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Mali

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THE FACTS ABOUT MALI

CAPITAL	Banako

AREA	1, 200, 000 sq km

POPULATION	12 million

LANGUAGE	French is the official language; the most widely spoken African language is Bambara

CURRENCY	West African CFA franc

TIME	GMT+1

TELEPHONE CODES	00 223

ELECTRICITY	220V



Mali

Visas: Everyone except French Nationals needs a visa. One-month visas are issued in two to three days and usually cost US$15.

Public Holidays: New Years Day (1 Jan); Easter Monday; 1 May; 25 May; Independence Day (22 Sept) and Christmas Day (25 Dec). Important Islamic holidays (when much of West Africa's commercial life comes to a stop), include Tabasaki, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Moulid. Since the Islamic calender is based on 12 lunar months, with 354 or 355 days, these holidays are always about 11 days earlier than the previous year.

Good buys: This region has a vast range of artistic and craftwork items, including masks, statues, hand-made textiles in a myriad of colours and patterns, glass beads and jewellery made from gold and silver.

Local dishes: Food in Mali is generally similar to that found in Senegal, with poulet yassa (chicken in an onion and lemon sauce) and riz yollof (rice with vegetables and meat). Root crops such as yam and cassava are also staples, which are pounded before being cooked.

Good reading: Chatwin's bewitching Photographs & Notebooks contains an intriguingly eclectic collection of pictures and observations from his travels, mainly in Mauritania, Mali and Benin. Also by Bruce Chatwin, The Viceroy of Ouidah tells the story of a Brazilian trader stranded on the Slave Coast in the 17th century. A Good Man in Africa, by William Boyd, is a humorous novel about a diplomat's struggles to maintain composure in a chaotic environment.