France invaded Mali in 1880. After that, France owned Mali. France gave Mali the namesFrench Sudan and theSudanese Republic. At some times it also included other nearby countries. In early 1959, Mali and Senegal united and they became theMali Federation. They became independent from France on June 20, 1960. Senegal left the Mali Federation a few months later. TheRepublic of Mali, withModibo Keïta as the firstpresident, left theFrench Community on September 22, 1960.
There was acoup in Mali in 1968. Modibo Keïta lost his job and was put in prison. Mali was then ruled byMoussa Traoré until 1991. He treated the country badly, and so there was another coup in 1991 after protests against the government, and anew constitution was made. The leader of the country was thenAmadou Toumani Touré.
In 1992,Alpha Oumar Konaré won Mali's first democraticelection. President Konaré won again in 1997 and he made big political and economic changes. In 2002, Amadou Toumani Touré won the election and he started his second term as head of state. He was a retired general and was the military leader of the 1991 coup. Today, Mali is one of the least stable countries in Africa.
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Mali is the world's 24th-largest country. The area of the country is 1,240,000km² (478,734mi²). Mali andSouth Africa are about the same size. It is two times bigger thanTexas.
Most of Mali is part of theSahara Desert. Mali is does not have any sea coast. It is landlocked. Mali does not have many mountains. Flat areas in the north are covered bysand.Savanna is around theNiger River in the south. The climate is dry. The dry season is hot and dusty. There are many natural resources in Mali, includinggold,uranium,phosphates,kaolinite,salt, andlimestone.
Mali is one of the poorest countries in theworld. 65% of its land area isdesert or something similar. There have been several long droughts over the last hundred years. Therefore, most economic activity is near the Niger River.
About 10% of the people arenomads and 80% of workers have jobs infarming andfishing.Industry is mainly to process farm products. Women also dopottery and the pots are bought and taken tomarkets. Many foreigntourists like the traditional methods which the women use to make the pots.
Mali's mainexport iscotton, so if the price of cotton changes, Mali's economy is affected a lot. Mali also receives a lot of financial help from other countries.
In 1997, theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF) recommended a programme for changing the economy and the government followed this. Several international companies started exploring for larger amounts of gold in 1996-1998, and the Malian government thinks that Mali will become an important goldexporter soon.
About 90% of people from Mali followSunni Islam, but they do not always forget their traditional religions.Muslims have their own schooling system. The number of Muslims from Mali who go toMecca is increasing and some study inArab countries. About 1% of the people areChristians. When Mali was under French control, Christian teachers were sent to Islamic areas.
Thelanguage of Mali under French rule wasFrench, but now not many people outside towns can read or write this language. However, about 60% of the people use other languages well. Many people can read and write inBamanakan (the most popular spoken language). This language has its own alphabet, calledN'Ko. Other people can read and write inArabic, after going to an Islamic school. One of the oldest universities in the world is Sankore University inTimbuktu. It began in the1400s.
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