²

Religions: Islam 80%, Christianity 10%, Traditional beliefs 10%

Languages:
French is the official language
Most commonly spoken languages are:
Bambara 38%, Fulani 14%, Songhay 6%, Dogon 5%

Literacy Rate: 40%

Urbanization: 28%

Yearly per capita income: $275 USD

Climate:
October through March: dry and relatively cool
April through June: dry and hot
July through September: rainy

Mean Temperatures and Precipitation (Bamako)

Month	min. temp.	max. temp.	Rainfall (mm)
January	16.6ş C / 62ş F	33.3ş C / 92ş F	0.1
February	19.5ş C / 67ş F	36.3ş C / 97ş F	0.3
March	22.5ş C / 73ş F	38.5ş C / 101ş F	2.5
April	24.9ş C / 77ş F	39.5ş C / 103ş F	20.8
May	25.3ş C / 78ş F	38.4ş C / 101ş F	54.8
June	23.4ş C / 74ş F	35.2ş C / 95ş F	127.6
July	22.0ş C / 72ş F	32.1ş C / 90ş F	225.5
August	21.7ş C / 71ş F	31.3ş C / 88ş F	284.2
September	21.5ş C / 71ş F	32.2ş C / 90ş F	200.4
October	21.0ş C / 70ş F	34.7ş C / 94ş F	72.3
November	17.7ş C / 64ş F	35.2ş C / 95ş F	6.1
December	16.3ş C / 61ş F	33.3ş C / 92ş F	0.8

Time zone: Mali is on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT or UTC)
GMT = Eastern Standard time +5 hrs
GMT = Eastern daylight savings time +4 hrs

Telephone country code: 223 (there are no city codes in Mali)

Currency: West African CFA franc, in denominations of 500, 1000, 5000 and 10,000 CFA (also utilized in Burkina Faso, Niger, Ivory Coast, Benin, Togo and Senegal)

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