Bamako

Sister cities

• Rochester
• Angers
• São Paulo
• Ashgabat
• Banjul
• Dakar
• Nouakchott
• Leipzig
• Bordeaux
• Bobo-Dioulasso
• Maubeuge

History

The area of the city has evidence of settlements since the Palaeolithic era. The fertile lands of the Niger River Valley provided the people with an abundant food supply and early chiefdoms in the area grew wealthy as they established trade routes linking across west Africa, the Sahara, and leading to northern Africa and Europe as early as 600s BCE. The early inhabitants traded gold, ivory, kola nuts, and salt. By the 11th century, the Empire of Ghana became the first kingdom to dominate the area, later succeeded by the Mali Empire. The kafu of Bamako was founded around 1650 by the Niare family, perhaps associated with a Soninke man named Bamba Sanogo. The Toure and Drave families, mostly clerics and merchants, were also prominent in early Bamako. It was a client state of the Segou Empire. The Scottish explorer Mungo Park visited Bamako in 1806 during his exploration of the Niger River. He estimated that the city at the time held 6000 inhabitants, similar to many other commercial settlements across West Africa at the time. In February 1882, Samory Toure defeated the French at the Battle of Samaya outside Kinieran. Faced with Toure's expanding Wassoulou Empire, some of the leaders of the Dyula community in Bamako began making overtures to join the anti-French alliance. The French commander Gustave Borgnis-Desbordes, eager to possess this key strategic location on the Niger, rushed a force to establish a fort there on 1 February 1883. Kebe Brema, Samory's brother, led a force to Bamako to lure the French out of their defenses. They fought two battles at Woyo Wayanko creek in early April, with Kebe Brema winning the first but eventually being forced to retreat. In 1904 a railroad was built connecting Bamako to Kayes, and the city began growing quickly upon being named…

Geography

Bamako is situated on the Niger River floodplain, which hampers development along the riverfront and the Niger's tributaries. Bamako is relatively flat, except to the immediate north where an escarpment is found, being what remains of an extinct volcano. The Presidential Palace and main hospital are located here. Originally, the city developed on the northern side of the river, but as it grew, bridges were developed to connect the north with the south. The first of these was the Pont des Martyrs (2-lane with two pedestrian sections) and the King Fahd Bridge (four-lane with two motorcycle and two pedestrian sections). Additionally, a seasonal causeway between the eastern neighborhoods of Sotuba and Misabugu was inherited from colonial times (alternated traffic on one lane with five crossing sections). The Sotuba Causeway (Chaussée submersible de Sotuba in French, and Babilikoroni in Bamanankan) is typically under water from July to January. A third bridge (1.4 km long, wide, four-lane with two motorcycle and two pedestrian sections) was built at the same location in 2011 in partnership with the Chinese government to reduce downtown congestion, notably by trucks. Under the Köppen climate classification, Bamako features a tropical savanna climate (Köppen Aw). Located in the Sudano-Sahelian zone, Bamako is very hot on average all year round with the hottest months being between March and May. The mildest months are between November and February. During the dry season, rainfall is scarce: virtually none falls between November and April due to the dominance of the Saharan anticyclone and the dry trade winds. The rainy season occurs in the summer with the peak occurring with a few storms beginning in May, then transitioning to the monsoon from June to October.

Most-observed species

• Laughing Dove

  Spilopelia senegalensis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  36
• Common Bulbul

  Pycnonotus barbatus (Desfontaines, 1789) · Aves
  31
• Senegal Coucal

  Centropus senegalensis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  25
• Long-tailed Glossy Starling

  Lamprotornis caudatus (Statius Muller, 1776) · Aves
  24
• Western Plantain-eater

  Crinifer piscator (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  23
• Rose-ringed Parakeet

  Psittacula krameri (Scopoli, 1769) · Aves
  21
• Village Weaver

  Ploceus cucullatus (Statius Muller, 1776) · Aves
  21
• Western Red-billed Hornbill

  Tockus kempi Tréca & Érard, 2000 · Aves
  21