Page 132 - Empires of Medieval West Africa

E p i l o g u e

were so poorly maintained that it was difficult for farmers to get their
crops to market.
The new government under Conté introduced a 10-point program Some Guinea Basics
for national recovery. This plan included restoring human rights and Guinea covers 95,000
renovating the economy. Conté was elected president in 1993. He died square miles and is about
in December of 2008, and the military again seized power. the size of the state of
Oregon. Its population is
Captain Moussa Dadis Camara (b. 1964) is the head of a transi- about 10,058,000. About
tional government that promises to fight corruption and hold elections 85 percent are Muslim,
in December 2010. Improvements have been slow to come. Civil wars 8 percent are Christian,
in neighboring Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Côte d’Ivoire have sent thou- and 7 percent practice
sands of refugees across the border, adding to the economic problems. ancestral religions.
Guinea’s greatest economic failing is poor agricultural production. French is the official
language, but about 40
It is blessed with a favorable climate and relatively good soil, and 80 percent of Guineans also
percent of the population are farmers. But only 3 percent of the land is speak Fula, 30 percent
cultivated because in the past, the government set food prices so low speak Maninka, 20 per-
that it was not profitable for farmers to farm. Instead of exporting food cent Susu, and 10 per-
crops, as it did before the Sekou Touré government, Guinea still has to cent other languages.
import food to feed its population. In 2009, the adult
literacy rate in Guinea
was estimated at 30
percent. The life expec-
Modern Mali tancy at birth is today
The modern Republic of Mali came into being on September 22, 1960. estimated at about 57
Unlike Guinea, which lies along the Atlantic coast and has a good port, years. In 2009 the per
Mali is landlocked. The lack of a seaport was immediately recognized capita income in Guinea
was $2,100, with 40
as a fundamental economic problem. Shortly after independence, Mali percent of the popula-
tried to form a federation with neighboring Senegal, which has a long tion living below the
Atlantic coastline. But this effort failed. poverty line. The main
Modibo Keita (1915–1977), Mali’s first president, claimed to be a agricultural products
descendant of Sunjata, the founder of the Mali Empire. Similar to Sekou include rice, cassava,
Touré of Guinea, Keita began by establishing a socialist, one-party millet, sweet potatoes,
coffee, bananas, palm
state. But his failed economic policies soon led to his downfall. products, pineapples,
In 1968, Keita was removed from power by a military group led by and livestock.
General Moussa Traoré (b. 1936). The Traoré government gradually mod-
ified but did not fundamentally change the policies of the Keita regime.
In the 1970s, Mali tried to improve the use of its own human
resources by encouraging students to extend their educations. The
government guaranteed jobs to all university graduates. By the 1980s,
more than 60 percent of the nation’s workforce was employed by gov-
ernment agencies and businesses that had been taken over by the gov-
ernment. This stifled private enterprise and created a huge bureaucracy

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