MALI
... The larger towns have elected mayors and council members. The main cities are Bamako the capital, Ségou, Mopti, Sikasso, and Gao. Ségou and Mopti are important fishing centers. Only 49 percent of Malian children of primary school age attended schools in 1997. Only 48 percent of men and 33 percent of women in Mali are literate. About 6,700 students attended institutions of higher education in Mali in the early 1990s. Bamako has schools of administration, medicine, and engineering. The country of Mali is one of the world’s poorest countries. The economy’s largest sector is agriculture, and crops depend almost completely on irrigation or flooding from the Niger River and its tributaries. Small industrial enterprises consist primarily of cotton ginning and food processing. Fish from the Niger River is important to the diet of the people living along the river. The fishing industry produces a surplus, which is then dried and smoked for it to be export. The cultivation of food crops takes up 86 percent of the economically active population of Mali. The main crops are millet, rice, sorghum, corn, and sugarcane. Raising livestock is extremely important in Mal; in the year 1999 the livestock population included 6.1 million cattle, 6 million sheep, 8.5 million goats, and 24.5 million poultry. In the mid- 1980’s drought devastated Mali’s livestock herds and food production. Most foreign trade operations are in the hands of the state. Principal exports in Mali include gold, cotton, livestock, processed foodstuffs, and mangoes. The value of exports in 1998 was $560 million. Imports, include petroleum products, motor vehicles, food products, machinery, and chemicals, amounted to $743 million. Chief purchasers of Mali’s exports are Belgium, China, Spain, France, Côte d’Ivoire, and Germany; leading sources of imports are Côte d’Ivoire, France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, China, Germany, and Spain. The Niger River plays a very impoertant role during the rainy season (June to September) and for a few months afterward. The Niger is also navigable by larger ships, while canoes and small craft can use the river year-round. It serves as a source of livelihood for many West African farmers, fishers, and herders, as a transportation route in areas that are poorly connected, and as a source of energy. The Senegal River in western Africa, forms the boundary between Senegal and Mauritania. The river is 990 miles in length. It has two main sources, the Bafing and the Bakoye, which meet at Bafoulabé, in Mali. From there the Senegal flows northwest, west, and southwest, reaching the Atlantic Ocean near Saint-Louis, Senegal. Like the Niger river the Senegal river is also navigable during the rainy season. It is navigable from the Atlantic Ocean to Podor, Senegal, all year long, and also to Kayes, Mali. A railroad links Koulikoro, Bamako, and Kayes with the port of Dakar in Senegal. Mali has 9,383 miles of roads and only 12 percent of it is paved. An international airport is located near Bamako. Air Mali, the state airline, offers international and domestic service. Telephone, telegraph, and radio services are publicly owned and operated. There were 3 telephone mainlines for every 1,000 inhabitants in 1998; the country had 55 radio receivers and 4 television sets in use for every 1,000 persons in 1997. France entered Mali in the mid- 1800’s and there they met one of the strongest movements that resisted colonial rule in Africa. From the 1850’s to the 1890’s Mali fought the French but the French overwhelmed them in 1895 and made M...