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Mali
Mali, an arid, landlocked nation filling the interior of West Africa, is a cultural colossus. It has produced international stars with three Grammy Awards nominations and one award to their credit, and its contemporary music serves as a rich and varied reminder of American music's West African roots. To listen to Mali's contemporary music alongside blues, R&B, jazz, and rock `n' roll is to realize that they are siblings separated at birth and now reunited in the age of technology.
History runs deep in Mali. In the 13th century, long before French colonizers arrived, the peaceful and productive Malian Empire spread through much of today's West Africa, far beyond the country's present borders. Many different ethnic groups came together under a visionary Manding king, Sunjata Keita, to control the trans-Saharan trade of salt and gold. The empire enjoyed two centuries of peace and glory, and that golden era lives on today in songs and stories. Contemporary Mali is far poorer and more challenged than the Empire at its height, or indeed than the Songhai and Bambara kingdoms that followed Mali and preceded the French colonial era. The Manding now rub shoulders and share scant resources with Fulani (Peul), Bambara, Bobo, Dogon, Tamascheck, Soninke, Songhoi, Tuareg and other peoples. But recalling the inclusive vision of Sunjata, Malians mostly get along and show a respect for cultural diversity unusual in modern Africa.
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