Please select one of the five chapters in the history of Mali

   Tensions would increase throughout the 60s before a military coup ousted the Keita regime in 1968.  Moussa Traore became the new leader of Mali and the military retained control of the control for a decade.  In 1979, under internal and external pressure, Traore agreed to return the government to non-military control.  Unfortunately, his idea of a non-military government meant a single-party system with himself firmly in charge.
    The 1980s were marked by drought, food shortages and minor political squabbles.  In 1984, a poor, desperate Mali re-adopted the West African French Franc (CFA) as its currency.  Mali also privatized many state-owned businesses in an effort to gain Western financial support.  The major international crisis came in 1985, when a border dispute led to war with Burkina Faso.  The short lived war lasted only 5 days, as neither side had the resources to mount a sustained conflict.

    By the end of the 1980s, the droughts had subsided, the new currency was stabilizing the economy and Mali appeared to be on the verge of a minor recovery.  Unfortunately, the Tuareg people of northern Mali, who saw their herds and crops decimated by drought, had already begun a separatist movement.  Fighting broke out around Gao in 1990 and the ripples were felt throughout the country.  Democrats in the capital city of Bamako had been calling for multi-party elections since 1989, and they pointed to the government's brutal response to the Tuareg situation as proof of their cause.  In 1990, Malian intellectual leaders wrote an open letter to Traore calling for open elections.  Later the same year, 30,000 people participated in a peaceful protest through the streets in Bamako.
    Traore was under intense pressure, and appeared to be close to submission.  Rumor states that Traore's wife influenced him not to settle and encouraged hardliners within the government.  Regardless of the culprit, the events of 1991 would ultimately result in the fall of his regime.  It started with a series of strikes which were met with violent police responses.  Strikes and student demonstrations crippled daily life in Bamako and a massive demonstration was planned for March 17.  On that day, government security forces opened fire on tens of thousands of protesters, killing 150 and injuring another 1000.
    This was the final straw.  Lt. Col. Amadou Toumani Toure led the military to take control of the country.  In the ensuing coup, 59 people were killed and Traore was arrested.  His first step was to establish a National Reconciliation Council similar to that in South Africa, and--to the surprise of the entire planet--appointed civilian United Nations official Soumana Sacko to lead the transitional government until elections could be held.  In 1992, Toure fulfilled his mandate by officially stepping down, and handing the government the freely elected Alpha Konare.  

    Konare negotiated a tenuous peace with the Tuareg rebels, which has survived small skirmishes in 1993 and 1994.  Although poverty continues to affect the stability of the country, normalcy returned in the late 1990s.  Mali remains one of the world's poorest countries, and hopes to move ahead in the 21st century.