Mali, also known officially as the Republic of Mali (French: République du Mali), is a West African country in the western Sahara. It is bordered by Algeria, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal. Like other Saharan states, it's huge (8th biggest in Africa), but has a comparatively small population of about 20 million, who are concentrated in the fertile south since the triangular-shaped northern part consists of nothing but gigantic patches of desert and dry valleys.
Most of the population is Muslim. However, despite being wedged between two definitely Arab and Maghreb nations (Algeria and Mauritania), it's not considered either; it isn't part of the Arab League or the Arab Maghreb Union, for example. The northern part may be considered an Arab-Maghreb zone, since Arabs do inhabit it, alongside the Tuaregs, part of the larger Berber/Imazighen confederation, the original inhabitants of North Africa. Actually, this kind of situation is what causes the country, even if abiding by the same religion, to be divided in two, since power was and still is wrestled in the hands of the Bambaras and their fellow Niger-Congo peoples in the south. Their influence drags the country closer to its West African neighbors, including joining the regional Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) and adopting CFA franc as a currency.
The country's name is taken from the historical Mali Empire (c.1235-1600), a vast polity that stretched from the Atlantic coast deep into the Sahara. Beforehand, the Ghana Empire dominated in western Mali. Later, the Songhai Empire, which originated in northern Nigeria, incorporated the declining Mali Empire's territories into its own. All three empires are considered the Golden Age of West African civilization, with flourishing trans-Saharan trade that saw exchanges of gold, crafts, and other commodities. Following the region's Islamization through the Almoravids, the northern city of Timbuktu in the Saharan region became the center of Islamic learning and astronomy, and writings containing this knowledge are preserved there; today, the entire city is designed a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
All of this flew out of the window when the Europeans discovered seafaring as a swift way to trade, which rendered desert-crossing obsolete, followed by them arriving on the coast to begin their incursion as part of the Scramble of Africa. Though most of the territories were still under nominal rule by the native sultans and kings, France conquered the area in the late 19th century and incorporated them as part of the French Sudan colony. In the mid-1950's, it was renamed the Sudanese Republic and united with the Senegal Colony to the west. The union gained independence from France together in 1960 as the Mali Federation, but Senegal opted out a few months afterward, leaving Mali on its own. One of the effects of French colonization of Mali was French becoming the country's official language, and Malians make up a large part of African immigration to France since the second half of the 20th century.
Socialist influence dominated the country in the first several decades after independence, with first president Modibo Keïta committing all kinds of suppressive acts typical of a dictatorship. A coup led by Moussa Traoré deposed him in 1968 (celebrated as the Liberation Day), but he proved to be no better, as the country endured quite possibly its hardest period, with droughts and famine supplementing the dictatorship. It ended with the 1991 Revolution. Democracy was implemented beginning with the presidential election of 1992, and it went on for the better part of the decade and the Turn of the Millennium.
However, the country is currently experiencing a prolonged crisis, beginning with the Tuareg rebellion of 2012. The Tuaregs cooperated with jihadists, including the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, to create an independent state, Azawad, which happened as the country saw its first coup in exactly 20 years. Then the jihadists decided to turn their backs on the Tuaregs in favor of creating a caliphate. Things went so bad that those who instigated the coup relented for a transitional government, which demanded help from the country's colonial master, France, to combat the radicals. Most of the north was retaken in early 2013, democracy was restored later in the year, and a peace deal was signed with the Tuaregs in 2015. The jihadists have not given up, however. To this day, most of northern and central Mali is essentially a lawless land, with dozens of attacks by jihadists occurring every year. The conflict has also spilled over to Burkina Faso and Niger.
In August 2020, following a period of protests and unrest, a group of soldiers mutinied and arrested the President, Prime Minister and several other cabinet members. As a result, the President dissolved government and called new elections. The military junta, led by Colonel Assimi Goïta, have reigned since, and they have ruled out elections until 2025.
A famous cultural icon of the country is the jelis, also known as the "Keeper of Memories", who are basically storytellers reciting oral traditions and stories. In the past, the jelis also served as advisers to the kings.
In the West, the best-known aspect of Mali is the city of Timbuktu. This fame originated in the sixteenth century with a Christianized Moor named Leo Africanus. His description of Timbuktu's wealth caught the attention of European explorers, who spent centuries trying unsuccessfully to reach the city. During this time, Europeans came to regard Timbuktu as a fabled City of Gold, an African El Dorado. In the early nineteenth century, Westerners finally reached the city only to find that it had gone into decline since the time of Leo Africanus and that its fabled riches did not exist. Nevertheless, Timbuktu is still often evoked in Western culture as a quasi-mythical place and thus may be subject to the Eskimos Aren't Real trope. It's especially common for Timbuktu to be used as a shorthand for a faraway place, e.g. the phrase "from here to Timbuktu".
Useful Notes:
Works set in Mali
Comics
- Sundiata: A Legend of Africa by Will Eisner is based loosely on The Epic Of Sundiata (described below under Literature).
Film
- Timbuktu is about the 2012-2013 occupation of the city by radical jihadists.
- The Aristocats has Edgar attempting to mail Duchess and the kittens to Timbuktu, presumably playing on the idea that it represents a faraway place. The movie incorrectly places Timbuktu in French Equatorial Africa. In 1910, when the story is set, Timbuktu would have been located in French Sudan.
Literature
- The Epic Of Sundiata, Mali's most famous king, is the national epic, passed along as an oral tradition by the griots (or "jelis"). Probably the most famous version is that told by the griot Mamadou Kouyaté and transcribed and published by Djibril Tamsir Niane as Sundiata, An Epic of Old Mali.
Live-Action TV
- SEAL Team: In Season 2, Episode 19, Bravo Team deploys to Mali to recover the body of an American soldier who was killed in an ambush before a local jihadist group can use it for propaganda videos. In Season 5, Episode 8, they're back in Mali working an operation with a French GIGN squad to take out another terror cell. And then in the Season 5 finale carrying onto the Season 6 premier, Bravo is nearly killed in Mali by an ambush from the Sahaba of Greater Sahel terrorist group.
Video Games
- One of the missions in Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? involves helping Mansa Musa get some salt for his pilgrimage to Mecca, after the original was stolen by Carmen's thief.
Web Comics
- The character Sorbet in The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! is an immigrant from Mali, and there is a lengthy flashback scene with one of her ancestors in medieval Timbuktu.
The Malian flag
The Malian national anthem
—
Government
- Unitary semi-presidential republic currently under a military junta
- Interim President: Assimi Goïta
- Vice President: vacant
- Interim Prime Minister: Choguel Kokalla Maïga
- President of the National Assembly: vacant
Miscellaneous
- Capital and largest city: Bamako
- Population: 20,250,833
- Area: 1,240,192 km² (478,841 sq mi) (23rd)
- Currency: West African CFA franc (CFA) (XOF)
- ISO-3166-1 Code: ML
- Country calling code: 223
- Highest point: Hombori Tondo (1155 m/3,789 ft) (152nd)
- Lowest point: Senegal River (23 m/75 ft) (42th)
