Background: The Sudanese Republic and Senegal became independent of France in 1960 as the Mali Federation. When Senegal withdrew after only a few months, what formerly made up the Sudanese Republic was renamed Mali. Rule by dictatorship was brought to a close in 1991 with a transitional government and in 1992 when Mali's first democratic presidential election was held. After his reelection in 1997, President Alpha KONARE continued to push through political and economic reforms and to fight corruption. In keeping with Mali's two-term constitutional limit, he stepped down in 2002 and was succeeded by Amadou TOURE.
May 13th 2008Africa » Mali » Dogon Country » Bandiagara Pays Dogon. Dogon Country. Beautiful. Spectacular. Surprising.
Our trek into the Dogon Country started early from Bandiagara with a drive to Djiguibombo (delightfully pronounced Jiggy-boom-bo). ... 23 photos[full story]
May 5th 2008Africa » Mali » Centre » Djenné Sorry about the lack of bicycle story from the last blog, we were encountering computer difficulties and in the mad dash to finish before our time ran out, I totally forgot about the cycling adventure ... 15 photos[full story]
April 21st 2008Africa » Mali » Centre » Ségou The plan was to take the train from Tamba to Bamako. But you know what they say about plans ...
We wanted to take the train because we were ready for a different sort of transportation, besides th ... 13 photos[full story]
August 20th 2007Africa » Mali Haby Sy accompanied me to the airport; we promised to email, thought my written French is, well, really really bad. Good thing for google translation. I flew Dakar to Bamako and realized when I land ... 4 photos[full story]
March 6th 2008Africa » Mali
We finished up our African Trip on February 26th, and I haven’t had a chance to write about our last day there (we arrived home on February 27th and left for Toronto on February 29th and have ... 3 photos[full story]
January 18th 2008Africa » Mali » Dogon Country » Mopti So… here it goes and continues… about a month later! Sorry.. I’m trying to catch up on the lack of communication here!
So.. after the whole Dogon Country thing.. we decided to t ... 29 photos[full story]
January 23rd 2008Africa » Mali » North-East » Gao 12-year-old Tula lives in the remote yet bustling village of Gao, a sprawling pile of mud houses banked along the glittering blue waters of the Niger River in Mali's western lunar landscape. She's on ... [full story]
January 23rd 2008Africa » Mali As the Francophones say, Joyeux Noel and Bonne Annee toute le monde! Please forgive my long absence on the blog, however being on holidays is the best excuse I know for going AWAL, and what a holiday ... 34 photos[full story]
January 19th 2008Africa » Mali » District of Bamako It's important for me to praise the master drummers who taught me so generously in Bamako at the Djembe Hotel, and to tell aspiring djembe players in America about the value of going to Mali and learn ... 5 photos[full story]
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