Mali

VI

History

Mali was the core area of the great empires of the western Sudan: Ghana, Mali, and Songhai, with centres of trade, learning, and culture in such cities as Djenné, Timbuktu, and Gao.

The state of Ghana originated early in the Christian era and reached its apogee between 950 and 1050. The empire of Mali originated in the 11th century, but its period of greatness began under Sundiata, who ruled from around 1235 to 1255, and reached its peak in the early 14th century under Mansa Musa, who extended the empire until it reached from the Atlantic coast to east of Gao.

The decline of Mali was rapid, although the kings continued to rule until 1645. Its place was taken by the Songhai Empire of Gao, whose great kings were Sunni Ali, from 1464 to 1492, and Askia Muhammad, from 1493 to 1528. At its greatest extent, Songhai reached from the Atlantic to Kano, now in northern Nigeria, and included most of modern Mali and parts of Guinea. Most of the empire was destroyed by a Moroccan invasion in 1591.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, several small states developed along the Niger basin, notably that of Segu. The states fell during the mid-19th-century holy war waged by the Muslim leader al-Hajj Umar, whose theocratic empire extended from Timbuktu to the headwaters of the Niger and Senegal rivers. His son and successor, Ahmadu, was defeated by the French in 1893.

In 1904 modern Mali was made part of the French colony of Haut-Senegal-Niger, and in 1920 was constituted the French Sudan, as a constituent territory of French West Africa.

A

Towards Independence

African political activity was banned by the French in Mali until after World War II. Various parties were formed, which eventually merged to form the Sudanese Union, which became the Malian section of the inter-territorial African Democratic Rally. By the time of the 1957 political reforms, the Sudanese Union was the main party.

In 1958 the French Sudan voted to join the new French Community, and it was proclaimed the Sudanese Republic on November 24, 1958. On January 17, 1959, it joined with Senegal to form the Federation of Mali, which proclaimed its independence on June 20, 1960, with Modibo Keita as its president. The federation broke up in September. Senegal became a separate state; the former French Sudan retained the name Mali and Keita remained the president of the new Republic of Mali, proclaimed on September 22, 1960. Later that same month the republic became a member of the UN. After independence, Mali pursued a policy of economic development along socialist lines.

B

The Traoré Regime

In November 1968 army officers overthrew the one-man rule of President Keita and established a military junta led by Lieutenant Moussa Traoré, who later assumed the presidency. His government, however, was unable to advance the economy appreciably, having to contend both with lack of capital and a famine-causing drought in the mid-1970s. An internal power struggle in 1978 led to an attempted coup. In the aftermath, several former members of the junta were tried and sentenced, while political unrest and repression spread.

President Traoré, running as the only candidate, was returned to office in 1979 and 1985. Mali was hard hit by the drought of the mid-1980s. A border war with Burkina Faso was halted by a ceasefire in late 1985. Under pressure from its creditors, Mali restructured its economy in the late 1980s to privatize unprofitable government enterprises. Traoré was overthrown in March 1991 by a group of army officers.

A new constitution providing for a multi-party republic was approved in January 1992. Legislative elections were held in March, resulting in victory for the Alliance for Democracy in Mali (ADEMA), which set up a coalition government with two smaller parties. Alpha Oumar Konaré, the ADEMA leader, became the first democratically elected president in April. An attempted coup by supporters of Traoré collapsed in December 1993.

C

Tuareg Rebellion

From the late 1980s northern Mali was riven by strife. Fighting broke out between the settled African population and the nomadic Tuareg, and at the same time the region became involved in a general rebellion of Tuareg demanding greater autonomy from the governments of Mali, Niger, and Algeria, whose borders cross traditional Tuareg territory. In 1992 a peace agreement, the Bamako Accord, was reached with the main Tuareg groups represented in the Unified Movements and Fronts of Azawad (MFUA). Conflict continued with smaller groups into 1995.

In 1996 more than 2,000 Tuareg former rebels were integrated into the regular army. The long conflict led to some 120,000 people becoming refugees; after November, 25,000 Malian Tuareg refugees were repatriated from Niger.

D

Under Konaré

In May 1997 President Konaré was re-elected, and his ADEMA party returned to power following two rounds of legislative elections held, after several postponements, in July and August. Ibrahim Boubacar Keita resigned as prime minister in September, but was reappointed by President Konaré the following day. In the same month it was reported that Switzerland had agreed to return funds to Mali, amounting to some US$2.67 million, that had been embezzled and deposited by an anonymous associate of former president Moussá Traoré.

In January 1999, Traoré—already serving one prison sentence—his wife Mariam Cissoko, and his brother-in-law Abraham Cissoko, were sentenced to death after being found guilty on embezzlement charges. The sentences were commuted, in September, to life imprisonment and hard labour.

As tribal violence escalated in 1999, President Konaré announced, in November, that he would not run for the presidency in the election planned for 2002. A new prime minister, Mande Sidibé—formerly an official with the International Monetary Fund—was appointed after the resignation of Ibrahim Boukabar Keita, and formed his Cabinet in February 2000. In July, a fourth report was published which highlighted alleged corruption in government-owned companies and other public bodies. Presidential elections in May 2002 saw a substantial victory for Amadou Toumani Touré, leader of the March 1991 coup. Parliamentary elections followed in July, with Espoir 2002, a coalition of parties including the Rally for Mali, taking 66 of the 147 seats. Ahmed Mohamed Ag Hamani was appointed as prime minister, but the government resigned suddenly in October. In April 2004, Hamani was replaced by Ousmane Issoufi Maïga. Further parliamentary elections were held in July 2007, with a new coalition, the Alliance for Democracy in Mali, taking 113 of the 147 seats. Prime Minister Maïga resigned in September 2007 and was replaced by Modibo Sidibé.

In a landmark advance the government signed a peace agreement with Tuareg rebels in 2006; however, a renegade splinter group, aligning itself with warring Tuareg groups in neighbouring Niger, began attacking troops in the north of Mali in 2007.