Demography
The total population for Mali numbers around 13.2 million. As most of the country of Mali stretches into the Sahara where land is not arable and living conditions are harsh, Mali is sparsely populated. Ten percent of the population is nomadic and live in the desert areas where population density is sparse, while more than 75 percent of the population live off the land and do so in conditions of high land density.
Ethnicity, Language and Religion
Mali's population consists of diverse sub-Saharan ethnic groups, sharing similar historic, cultural and religious traditions. Exceptions are the Tuaregs and Maurs-desert nomads-, which are related to the North African Berbers. About 50 percent of Malians belong to the Mande ethnic group, 17 percent are Peul, 12 percent are Voltaic, and six percent are Songhai. Tuaregs and Maurs make up 10 percent of the population, while the remaining five percent belong to other groups.
Most of the sub-Saharan population is concentrated in the basins of the Niger and Senegal rivers to the south. The northern part of the country that stretches into the Sahara tends to be sparsely populated by the nomadic Tuaregs and Maurs.
Each ethnic group was traditionally tied to a specific occupation, working within close proximity. The Voltaic were farmers; the Fulani, Maur and Tuareg were herders; and the Songhai farmed and fished along the Niger River between Timbuktu and Gao. The Mande were known globally for their dexterity and creativity as blacksmiths. In recent years, this linkage has shifted as ethnic groups seek diverse, non-traditional sources of income.
Although each ethnic group speaks a separate language, nearly 80 percent of Malians communicate in Bambara, the common language of the marketplace. The official language, however, is French. Most Malians are Muslim, the predominant religion for centuries. A lesser part of the population (approximately 9 percent) retains indigenous faiths, and a very small minority (about one percent) are Christians.
Historically, good inter-ethnic relations throughout the rest of the country were facilitated by easy mobility on the country's vast savannas. Despite its heterogeneity, Mali suffers little from inter-ethnic and factional strife.
Health and Welfare
The relatively high birth and death rates are roughly equivalent to those of western Africa as a whole. According to the World Factbook, the infant mortality rate is 103.83 deaths per 1,000 live births. The average life expectancy is 50 years. Almost half of the population is less than 15 years of age. The average literacy rate for people over the age of 15 is 46.4 percent, however, that number fails to show the disparity between males and females. Whereas literacy for males is male: 53.5 percent, it is only 39.6 percent for females.
With the strong Muslim character of the country has come a relatively secondary role of women in Malian society. Women have historically been considered the property of men to be given in marriage by their fathers and bought by would-be husbands. Until the political awakening of the country in the early 1990s, even women's health issues were under the purview of the male dominated society. However, with the Conference in Beijing in September 1995 on women's rights, a new urgency to the role of women as seen by women was adopted in Mali. Most notable are the issues of female excision and female genital mutilation, also known as FGM. A strong grassroots movement for laws against FGM has gained momentum. The goal has been to consider FGM not solely in terms of health and medical views (which fall under male-dominated policies). The goal also has been to re-assess the role of FGM policy as an issue of women's rights and freedoms, of education and of political power of th e right to control one's own body. With the growing emphasis on freedom in Mali over the past decade, this reorientation of women's roles in deciding the fate of their own body from a health issue to an issue of freedom has gained notoriety both domestically and internationally.
According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Article 166 of the Penal Code in Mali prohibits voluntarily cutting or injuring a person as well as committing any violence on a person. Article 171 states that any person who administers willingly any procedure or substance to an individual without consent and causes an illness or disability is punishable by six months' to three years' imprisonment. However, the practice is still widespread. Efforts to abolish FGM in Mali involve lobbying, educating the women practitioners and giving them alternative skills for earning a living. Information is spread by local radio stations, to reduce the public demand for excision. To date, no laws specifically against FMG have been passed.
Mali is a poor nation compared to many of its neighbors, with 64 percent of the population living in absolute poverty with 70 percent of the total population living in rural areas and 30 percent of the total population in urban areas. In recent years, Mali's health and economic woes were magnified by a tonsillitis epidemic with an estimated 46.3 percent of the country infected. Given the limited health care facilities to treat this otherwise non-lethal disease, tonsillitis was a countrywide health crisis. Short of alternatives, the president of the Malian Society for Oto-rhino-laryngology and Cervico-facial Surgery, Professor Alhassane Ag Mohamed, suggested that people treat the disease with penicillin for 15 to 20 days. However, given the pervasive poverty, few could afford even the penicillin, making tonsillitis a potentially lethal disease.
Overall, the risk of infectious diseases in Mali is very high. Food or waterborne diseases include bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever; vectorborne diseases include the risk of malaria in some locations; water contact diseases include schistosomiasis; and respiratory diseases include meningococcal meningitis.
Note: About 7.5 percent of GDP in this country is spent on health expenditures; about 4.4 percent of GDP is spent on educational expenditures.
Human Development
A notable measure of human development, the Human Development Index (HDI), which is formulated by the United Nations Development Program, reflects Mali's low quality of life. The HDI is a composite of several indicators, which measure a country's achievements in three main areas of human development: longevity, knowledge and education, as well as economic standard of living. The HDI places Mali in the low human development category, at 160th place out of 169 countries. Note: Although the concept of human development is complicated and cannot be properly captured by values and indices, the HDI, which is calculated and updated annually, offers a wide-ranging assessment of human development in certain countries, not based solely upon traditional economic and financial indicators.
Written by Dr. Denise Youngblood Coleman, Editor in Chief at www.countrywatch.com. See Bibliography for list of research sources.