33 Countries of Origin’ Profiles

MALI Produced by ANFE Italia (Associazione Nazionale Famiglie Emigranti) GEOGRAPHY: Mali, the largest country in West Africa, is bordered by seven other states: Algeria lies to the north and northeast, Niger to the east, Burkina Faso to the southeast and the Ivory Coast, to the south. On the west are Senegal and Mauritania. The region is almost entirely arid desert or semi desert 1 and the majority of the population lives in the southern region with the Niger and Senegal r ivers, far from the Sahara desert, about 68% of the population is rural, with 5-10 of people living a nomadic lifestyle. CAPITAL: Bamako POPULATION: 17,885,245 million 2 LANGUAGE: The official language is French but there are also 13 other national languages and at least other 40 African dialects in use. The most common dialects are: Bambara, Mandinka, Wolof, Fula followed by other indigenous vernaculars 3 . LITERACY RATE: total 33.1%; male 45.1% and female 22.2% 4 . BELIEF: Islam is the predominant religion in Mali (Sunni and Sufi constitute an estimated 95% of the population; the remaining are Christians or people who adhere to traditional religions. There are several mosques (particularly in Bamako) associated with a fundamentalist Muslim 5 . 1 http://www.geographia.com/mali/ 2 http s://ww w.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ml.html 3 http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/mali-population/ 4 http s://ww w.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ml.html