Photo of Mali

Mali

Biography

Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the eighth-largest country in Africa and the 23rd largest country in the world, with an area of 1,240,192 square kilometres (478,841 sq mi). The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east by Niger, to the northwest by Mauritania, to the south by Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, and to the west by Guinea and Senegal. The population of Mali is about 25.20 million, 47.19% of which are estimated to be under the age of 15 in 2024. Its capital and largest city is Bamako. French was the official language of Mali until 2022, when it was replaced by 13 African languages, with Bambara being the first language of the majority of the population. Mali's northern borders reach deep into the middle of the Sahara Desert. The country's southern part, where the majority of inhabitants live, is in the Sudanian savanna and has the Niger and Senegal rivers running through it. The country's economy centres on agriculture and mining with its most prominent natural resources including gold, which represents 80% of its exports, and cotton. Mali is one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world. Mali was part of three successive powerful and wealthy West African empires that controlled trans-Saharan trade: the Ghana Empire (for which Ghana is named), the Mali Empire (for which Mali is named), and the Songhai Empire. At its peak in 1300, the Mali Empire was the wealthiest country in Africa with its 14th-century emperor Mansa Musa believed to be one of the wealthiest individuals in history. Besides being a hub of trade and mining, medieval Mali was a centre of Islam, culture and knowledge, with Timbuktu becoming a renowned place of education with its university, one of the oldest in the world and still active. The expanding Songhai Empire absorbed the empire in 1468, followed by a Saadian army which defeated the Songhai in 1591. In the late 19th century, during the Scramble for Afric

Bio from Wikipedia

Discography

Records they worked on — most-collected first.

Credited work

13 releases · 6 albums · active 1965–2008

  • Other credits · 11
  • Performance · 2

Frequent collaborators

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