capital of the Republic of Mali; located on the left bank of the Niger River. Population, about 200,000 (1968; suburbs included).
In 1882, Bamako, at that time a small settlement, was occupied by French colonial troops. Bamako became a military strong point on the Niger River for the colonialists. Between 1920 and 1960, Bamako was the administrative center of the French Sudan. Since 1960 it has been the capital of the Republic of Mali.
Bamako is a railway station on the Dakar-Niger line and a highway junction. There is an important airport in Bamaka. It is the major industrial, commercial, and distribution center of the country. Bamako accounts for about 85 percent of the country’s entire production of electrical energy. The Thermal Electric Power Station generates 6.4 megawatts (MW), and the Sotuba Hydroelectric Power Station, located 6 km from Bamako, generates 5.2 MW. Bamako has a food industry (a slaughterhouse, a plant for the production of fruit drinks and mineral waters, and a cigarette factory); the Metal-Sudan Plant; factories for the production of plastic goods and the assembly of transistor radios; metal repair shops; handicrafts (weaving, wood carving, ivory carving, goldsmithing, silversmithing, and leatherworking); and a match factory.
Bamako has a rectangular plan with the main square in the center. In the southern part of the city there are well-constructed blocks of buildings and a park zone, where a sports complex and several educational institutions were built between 1962 and 1966 according to plans by the Soviet architect L. N. Afanas’ev and others. The administrative center and the former palace of the president are located 3 km north of Bamako on Mt. Koulouba. There are many houses made of banko (clay and straw) in the western and eastern parts of Bamako. Construction has been going on since 1960 on the right bank of the Niger River.