Mali gained independence from France on September 22nd, 1960. In the years preceding her independence, Mali, Senegal, Guineas Conakry and Bissau, Burkina Faso, and Gambia, have shared histories and cultures. From the Ghana Empire, to the fabled Mali Empire and King Soundiata Keita, to the legendary Songhai Empire and King Musa, and the recenter Mali Federation of 1959 harriedly constructed to consolidate French hegemony after the African nations became independent.
This history and legend earned Mali the prominent position she now covets in the annals of history and travel. There is a concerted effort underway to ressurrect Timboctou, Djenne, and Gao as centers of African Islamic renaissance and Caravan trade.
Bordered by Algeria in the north (~600 mi.), Niger in the east (~400 mi.), Burkina Faso and Cote D’Ivoire in the south (~450 & 200 mi. resp.), Guinea Conakry in the southwest (~300 mi.), and Senegal and Mauritania in the west (~150 & 1000 mi. resp.), Mali is landlocked and does not have a seaport.
- ROP-1 Africa Partners
She has an inland port at Koulikoro along the Niger River perhaps because the Niger is Mali’s most significant water resource for sustenance and transportation. During the slave trade, people from Mali were transported via the Senegal, Bafing, Baoule’, and Niger Rivers to the ports of Saint Louis, Conakry, and Lagos, for onward transhipment to the Americas, the Martinique and Carribean Isles, and Europe. The capital of Mali is Bamako.
Mali’s most significant preoccupations are the enhancement of the fragile truce with the tuareg and berber tribes in the north and to a lesser extent water quarrels with her sister nation Senegal over the shared Senegal river. Otherwise Mali is adequately endowed in natural resources and ingenuity for a landlocked nation.
___________________________________________________________________
Please click on the link below to view a map of Mali
___________________________________________________________________
Mali Facts
Population: approx. 12,000,000
Latitude: between 10 deg. N and 25 deg. N
Longitude: 4 deg. E and 12 deg. E
Highest pt: Hombori butte (1,115m / 3,345ft.)
Land Area: 1,241,238 sq. km (471,115 sq.mi.)
___________________________________________________________________
Mali Climate:
Mali sits largely on a plateau with very little marked relief and barometric fluctuations in the main. Her size and expanse ensures a variety of soil types and vegetative cover. Mali has four bio-climatic zones, but the presence of the Niger, Senegal, Bafing, and Baoule rivers and the lattices of the Highlands makes for a panorama of flora and fauna and unique climatic enclaves within these main zones. For example the oases of the Sahara Zone make for almost strange ecologies on a dry sand mat. Also the Central Niger Delta that bisects the Sahel and Sudan Zones makes for an almost foreign flora, fauna and activity, that belongs perhaps to the North-Guinea Zone with its network of rivers and their tributaries interspersed with a few falls and gorges.
The Sahara: In much of Northern Mali, the Sahara stretches as far south as Timboctou and Gao characterized by insignificant annual rainfall (max. 300mm), sandy soil, sparse to no vegetation, high temperatures that vary tremendously between day and night.
The Sahel: Immediately south of the Sahara, the Sahel stretches to just north of kayes and just south of Mopti characterized by Sandy soils and aeolian dunes and rocky outcrops. Average rainfall is 400mm all of which fall in a short 3 month season. The Sahel contains the Central Niger Delta.
The Sudan: Stretching from the Sahel to a line running west-east through Bamako, the Sudanreceives more rain for a longer period; on average 800mm for up to five months. Vegetation is more dense and the soil is more ferruginous and retains water for an appreciable enough time to allow crop production and stock-rearing.
The North-Guinea: The southern-most climatic zone of Mali stretches from the Sudan zone to the terraces of the Fouta Djallon Highlands. Rainfall here is well over 1000 mm and lasts up to seven months. This is Mali’s forest region with red ferralitic soils and is suitable for fruit cultivation. The North-Guinea also is home to Mali’s few gorges and tropical fauna and flora.
Please click on the link below to view a drainage map of mali:
___________________________________________________________________
Natural Resources:
Mali PEOPLE:
Africans, African Americans, Europeans, Middleeastern,
Asians- Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Korean, North American, South American, Australian, Pacific Islanders.
Languages:
French (official language of Mali), Bambara, Mandingo, Pulaar, Soninke,
Songhai, Tamashek, Senufo, Mossi, Dioula, Dogon, Arabic, English.
RELIGION:
Islam, Christianity, Non-denominational.
