Word of the Day
Mali (MAH-lee)
Common clues: Niger neighbor; formerly known as French Sudan
The Republic of Mali is a country in west Africa, formerly a French colony.
The Sudanese Republic and Senegal became independent of France on September 22, 1960 as the Mali Federation. When Senegal withdrew after only a few months, the Sudanese Republic was renamed Mali. Rule by dictatorship was brought to a close in 1991 with a transitional government, and in 1992 when Mali's first democratic presidential election was held. Upon his reelection in 1997, President Konare pushed through political and economic reforms and fought corruption. In 2002 he was succeeded in democratic elections by Amadou Toumani Touré.
Mali is among the poorest countries in the world, with 65% of its land area desert or semidesert.
Mali is home of the legendary Timbuktu. Timbuktu was established as a seasonal camp by the nomadic Tuareg perhaps as early as the 10th century and grew to great wealth because of its key role in trans-Saharan trade in gold, ivory, slaves, salt and other goods, transferring goods from caravans to boats on the Niger. It was the key city in several successive empires: the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire from 1324, and the Songhai Empire from 1468, the second occupations beginning when the population invited the empires to overthrow Tuareg leaders who had regained control. It reached its peak in the early 1500s.
The leaders of the Songhai kingdom (also spelled Songhay) began expanding their domain along the Niger River. Like the kingdoms of Ghana and Mali that flourished in the region in earlier centuries, Songhai grew powerful because of its control of local trade routes. Timbuktu would soon become the heart of the mighty Songhai Empire.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html). It uses material from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mali and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbuktu
___________________________________________________
I asked Dr. Ali-Dinar of the University of Pennsyvania what two things he would like the world to know about Mali…
Mansa Musa – This is an ancient ruler of Mali who is mostly remembered for his extravagant hajj to Mecca with, according to the Arab historian al-Umari, 100 camel-loads of gold, each weighing 300 lbs.; 500 slaves, each carrying a 4 lb. gold staff; thousands of his subjects; as well as his senior wife, with her 500 attendants. For more information see: http://purpleplanetmedia.com/bhp/pages/mansamusa.shtml
Mali music. Listen to some samples at: http://snipurl.com/c3er
|
|