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Mali is in the news today, so here's a primer on the history of the country and ancient empire from which @lokeandabove drew inspiration for one of our designs
Going back to the 13th century AD, the Empire of Mali once included parts of present day Senegal, Mauritania, and Guinea https://books.google.com/books?id=u5HnAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA7&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false
Here's a fun bit of etymology: Mali was built by the Mandika people. The word 'mali' in the Mandika language originally meant 'hippopotamus' but came to mean 'the place where the king lives'
The first king was Sundiata Keita. Read more on his reign here, courtesty of @Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sundiata-Keita
Speaking of kings you've probably heard or read about the larger than life emperor Mansa Musa whose wealth, conquest, and generosity are the stuff of lore
Take for example his 3 month stay in Cairo where Musa spent so much (in solid gold of course) that he caused the price of gold to plummet in the region for 10 years due to oversupply, wreaking havoc on the economy in North Africa and parts of the Middle East.
Dr. Lucy Durán notes that Malian griots (singing historian-storytellers) were upset with him. "He gave out so much Malian gold along the way that jelis [griots] don't like to praise him in their songs because they think he wasted local resources outside the empire."
Don't take my word for it - @SmartAsset estimates that due to the depreciation of gold, Mansa Musa's pilgrimage led to about $1.5bn (£1.1bn) of economic losses across the Middle East https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47379458
So anyway back to the future, there's a lot to discuss w/ respect to the current political situation in Mali. Personally I'd say that a coup d'etat is never the right way but that's hard to tell people who are starving striving fighting for change
So much so that they might even agree with @realDonaldTrump's tweet here https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1296079095479050241
More on the current situation later, but for now @OkayAfrica is a great place to get up to speed on what's been happening https://www.okayafrica.com/mali-elections-to-continue-depsite-coronavirus-in-africa/
and on what is still to come https://www.okayafrica.com/mali-president-ibrahim-boubacar-keita-has-resigned/
Quality sources https://twitter.com/africasacountry/status/1296074127426625536
