ECONOMY
When one talks about a poor African country, Mali usually comes to mind as an example of poverty. Indeed, by all objective measures Mali is one of the world's poorest countries.
It ranks in the bottom quarter of countries in terms of GDP (PPP) and near the very bottom of countries in terms of per capita income (ranks 162th out of 179 countries ranked by the IMF; 148th of 154 countries ranked by the World Bank; and 166th of 193 countries ranked by the CIA).
Mali fits the economic pattern of a struggling Third or Fourth World country. Over 65% of the land is desert or semi-desert. Nearly 80% of the population engages in farming and fishing. Another 10% of the population is nomadic.
The availability of electricity, potable water, and health care services is limited. In addition, Mali has few natural resources, a high birth rate, low life expectancy, high unemployment, and occasional disasters (flooding, droughts, pestilence, epidemics).
Annual GDP/PPP is estimated to be around $13 billion in 2008. Annual per capita income is estimated to be around US$1,100. Most people live on less than US$2 a day.
If you travel throughout Mali, you'll see many signs of poverty. The most prosperous parts of Mali are the major trading towns and cities along the Niger River and in the far south. However, these places - especially Mopti, Segou, Bamako, and Sikasso - also exhibit a great deal of urban poverty.
Mali is primarily an agricultural (cotton and peanuts for export), herding (large exporter of cattle), and fishing country with some food processing industries. Agricultural production primarily focuses on growing cotton, millet, rice, corn, peanuts, and vegetables and raising cattle, sheep, and goats.
Mali's natural resources are limited to the mining of gold, phosphate, kaolin, salt, gypsum, granite, and limestone and the availability of hydropower.
Gold is extremely important to Mali, which is Africa’s third largest gold producer; 80% of all mining activity in Mali is for gold. Mali also is known to have reserves of oil, bauxite, iron ore, manganese, lithium, and uranium, but they have yet to be exploited.
Major sources of income include remittances from Malians working abroad and the export of gold, cotton, livestock, and fish.
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While very rich in history, culture, music, and art, Mali remains one of Africa's poorest countries economically. For many visitors not used to experiencing the trials and tribulations of Third and Fourth World countries (LDC) - especially those that weathered disappointing socialism and Eastern bloc aid for many years - Mali can be a challenging travel destination.
In 1959 the Sudanese Republic (French Sudan) and Senegal formed the Mali Federation, which in 1960 was renamed the Republic of Mali and given full independence from France. When Senegal withdrew from the Federation in 1960, Mali became an independent nation on September 22, 1960.
The second largest country in West Africa (neighboring Niger is larger), Mali occupies an area of 1,240,000 sq. km (478,784 sq. mi), which makes it about the same size as Angola, Niger, or South Africa or just less than twice the size of the U.S. state of Texas.
Mali is essentially a flat, hot, arid, and dusty country with a few pockets of water, greenery, and hills. While much of it is covered by inhospitable desert, Mali also is blessed by two of Africa's most important rivers, the Niger River, which produces a unique inland delta region, and the Senegal River that produces hydroelectric power.
Like the crescent of a boomerang, this river connects the critical trading cities of Bamako, Segou, Mopti, Timbuktu, and Gao before continuing south into Niger, Benin, and Nigeria. In fact, because of the Niger River, landlocked Mali is one of Africa's largest exporters of fish.
Being primarily an agricultural and pastoral country, Mali's major environmental issues relate to desertification (Sahara Desert in the north continues to advance southward into the Sahel destroying valuable grazing and arable agricultural lands), deforestation, soil erosion, poaching, inadequate potable water, recurring droughts, occasional flooding of rivers, dust storms, rudimentary urban sanitation, excessive trash, and water and air pollution.
Mali is an Islamic country with a long history of being a center for Islamic culture and scholarship. Spread through the famous overland caravan trade routes, Islam took hold in the western Sudan during the 13th century. Islam subsequently flourished with the development of famous Islamic universities in Timbuktu and Djenne during the 15th and 16th centuries.
