Republic of MALI (WORDS: 62)
Stats & Facts:
Capital: Bamako
Population: 11,995, 402
Official Language: French
Unofficial Language: Bambara
Government: Democratic Constitution
Status: Independent nation – from France in 1960.
Area: 478,839 sq miles (1,240,192 sq km)
Water: 1.6 % of the country
Currency: West African CFA franc ($1 US = CFA 498)
Time zone: UTC + 0
Drives: on right
Country TEL code: 223
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The Republic of MALI (WORDS: 1,095)
Timbuktu.
Yes to all those travel enquiries - there really is a city called Timbuktu and it is located in the northeast corner of Mali.
Everyone has heard of Timbuktu but very few people are actually aware of its location in West Africa.
Mali is a country for the traveler, the modern-day explorer who seeks adventure far from the gated-communities of all-inclusive resorts. With its giant six-storey mud-built mosques, villages carved into cliff-sides and majestic camel caravans traversing the desert, Mali makes for a stunningly surreal destination. Once an overseas territory of France, Mali gained independence in 1960; today it is deemed to be one of the most politically and socially democratic countries in Africa.
The country occupies the heart of a territory that once supported Africa’s greatest empires and is rich with historical resonance. This living legacy provides Mali with some of its most dramatic attractions – the legendary city of Timbuktu, whose name has never lost its allure for travelers; the gloriously improbable mosque at Djenné; the inland delta region of Mopti.
While it cannot compete with the major African ‘safari countries’ (such as Kenya) for sheer natural spectacle, Mali is a nation of unusual interest, charm and culture. Like Egypt, a great river--in this case, the Niger, defines Mali’s existence. This immense waterway flows northward from Guinea, passes through the capital of Bamako, and then flows northward to Mopti and onto Timbuktu. This ‘river of life’ then curves to the east in a great crescent shape that eventually carves south through the continent and finally empties into the ocean through the coastal Nigeria. The Niger – at 4180 km -is the third longest river in Africa after The Nile and The Congo.
Djenné, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS), is an ancient city surrounded completely (in the rainy season) by a river. Surrounded by a tributary of the Bani, this city was built for protection against invading armies. The jewel here (NOTE: A ‘must see’ for photographers) is the Grand Mosque - the world's largest mud-brick building.
One of the oldest trading towns along the Trans-Saharan caravan routes, Djenne’s fame is well deserved. The entire city is built of clay-like mud and is a dustbowl in the dry season. However, after the heavy rains during the ‘wet’ season, many of the town’s homes, as well as the Grand Mosque, need to be repaired and new mud is applied yearly. The weekly market on Monday brings materials and necessary goods to the city in a weekly cacophony of color and sound, which only serves to animate an already exotic destination.
The major commercial port of Mopti is located at the confluence of the Niger and Bani Rivers. The city lies on three islands: New Town, Old Town and Bani. As a result it is sometimes known as the ‘Venice of Mali’. Market day, every Thursday, fills the port with passenger/cargo ships large and small. Many people come for the day from outlying settlements reached only by the river. New Town is filled with vendors hawking everyday necessities such as fabrics and footwear to blocks of salt, watermelons, and livestock.
Billed as the ‘most remote music festival in the world’ the annual ‘Festival of The Desert’ is a three-day magical musical event held every January on the sand west of – where else? – Timbuktu, the mystical name for global travelers. Three days of music, dance and the siren song of the dessert held under the stars and the moon. The traditional Tuareg always seems to accompany the camel races during the day while the night skies come alive with modern Malian rhythms. (NOTE: such diverse western talents from Robert Plant to Paul Simon have used the Malian sound in recent pop music compositions.)
The larger northwestern region of the country, which extends into the Sahara, is almost entirely arid desert or semi desert. In the central region, known as the Sahel, life follows the Niger River's annual flood cycle, with high water between August and November. In the southwestern area, rainfall and rivers are more plentiful, and this region is (marginally) more lush than the rest of the country.
Mali's single most important geographic feature is undoubtedly the great Niger River, which traverses both the Sahel and the southeastern section of the country. Like the Nile, this river is both a critical source of sustenance and a major transportation artery--and in this latter capacity an excellent venue for boat travel.
Mali has been delineated as one of the 10 poorest nations in the world – the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is approximately $470 US with the average income listed at $1,500 US. Though agriculture is the country’s number one product, its potential wealth lies in mining and the production of agricultural commodities, livestock, and fish.
Mali has a long and illustrious past as an integral part of great African empires. The first of these was the empire of Ghana, which from the 4th to the 11th century controlled the trans-Saharan caravan routes. Ghana fell under invasions by the Muslim Almoravids, but the Mandinka Empire of Mali soon supplanted it. Mali reached its pinnacle of power and wealth during the 14th century, extending over almost all of West Africa and controlling virtually all of the rich trans-Saharan gold trade.
It was during this period that Mali's great cities, Timbuktu and Djenne, became fabled centers of wealth, learning, and culture. Mali's power didn't last much longer. In the 15th century it fell to the Songhai, who had established their own capital at Gao. The Songhai held sway until the end of the 16th century when their empire collapsed under both internal and external pressures.
The end of the Songhai Empire also marked the conclusion of the region’s history as a trading centre, for the trans-Saharan trade routes quickly lost their vitality after the establishment of sea routes by Europeans. In the late 19th century, Mali became a French colony. It wasn’t until 1960 that Mail, along with other French colonies in West Africa, gained its independence from France.
Mali remains a multi-ethnic nation comprised of a number of different peoples, including the Bambara (who are the largest single segment), the Songhai, Mandinka, Senoufo, Fula, and Dogon. The last of these groups, the Dogon, are world-renowned for their animist culture that has survived centuries of invasion from both domestic and foreign powers – battles that have diluted other, less hardy African cultures. The majority of Mali's people are Muslim, and the official language is French. Bambara, however, is the country's true lingua franca.
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