COUNTRY OF THE WEEK: Mali

This landlocked West African country won the random selection. Mali is geographically Africa's seventh largest country. One of Africa's most politically and socially stable countrries, the country is named after a Bambara word for hippopotamus.

Lonely Planet WorldGuide writes: "Mali is a country old enough to have rock paintings that date back to a time when the Sahara was a blossoming paradise, but the first known empire in the region was the Empire of Ghana. This was destroyed in the 11th century by Muslim Berbers from Mauritania and Morocco, who objected to the lukewarm manner in which the empire embraced Islam. By the middle of the 13th century, however, Sundiata Keita, leader of the Mandinka people, had strategically converted the empire to Islam and taken out a monopoly on the gold and salt trade. Under the influence of several progressive Mansas (Lords), Djenné and Timbuktu became the commercial Shangri-las of West Africa, with several mosques and a couple of universities being built as part of the push to create a great and powerful empire. But to the east the Songhaï had established their own city around Gao. They were powerful and well organised and, more to the point, had been busy creating a professional army and a civil service while the Mali empire had been building universities. When push came to shove, traders and students were no match for soldiers and bureaucrats, and the Songhaï Empire took over the Sahel. Their victory was short-lived, however, lasting a mere century before there was another bloody loss to the Moroccan Berbers. At the same time European ships were plying the coast of West Africa, thus circumventing the Saharan trade route and knocking the bottom out of the Sahel wealth. The city of Timbuktu was abandoned, addding to its out-of-the-way reputation. In 1883 Mali became a French colony and, although a few railways and irrigation systems were built, Mali was always considered the poor cousin of other West African colonies."

Wikipedia provides more recent history about Mali: "Mali was invaded by France starting in 1880, which organized it as an overseas territory. The colony, which at times also included neighbouring countries, was known as French Sudan or the Sudanese Republic. In early 1959, the union of Mali and Senegal became the Mali Federation, which gained independence from France on June 20, 1960. Senegal withdrew from the Mali Federation after a few months. The Republic of Mali, under Modibo Keïta, withdrew from the French Community on September 22, 1960. Modibo Keita was deposed and imprisoned in a coup in 1968. Mali was then ruled by Moussa Traoré until 1991. Anti-government protests in 1991 led to a coup, a transitional government, and a new constitution. In 1992, Alpha Oumar Konaré won Mali's first democratic, multi-party presidential election. Upon his reelection in 1997, President Konaré pushed through political and economic reforms and fought corruption. In 2002 he was succeeded in democratic elections by Amadou Toumani Touré, a retired General, who had been the leader of the military aspect of 1991 democratic uprising."

According to demographic information in the CIA World Factbook, Mali has 11,995,402 people. Fifty percent of Malian population is Mande (Bambara, Malinke, or Soninke). Peuls account for 17%, Voltaic 12%, Songhai 6%, Tuareg and Moor 10%, and others 5%. Ninety percent of Malians are Muslim, and Mali is considered a moderate Muslim country. Indigenous beliefs comprising 9% and Christian 1%. French is the official language, but Bambara is spoken by 80% of the population. Only 46.4% of Malians are literate, with a significant gender gap: 54% of males but only 40% of females are literate. The per capital GDP is US$1,300.