Bamako

Bamako, city in south-west Mali, capital of and largest city in the country, in the Capital District on the navigable Niger River. It is the country's chief administrative, commercial, financial, manufacturing, and transport centre. The city trades in shea-nut oil, peanuts, kapok, and cotton, and industries produce motor vehicles, processed food, farm machinery, printed materials, metal goods, building supplies, and batteries. Bamako is linked by rail with Dakar (Senegal) on the Atlantic Ocean and is served by an international airport. Colleges of administration, engineering, medicine, dentistry, and teacher training are in the city, which also has several research institutes.

An important centre of Muslim scholarship under the Mali Empire (c. 11th-15th century), Bamako was little more than a village when it was occupied by French troops under Joseph Simon Gallieni in 1883. It became the capital of the colony of French Sudan in 1908 and continued as the national capital of Mali in 1960. Population 1,083,000 (1999 estimate).