Mali (country)

C

Independence

Mali proclaimed its independence in June 1960, with Modibo Keita as president. The federation broke up in September, the former French Sudan retaining the name Mali and Keita remaining president of the new Republic of Mali. Underlying the breakup was a conflict over economic gradualism and radicalism, between a broadly pro-French and a strongly pan-African orientation. Mali undertook the later course. After independence Mali pursued a policy of economic development along socialist lines.

C

1

Keita’s Presidency

President Modibo Keita committed the ruling political party, the Sudanese Union, to a policy of consolidating state power for the purpose of modernizing the country. Ideologically, the party was inspired by a combination of Marxist ideas, pride in the country’s political heritage, and a sense of mission derived from Islam. Organizationally, it was both a mass party and an alliance of major regional leaders. It absorbed all organized opposition parties and controlled most voluntary associations, such as labor unions, women’s organizations, youth groups, and veterans’ clubs, leaving no legitimate outside channels for the expression of political dissent. The party and the government had parallel structures.

The new Mali franc, with little foreign-exchange backing, could not be used for international payments. Adding to the country’s financial strain were inefficient state-owned firms, which Keita expanded. By mid-1967 he had to agree to broad French supervision of the economy so Mali could reenter the French franc zone. Opposition to his policies within the Sudanese Union caused Keita to suppress dissent, until he was overthrown in 1968 by a military committee of national liberation.

C

2

Military Rule

In 1969 the leader of the military junta, Lieutenant Moussa Traoré, emerged as president and premier. His government modified the economic policies of Keita, but not until 1976 did Traoré allow a political party to form, the Democratic Union of the Malian People. He then blocked the start of its activity for three years.

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Traoré’s rule was marked by four coup attempts, numerous cabinet shuffles, and growing unrest among students and unemployed graduates. Searing droughts in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, coupled with low cotton prices and extremely bad economic management, left the Malian people among the world’s poorest. Many leading nations provided aid, but ties were slowly reduced with China and the Soviet Union. As the only candidate for the presidency, Traoré was returned to office in 1979 and 1985.

A border war with Burkina Faso (Upper Volta) was halted by a cease-fire in late 1985. Under pressure from its creditors, Mali restructured its economy in the late 1980s to privatize unprofitable government enterprises. Traoré was overthrown in 1991 by a group of army officers, led by Lieutenant Colonel Amadou Toumani Touré, who pledged to return the country to democratic rule. Swiss authorities later revealed that Traoré had transferred $1 billion to personal bank accounts over the years.

D

Recent Developments

A new constitution providing for a multiparty republic was approved in 1992. Alpha Oumar Konaré, leader of the Alliance for Democracy in Mali, became the country’s first democratically elected president later that year. Rioting students opposed to Konaré’s austerity measures damaged numerous government buildings in Bamako in April 1993. An attempted coup by supporters of Traoré collapsed in December of that year.

From 1990 on, strife in the north has become a focus of concern for Mali’s government. After the drought of the 1980s ended, Tuareg who had migrated to Algeria and Libya began to return to West Africa. Fighting broke out between the settled African population and the nomadic Tuareg. At the same time the region became involved in a general rebellion of Tuareg demanding greater autonomy from the governments of Mali, Niger, and Algeria, whose borders cross traditional Tuareg territory.

In 1992 a peace agreement, the Bamako Accord, was reached with the main Tuareg groups. Conflict between the army and smaller Tuareg groups continued into 1995. In 1996 more than 2,000 Tuareg former rebels were integrated into the regular army. Thousands of Malian Tuareg refugees were repatriated from Niger.

In addition to a troubled economy and the Tuareg rebellion, Konaré also had to deal with the trials of former president Moussa Traoré. In 1993 Traoré was sentenced to death for his role in the deaths of protesters a few years earlier. This sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by Konaré, but in 1998, Traoré, his wife Mariam Cissoko, and his brother-in-law Abraham Cissoko, went on trial for embezzlement. All three were sentenced to death in 1999, but the death sentences were commuted in 1999 to life imprisonment and hard labor. Before leaving office in 2002, Konaré announced that he had pardoned them.

In the meantime, democracy was having a hard time. The constitutional court declared that legislative elections held in 1997 were invalid because of fraud and lack of organization. Opposition groups urged that presidential elections scheduled for May be postponed. The elections were held nonetheless, although all but one of the opposition groups boycotted them. Konaré was elected to a second five-year term. Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter visited Mali in 1998 to mediate between the government and the opposition. Despite Carter’s recommendation, the opposition continued to call for Konaré’s resignation. For the 2002 presidential election, 24 candidates registered. Touré, the leader of the 1991 coup, was elected president, after two rounds of voting.

Touré was reelected in 2007. The constitutional court declared that he won the first round of voting with more than 70 percent of the vote, more than enough to avoid a runoff.

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