The Republic of Mali is a country in north west Africa. It has a total area of 1,240,000 km2. The climate is subtropical to arid; hot and dry from February to June and rainy, humid, and mild from June to November; and cool and dry from November to February. The terrain is mostly flat to rolling northern plains covered by sand; savannah in the south, and rugged hills in the north-east Natural resources are gold, phosphates, kaolin, salt, limestone, uranium; bauxite, iron ore, manganese, tin, and copper deposits are known but not exploited. The religion is mainly animist with some followers of Islam and some christians. The official language is French with Bambara spoken by about 80% of the population and numerous Dogon dialects also being spoken.
From the 4th until the 11th centuries, the area that is now Mali was part of the kingdom of Ghana, and from the 7th to the 15th centuries part of the Muslim Mali Empire. In 1591 Mali was invaded by Morocco and divided into small kingdoms. In 1895 Mali became part of the French colony of Sudan, in 1959 forming the Federation of Mali with senegal and in 1960 when Senegal left the federation Mali became an independent republic. Research Mali
Abbreviations
Gazetteer
Research Mali