Koumantou is a commune and town in

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

, in the Cercle of

Bougouni Bougouni is a commune and city in Mali, the administrative center of Bougouni Cercle, which is in turn found in the administrative region of Sikasso. Bougouni is located 170 km south of Bamako and 210 km west of the city of Sikass ...

in the

Sikasso Region Sikasso Region (Bambara language, Bambara: ߛߌߞߊߛߏ ߘߌߣߋߖߊ tr. Sikaso Dineja) is the southernmost region of Mali. The region's capital city, Sikasso, is the country's second-largest city. Major ethnic groups include the Senoufo, known fo ...

. It is located near the Ivorian border. The commune includes 38 villages spread over 1268 km². As of 2009 the commune had a population of 51,348. The commune's economy is heavily

agricultural Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...

, relying particularly on

millet Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most millets belong to the tribe Paniceae. Millets are important crops in the Semi-arid climate, ...

corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...

sorghum ''Sorghum bicolor'', commonly called sorghum () and also known as great millet, broomcorn, guinea corn, durra, imphee, jowar, or milo, is a species in the Poaceae, grass genus ''Sorghum (genus), Sorghum'' cultivated for its grain. The grain i ...

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), goober pea, pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics by small and large ...

s, and

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

. The

Compagnie malienne pour le développement du textile The Compagnie malienne pour le développement des textiles (CMDT), created in 1974, is a Malian cotton company. The company is owned by the Malian state and is charged with the production and marketing of Mali's cotton. It is based in Bamako and ...

(CMDT) has a cotton-processing factory located in the town. A festival of music and traditional danse, organized by the Association for the Development of the Commune of Koumantou (ADAKOM), was held from 19 to 22 May 2005, in the villages of Koumantou, Niamala, and Kôla. The festival celebrated such traditional instruments as the buru, mpolon, and

balafon The balafon (pronounced , or, by analogy with ''xylophone'' etc., ) is a gourd-resonated xylophone, a type of struck idiophone. It is closely associated with the neighbouring Mandé peoples, Mandé, Bwaba Bobo people, Bobo, Senufo people, Seno ...

References

*This article began as a translation of the corresponding article from the French Wikipedia, accessed December 17, 2005. Communes of Sikasso Region {{Sikasso-geo-stub

See also

References