Where is Mali on the map

Image: Radio La Primerísima

The Republic of Mali is a state belonging to the African continent, which does not have access to the sea and, by extension, is the eighth largest country in Africa. It was a former French colony, leaving a large part of European culture in society, such as French, which is the official language. In this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to stop to explain where is Mali on the map and some of the most important characteristics of that country.

To know where is Mali on the map we are going to place it correctly within the border lines. As we have mentioned before, we must place it within the African continent, it will border the following countries:

• North: Algeria.
• East: Niger.
• West: Mauritania and Senegal.
• South: Ivory Coast, Guinea and Burkina Faso.

It has a territorial extension of 1,240,192 square kilometers in which we will find an approximate population of about 14.5 million inhabitants. The name of his capital will be Bamako.

It is divided into eight administrative regions, the names of these regions are given by their capitals: in the north we will find Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu occupying two thirds of the country and we will only find 10% of the population. While in the south we will find Kayes, Kulikoró, Mopti, Segú and Sikasso.

Image: mapamundial.co

Now that we know where Mali is on the map, let's get to know this country better and their way of life. To do this, we will begin by talking about the climate of Mali since in this country we will find ourselves facing a subtropical climate in the south while in the north it will be arid.

In most of the country we will find minimal rainfall, finding the rainy season between July and December, during which the Niger River raises its flow a lot, causing large floods.

We can divide the regions of Mali on:

• Sahara desert.
• Steppe and wooded savannah of the southern Sahara.
• Sahel acacia savanna.
• Western Sudanese savanna.

In the field of music we will find that the most important thing will be the spreading your story, that is, in many cases when reading the songs of these groups we will realize that the lyrics always will make references to questions about the life of the Malians, as they refer to the or Djeli or guardians of the memory.

Literature, however, is much less known than its music, due in part to the fact that the latter has been able to merge with universal styles to make itself more known. However, according to international studies, we know that Mali has been one of the great intellectual centers within the entire African continent. As an indigenous culture, we know that much of Mali's literary tradition has survived to this day orally and that one of the people The most important in this area was Yambo Ouloguem, who spent a large part of his life writing these stories so that they would last in the weather.

In the gastronomic theme, we will find that the base will always be rice and millet, although in general we will always see that all meals have a unique component, cereal grains. These grains are always accompanied by sauces made with leaves (spinach, tomato, baobab. Protein is also very important, adding roast chicken, cow, goat or lamb to your diet. What we have to take into account is that being such a large country, regional food will have quite a few differences between one place and another.

The subject of language is something also characteristic within the culture, the official language will be French, because it was a French colony until the 50s of the 20th century, but we will also find African languages ​​like Bambara. This language can be spoken by 80% of the population, therefore it is a widely used language within the country and used for trade. The other 20% of the population is divided between Songhai and Tuareg languages, which are also tribes that are always in conflict or in a state of great tension and that inhabit the northern part of the country.

We will find three religions with great importance within the African country, the most important and numerous will be the Muslim religion with 90%, being for the most part Sunni. This is followed by the Catholics and Protestants with 5% and the other 5% we will find it divided into animistic or indigenous religions.

Faced with this variety of cults, the Malian state established itself as secular so as not to favor any of the religions in this way. According to the latest studies we know that the coexistence between these is usually peaceful, respecting the festivities of each of these.