CLIMATE: Mali's rainy season falls from June to October and is characterized by torrential downpours and strong winds. July and August are especially wet. April to July are the hottest months in Mali; the mercury often reaches past 40°. It gets hot again in September and October, but the dry season, November to January, bring cooler air from the northeast. Malians call this season 'winter', but although the temperature can drop to around 10° at night, it still reaches the 30s during the day.  more    

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POPULATION: Mali is populated with over 11 billion people, over half of which are under the age of 20 and a small fraction over 50. Although urban centres are growing, about 80% of Malians are tied to the land, and another 10% are nomads - which partly explains a literary rate of only 40%. The Sahara and Sahel cover 60% of Mali, but hold only 10% its people; most of the population live in the south. Dominating this region are the Bambara, Mali's largest ethnic group, who also hold most of the political power. Other ethnic groups include Kanoké, Soniké, Peul, Bozo, Dogon and northern Touregs and Mores. These ethnic groups are linked in traditions of 'cousinage', a significant factor in their long, peaceful coexistence. Mali is officially a secular state, yet over 80% of the population are Muslim. Another 2% are Christians an estimated 18% are animist, although many animist traditions and beliefs blur with Islamic and Christian practices.  

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LANGUAGES: Like many former colonies, Mali has officially maintained the language of its colonial period - French. Le français is the language of government, administration, the nightly news. Yet Malian French is not what one hears on the streets of Paris. The tonality softer, as if the words have been rounded, rolled in clay, muffled and dulled. They have their own particular expressions ('faire une pose' means to take a photo) and some words have different meanings here than in Quebec or France.

Since Mali is a large country spanning many ethnic groups, French serves as the common tongue. However there are numerous indigenous languages, with Bambara being the most widely spoken. Other local languages include Peul, Fula, Tamashek, Dogon, Bozo and Songhaï. These are oral languages and it is only recently that lexicons and written works are being produced.     

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HISTORY: The name Mali comes from the great Empire of Mali which, in the 14th century, stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to present-day Nigeria. Tombouctou (Timbuktu) was the centre of culture and commerce. The Malian Empire was succeeded by others, the last of which was the Toucoulour Empire which was in place when the French began colonizing West Africa. Mali was colonized by France in 1890 and remained under colonial rule for 70 years. Remnants of the colonial era are visible in the districts of colonial buildings within many cities, as well as the 1,200 km railroad between Dakar and Bamako. But it was never as developed as the Ivory Coast or Senegal, simply exploited - mainly for cheap rice and cotton.  

On 22 Sept, 1960, Mali achieved its independence and its first president, Modibo Keita, ran a single-party state socialism which struggled economically. Keita was unseated in 1968 by a revolution led by Moussa Traoré and the next 10 years were turbulent, filled with several coup attempts, drought and public strikes. In 1979 Mali officially returned to civilian rule, but it remained a one-party state that was essentially a military dictatorship under Traoré's control. Talk of multiparty rule began in 1989 and over the next year large pro-democracy demonstrations and general strikes were held. These culminated between 17-20 March, 1991 when security forces met demonstrators with machine-gun fire and killed 150 people, many of whom were youth. The unrest finally provoked General Amadou Toumani Touré to take control of the country with the national army. Moussa Traoré was arrested and many senior government officials were executed. Touré, known as ATT, established an interim transitional government and gained considerable respect from Malians and the outside world when he kept his promise to hold multiparty elections within a year and handed over power to Alpha Oumar Konaré, who became president in June 1992.  

In 1992, Mali held its first multiparty elections. Alpha Oumar Konaré and his party - Alliance pour la démocratie au Mali (Adema), won a large majority and was reelected for a second mandate in 1997. Konaré earned general respect as he oversaw considerable political and economic liberation, had to deal with a 50% devaluation of the CFA franc; and promoted democracy in Mali by appointing opposition figures to his cabinet. Presidential mandates are 5 years, and each president can only serve two, so Konaré stepped down in 2002 and the following year was elected as head of the Commission de l'Union africaine. ATT, the former general who lead the coup in 1991, was elected as an independent candidate. He remains a respected leader and is likely to earn a second mandate in 2007. Currently 147 assembly members stand for election every five years. Suffrage is universal and Mali has more female government officials than France. Nearly eighty parties exist within the political arena and the presidential council includes representatives from a number of political parties. The country is divided into eight administrative regions; the constitutional court remains independent of the government; and Mali is one of the African countries with greatest freedom of press.  

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ECONOMY: Despite democratic progress and slowly increasing economic activity, Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world. In the UNDP 2003 country ratings, Mali rates 172nd out of 175. That same year, roughly 73% of the population lived below $1 US per day and more than half of the population is currently unemployed. Almost half of its GDP (Gross Domestic Product) comes from agriculture (40% of which is cotton exports) and as a result Mali is very dependent on good rains. Cereal production, such as rice and millet, along with other crops such as tobacco and peanuts, is a main another main source of income. Mali is also Africa's third-largest gold producer, but while gold revenues greatly help the government, the national debt of US$3 billion costs the government over US$60 million each year, roughly the same as annual spending on education. In the 1980s Mali joined the Communauté Fiancière Africaine (CFA) and its currency, the franc CFA, is currently fixed 1 euro = 656 francs CFA.  

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EDUCATION: Another aspect of Mali's decentralisation is an ambitious 10 program of education reform that was adopted in 1999. PRODEC (Programme décennal de développement de l'éducation) aims for 95% gross enrollment in primary schools by 2008 and universal primary enrollment by 2015. Currently little more than 30 per cent of the population is literate. There are three kinds of schools in Mali - government public schools, religious Madrassas and community schools. Although primary education is compulsory and public school free until the age of 13, students must pay for their uniforms and school supplies, a cost which is a detriment to many poor families. About 20 per cent fewer girls attend school than boys. In 2002, the government also launched a campaign to combat child labour - in 2000 it was estimated that more than half of children between 10 and 14 were working.  

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HEALTH: The facts are sobering. Mali has the fourth-highest child mortality rate in the world - close to a quarter of Malian babies will die before their 5th birthday. Life expectancy for 2003 was 48.6 and 20% of the population is undernourished. Roughly 30 people are infected with AIDS everyday and although by African standards the HIV infection rate is low - around 2%, the number of daily infections is still rising. According to a recent survey by the Ministry of Health, two out of three young people did not believe AIDS is a real disease. The Health Ministry of Mali estimates 10,000 new cases of AIDS in Mali in 2004, and 40,000 AIDS related deaths. As Mali falls between the two tropics, it is prey to many diseases such as Typhoid, Yellow Fever, Cholera and Malaria. Epidemics of these fatal illnesses continue to spread, accelerated by lack of basic hygiene or safe drinking water.  

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WATER: In a country dominated by desert and sahel, water is a constant concern. The Niger River is a lifeline through the country and farmers depend on its annual flooding for their crops, but in years when rainfall is low, the whole country suffers. As water it is such a precious resource, its consummation is one of the lowest in the world; Malians consume an average of 8 litres per day - compared to British daily consumption of 250 litres, or Americans 500.  

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TOURISM: Mali has a small but growing tourism industry, bringing with it both positive economic gains, and the negative aspects of exploitation and vandalism. UNESCO has declared Tombouctou and Djenné world heritage sights and both are popular tourist destinations - along with other richly historic and cultural centres such as Mopti and Dogon Country. Tourism has also created a large foreign market for Malian art, but has resulted in valuable items, such as Dogon carved doors, being taken out of the country.  More

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ART & MUSIC: West Africa is known for its rich artistic heritage, especially masks and sculptures. Sculpture dates back to the 12th century and is rumored to have inspired Pablo Picasso. West Africa is rich in textiles and in Mali the bogolan, or mud cloth, is a traditional Bambara art in whose dye comes from mud of the Niger River and whose designs are intricate and expressive traditional ideograms. Music is another rich part of Mali's cultural diversity and Malian musicians, such as Ali Farka Touré, Salif Keita and Habib Koite, are becoming increasingly known outside the continent. Bamako is the place to be for hearing well-known musicians, but anyone visiting Mali will soon realize how music and dance are so much a part of the culture that it is easy to see why people say rhythm flows through African blood.    

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Thanks to Sue Upton in Bamako, Mali for this information.