POPULATION 11,340,480
MUSLIM 85 to 90 percent
AFRICAN INDIGENOUS BELIEFS 8 to 10 percent
CHRISTIAN 1 to 2 percent

Country Overview

Introduction

Located in West Africa, the Republic of Mali borders Algeria to the north, Mauritania and Senegal to the west, Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire to the south, and Burkina Faso and Niger to the east. Africa's second largest exporter of cotton, Mali depends on Niger River as a vital resource. Most inhabitants are farmers, stockherders, or fisherpeople. Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world; the United Nations estimates that 64 percent of the population lives in abject poverty.

Since early in the first millennium C.E. trade routes across the Sahara connected Mali with North Africa. Mali contains the centers of two great West African empires: the Mali (at its height in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries) and the Songhai (Songhay; at its height in the fifteenth century). Influenced by Muslim traders...