History and Government
History
Once one of the great centres of Islamic culture and wealth, Mali (which is among the continent’s most ancient states outside of North Africa) owes much of its reputation to its situation as a major trading centre and to the tax that is levied on its trans-Saharan route. The Mali Empire reached its zenith under the rule of Mansa Musa in the early 14th century. Previously, it had been part of the empire of Ghana, which flourished between the seventh and 11th centuries based on the trade of gold from the interior for salt from the coastal regions. After the decline of the Mali Empire, the territory became part of the Songhai Empire, which occupied an area covering parts of modern-day Guinea, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Nigeria. Songhai was brought to an end and its territory usurped by the Moroccan invasion of 1591. With the decline of the trans-Saharan trading routes, the area enjoyed little strategic importance and was divided into small kingdoms for the next two centuries until the arrival of French colonists. Mali was absorbed into French West Africa in 1895. In 1960, together with what is now Senegal, it achieved independence as the Federation of Mali, although Senegal seceded after a few weeks.
The first President of the resulting Republic of Mali was Modibo Keita, who severed ties with France and developed strong links with the USSR. In 1967, however, hyper-inflation forced Mali to rejoin the Franc Zone. In 1968, a military coup overthrew Keita and power was assumed by the Military Committee for National Liberation (CMLN) under Lieutenant (later General) Moussa Traoré. In 1976, Traoré formed the sole legal political party, the Union Démocratique du Peuple Malien (UDPM), and began a slow civilianisation of the administration. Frequent reshuffles and rapid personnel turnovers indicated the insecurity of the Traoré regime, which was the target of several attempted coups during its 23-year term. It was finally brought down in March 1991.
Another army officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Amadou Toumani Touré, assumed power at the head of the Conseil National de Réconciliation (CNR). Under pressure from France, the new regime organised a national conference to discuss a new constitution and provisionally set down a framework for elections and the withdrawal of the army from politics early in 1992. The agreed schedule was met and presidential elections were held in April of that year. Among several political parties formed around this time, the strongest was the Alliance pour la Démocratie au Mali (ADEMA). Under the leadership of university professor Alpha Oumar Konaré, ADEMA dominated Malian politics for the next 10 years: Konaré secured re-election in 1997 while ADEMA took firm control of the national assembly. The political environment was far from peaceful during the period of ADEMA rule. The country was beset by strikes, student protests and an almost unfathomable series of ‘breakaways’ and alliances within the multitude of political parties, as well as a revolving door of prime ministers, few of whom lasted more than a year. There was also the Tuareg problem. The Tuareg are nomadic people whose traditional territory spans eastern Mali, western Niger and the northern part of Burkina Faso. In the early/mid-1990s, the Tuareg’s livestock-based economy collapsed, mainly due to chronic drought, and a series of disputes followed between them and the rest of the population over land use. Serious fighting broke out on several occasions; in one instance, Algerian mediation (a measure of its seriousness) was called upon to produce a settlement. Mali is an Islamic country in which several strains of the faith co-exist. In the last few years, there have been occasional violent clashes between adherents of different branches of the religion.
In 2002, after a decade in the political wilderness, Amadou Toumani Touré, the former army officer who had seized power in 1991, returned to office. Backed by a newly-formed political party, Espoir 2002, he won a comfortable victory at the June presidential poll while his supporters took control of the national assembly. French approval quickly became evident when the bulk of Mali’s debt to France was cancelled within months of the election. Ex-president Alpha Konaré was appointed head of the African Union, the successor body to the Organisation of African Unity.
Government
A new constitution allowing for presidential elections was introduced in 1992 and approved by a national referendum, after the overthrow of the military dictatorship by the Conseil National de Réconciliation. Executive power rests with the president who is elected for a five-year term. The president appoints a prime minister who, in turn, appoints a Council of Ministers. A 147-member National Assembly, also elected for five years, holds legislative powers.
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