Mali - History

With no central power to keep order in the Sudan, agriculture declined. Refugees fled both the slave trade and the warring armies of rival states. Later, Europeans entered the area, seeking raw materials and markets for their manufactured goods. The French took most of the western Sudan - Timbuktu in 1894 and Gao in 1898. Africans were required to produce more raw materials for France, such as cotton and peanuts. Roads and railways were built primarily to transport trade goods to the sea. Little effort was make to develop the interior or to build trade networks with other nations. Communication and education were kept to the bare minimum. A head tax was imposed on every adult male.

Malians express great pride in their ancestry and pride themselves on a long history of peaceful coexistence among ethnic groups. Mali is the cultural heir to the succession of ancient African empires--Ghana, Malinke, and Songhai--that occupied the West African savannah. These empires controlled Saharan trade and were in touch with Mediterranean and Middle Eastern centers of civilization.

The Ghana Empire, dominated by the Soninke or Saracole people and centered in the area along the Malian-Mauritanian frontier, was a powerful trading state from about A.D. 700 to 1075. The Malinke Kingdom of Mali had its origins on the upper Niger River in the 11th century. Expanding rapidly in the 13th century under the leadership of Soundiata Keita, it reached its height about 1325, when it conquered Timbuktu and Gao. Thereafter, the kingdom began to decline, and by the 15th century, it controlled only a small fraction of its former domain.

The Songhai Empire expanded its power from its center in Gao during the period 1465-1530. At its peak under Askia Mohammad I, it encompassed the Hausa states as far as Kano (in present-day Nigeria) and much of the territory that had belonged to the Mali Empire in the west. It was destroyed by a Moroccan invasion in 1591. Timbuktu was a center of commerce and of the Islamic faith throughout this period, and priceless manuscripts from this epoch are still preserved in Timbuktu. The United States and other donors are making efforts to help preserve these priceless manuscripts as part of Mali's cultural heritage.

French military penetration of the Soudan (the French name for the area) began around 1880. Ten years later, the French made a concerted effort to occupy the interior. The timing and resident military governors determined methods of their advances. A French civilian governor of Soudan was appointed in 1893, but resistance to French control did not end until 1898, when the Malinke warrior Samory Toure was defeated after 7 years of war. The French attempted to rule indirectly, but in many areas they disregarded traditional authorities and governed through appointed chiefs. As the colony of French Soudan, Mali was administered with other French colonial territories as the Federation of French West Africa.

In 1956, with the passing of France's Fundamental Law (Loi Cadre), the Territorial Assembly obtained extensive powers over internal affairs and was permitted to form a cabinet with executive authority over matters within the Assembly's competence. After the 1958 French constitutional referendum, the Republique Soudanaise became a member of the French Community and enjoyed complete internal autonomy.

In January 1959, Soudan joined Senegal to form the Mali Federation, which became fully independent within the French Community on June 20, 1960. The federation collapsed on August 20, 1960, when Senegal seceded. On September 22, Soudan proclaimed itself the Republic of Mali and withdrew from the French Community.

President Modibo Keita -- whose party Union Soudanaise du Rassemblement Democratique Africain (US/RDA) had dominated preindependence politics -- moved quickly to declare a single-party state and to pursue a socialist policy based on extensive nationalization. A continuously deteriorating economy led to a decision to rejoin the Franc Zone in 1967 and modify some of the economic excesses.

On November 19, 1968, a group of young officers staged a bloodless coup and set up a 14-member Military Committee for National Liberation (CMLN), with Lt. Moussa Traore as President. The military leaders attempted to pursue economic reforms but for several years faced debilitating internal political struggles and the disastrous Sahelian drought.

A new constitution, approved in 1974, created a one-party state and was designed to move Mali toward civilian rule. However, the military leaders remained in power. In September 1976, a new political party was established, the Democratic Union of the Malian People (UDPM), based on the concept of democratic centralism. Single-party presidential and legislative elections were held in June 1979, and Gen. Moussa Traore received 99% of the votes. His efforts at consolidating the single-party government were challenged in 1980 by student-led, anti-government demonstrations, which were brutally put down, and by three coup attempts.

The political situation stabilized during 1981 and 1982 and remained generally calm throughout the 1980s. The UDPM spread its structure to cercles and arrondissements (administrative subdivisions) across the land. Shifting its attention to Mali's economic difficulties, the government approved plans for cereal marketing liberalization, reform in the state enterprise system, and new incentives to private enterprise, and worked out a new structural adjustment agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, by 1990, there was growing dissatisfaction with the demands for austerity imposed by the IMF's economic reform programs and the perception that the President and his close associates were not themselves adhering to those demands.

As in other African countries, demands for multiparty democracy increased. The Traore government allowed some opening of the system, including the establishment of an independent press and independent political associations, but insisted that Mali was not ready for democracy. In early 1991, student-led, anti-government rioting broke out again, but this time government workers and others supported it. On March 26, 1991, after 4 days of intense anti-government rioting, a group of 17 military officers arrested President Traore and suspended the constitution. Within days, these officers joined with the Coordinating Committee of Democratic Associations to form a predominantly civilian, 25-member ruling body, the Transitional Committee for the Salvation of the People (CTSP). The CTSP then appointed a civilian-led government. A national conference held in August 1991 produced a draft constitution (approved in a referendum January 12, 1992), a charter for political parties, and an electoral code. Political parties were allowed to form freely. Between January and April 1992, a president, National Assembly, and municipal councils were elected. On June 8, 1992, Alpha Oumar Konare, the candidate of the Alliance for Democracy in Mali (ADEMA), was inaugurated as the President of Mali's Third Republic.

In 1997, attempts to renew national institutions through democratic elections ran into administrative difficulties, resulting in a court-ordered annulment of the legislative elections held in April 1997. The exercise, nonetheless, demonstrated the overwhelming strength of President Konare's ADEMA Party, causing some other historic parties to boycott subsequent elections. President Konare won the presidential election against scant opposition on May 11. In the two-round legislative elections conducted on July 21 and August 3, 1997, ADEMA secured more than 80% of the National Assembly seats.

General elections were organized in June and July 2002. President Konare did not seek reelection since he was serving his second and last term as required by the constitution. All political parties participated in the elections. In preparation for the elections, the government completed a new voter's list after a general census was administered a few months earlier with the support of all political parties. Retired General Amadou Toumani Toure, former head of state during Mali's transition (1991-1992) became the country's second democratically elected President as an independent candidate in 2002, and was reelected to a second 5-year term in 2007.

Changes in the Borders and Name of Mali Since 1890

The present boundaries of Mali are the legacy of 70 years of French colonial rule, from 1890-1960. During this period, a number of major changes were made to the country's borders.

• 1890-99 - Mali became known as Soudan Francais (French Soudan).
• 1899-1904 - Mali administratively merged with what is now Senegal and parts of present-day Mauritania, Niger, and Burkina Faso, called Senegambie et Niger. Parts of the country transferred to French Guinea.
• 1904 - Mali and parts of present-day Niger, Mauritania, and Burkina Faso renamed Haut Senegal et Niger (Upper Senegal and Niger).
• 1920-69 - Mali again became known as Soudan Francais (French Sudan).
• 1947 - Frontier altered again when some districts given to the newly recreated colony of Upper Volta (later renamed Burkina Faso) and to Mauritania.
• 1959 - French Sudan opted for internal autonomy within the French Community and became known as Republique Soudanaise (Sudanese Republic). Along with Senegal, the Sudanese Republic formed a federation--the Federation du Mali, taking its name from the ancient empire of Mali.
• 1960 - The Federation became independent on June 30, but broke apart August 20 because of serious political differences that existed between Senegal and the Sudanese Republic. On September 22, the Sudanese Republic declared itself independent and took the name Republique du Mali, with its capital, Bamako, on the banks of the Niger River.

Senegal, a French overseas territory since 1946, became on 25 Novernber 1958, by a decision of the Senegalese Territorial Assembly, an autonomous State within the Communauté then instituted by the French Constitution, an option which had been previously accepted on 28 September of the same yeas by a referendum of the Senegalese people. In January 1959, Senegal formed, still within the Communauté, with French Sudan the Federation of Mali. That Federation became independent on 4 April 1960 and acceded to full sovereignty on 20 June 1960. The Federation of Mali was subsequently dissolved and Senegal became on 20 August 1960, under the name of the Republlc of Senegal, an independent and sovereign State separate and distinct from that of the Republic of Mali (the former French Sudan). The Repubiic of Senegal was admitted to the United Nations on 28 September 1960.