The Hour Has Come for Mali to Find Her Savior!

by Wesley Kawato

Across the burning sands of the Sahara Desert lie the blue waters of the Niger River, the lifeblood of Mali. This river helped make Mali the home of some of Africa's most important civilizations. Though Islam has been the dominant religion for 700 years, the people are fairly open to Jesus and the gospel. Before we get to that encouraging development, let us briefly describe the history of Mali.

Empires Come, and Empires Go
Three empires arose along the banks of the Niger River. The first of these was the Ghana Empire, founded around AD 700 by the Soninke people. Ghana's religion was animistic in nature, and that empire dominated West Africa through the control of trade routes. The Ghana Empire collapsed around AD 1075.

Around AD 1200 the Malinke (Mali) Empire began its rise to power, made possible by the wise rule of Soundiata Keita, Mali's first emperor. The empire reached its height around AD 1300, when it conquered the fabled city of Timbuktu. Under Malinke rule the city became a center of learning and trade. The emperors of Mali built grand palaces and libraries in Timbuktu.

The conquest of Timbuktu put Mali in touch with Berber traders from North Africa. By AD 1300 the city was already one of several staging points for camel caravans across the Sahara. The Berber merchants who controlled these trade routes had long since converted to Islam. They had soon introduced the new religion to Mali. Members of the royal family were among the early converts, leading the way to a massive people movement to the religion of Mohammed.

By the time Emperor Mansa Musa made his famous pilgrimage to Mecca in AD 1234, most of Mali had converted to Islam. Arab scholars learned of the glories of Timbuktu when Musa made stops at Alexandria and Mecca. From there the legend of Timbuktu spread to Europe.

Mali's golden age would last only a century. By AD 1400 Timbuktu began to decline when Mali's gold deposits began to deplete. The end of the gold trade made Timbuktu unattractive to Berber merchants. No longer able to dominate trade in West Africa, Mali's client kingdoms began to break away. Mali had never had a large army. The Malinke emperors had used trade and diplomacy to hold the empire together. The collapse of Mali's economy meant the death of the empire.

Then the Songhai Empire filled the political void created by the fall of Mali. Centered in the city of Gao, the war-like Songhai began conquering one petty state after another. By AD 1465 Songhai was the largest of the three empires that had formed along the banks of the Niger River. At one point it controlled parts of present-day Nigeria.

Unlike the Malinke, the Songhai weren't expert at trade. Songhai's economy was often on the brink of collapse. The arrival of Spanish and Portuguese explorers around AD 1500 changed that. The Songhai emperors made huge profits selling prisoners of war to them as slaves. The profits from the slave trade gave the empire a new lease on life.

But slavery could keep Songhai alive for only so long.

The Kingdom of Morocco conquered Songhai in AD 1591, plunging the Niger River Valley into a dark age. Civilization quickly collapsed. The libraries and palaces of Timbuktu fell into disrepair and ruin. For the next 200 years Mali would be forgotten by the outside world.

The Age of European Explorers and Colonizers
That changed in the 1790s when hopes of finding the source of the Niger River captured the imagination of European explorers. Daniel Houghton, a British explorer, made the first attempt in 1791. A misfiring rifle killed him before he reached his goal.

In 1795, Mungo Park, another British explorer, led an expedition to Mali. He lost most of his men and supplies in a battle with a local tribe. Park was captured, but escaped many months later. He finally reached the shores of the Niger River in 1796.

Mungo Park was a Christian and thanked God for letting him reach the Niger River alive. He was a doctor, just like David Livingstone, the famous explorer and missionary who opened up Southern Africa to the West. Unlike Livingstone, Park made no attempt to preach the gospel to the people he encountered. The seeds of faith wouldn't be planted for another century.

After Mungo Park was killed on his second expedition to Mali in 1805, Rene Caille, of France, followed in his footsteps. His 1827-28 expedition re-discovered Timbuktu. By then Timbuktu was a dingy city of mud huts, her splendor lost to time.

Caille's expedition was the basis for the French claim to the Niger River Valley. France formally declared her claim to the region in 1880, calling the new colony French Sudan. The tribes of the Mali region resisted the French army. Only in 1898 did France gain effective control of the region. Shortly after that, French Catholic missionaries began working among the various tribes of Mali, but had little success. By then Islam was too firmly ingrained into the hearts and minds of the people.

One reason for the failure of the French Catholic missionaries was that they failed to think of Mali in terms of "people groups." The Hausa and the Fulani are the two main tribes that dominate the region. There are also about a dozen smaller people groups in the area. Complicating matters further, each of these larger tribes is divided into subgroups, that speak the same language, but often practice different customs.

This is especially true of the Fulani. The nomadic, cattle-herding Mborro subgroup lives very differently from the village-dwelling Fulbe subgroup. There are also lesser differences among the various Hausa tribes. Some of these groups practice polygamy enthusiastically, while in others it's very rare. Tribes also disagree on the age at which boys and girls should be separated from each other.

Mali's Recent History
In recent years, the challenge of independence has made Mali more open to the gospel. Mali became independent from France in 1960. Her first president, Modibo Keita, introduced Soviet-style socialism to Mali. Socialism destroyed Mali's economy and led to a military coup in 1968. General Mousa Traor restored the country to a free market economy, but also created a new set of problems. Traor was a brutal dictator who would do anything to retain power. Political executions were common between 1968-91. He often played one tribe against another to prevent a unified opposition to his rule from forming. Near the end of his rule, Traor tried to gain the favor of Mali's small Islamic fundamentalist minority by declaring Islam to be the national religion. This move went nowhere because the Islamic fundamentalists no longer trusted him.

In 1991 the army turned against President Traor, removing him from power. The new junta wrote a new constitution for Mali and restored democracy along with religious freedom. Islam would no longer be the national religion. This Revolution of 1991 ended years of civil war in Mali and made it safe for Christian mission agencies to operate in the country.

But years of civil war had corrupted the younger generation. Many members of Mali's older generation have seen the rise of secularism among their children. Islam is no longer attractive to the youth of Mali.

Not wanting the country to plunge into lawlessness, some tribal chiefs, claiming Islamic identity, are helping Christian missionaries win converts. Hopefully God has opened the door to reaching Mali for Christ. Let's pray that the people will respond to the call to follow Jesus.

Prayer Requests for Mali

• Pray that efforts of Islamic fundamentalism will backfire. There are already signs of an anti-Christian backlash. Christian converts have been beaten up and church services disrupted in some places.
• Pray that God will raise up teams of missionaries with groups like GMU, WEC International, Christian and Missionary Alliance, the Southern Baptists, and Assemblies of God to reap a harvest during this unique time.
• Gospel Recordings has produced cassettes for at least 37 dialects and languages. Pray that these will be widely distributed and that they will produce fruit. Pray that hearing the gospel in their heart language will make a difference.
• Pray for wise and effective use of the JESUS Film. This has been translated into at least 11 Malian languages, and is being produced in four more.
• Pray that the many Christian radio efforts will bear fruit. Pray that many Malians might believe and be encouraged through the radio efforts.
• Pray that there will be converts from all age groups. Members of the elder generation often feel they are "too old" to receive the Lord. This can even be true of tribal chiefs who are actively helping missionaries win converts.
• Pray that all parts of the country will be responsive to the gospel. The northern desert tribes speak different languages than the people groups living further to the south. They also tend to be more devoted to Islam than the tribes living in the Niger River Valley. Some of these nomadic tribes have yet to be targeted by a missionary agency. May the God of the harvest rectify that situation.