Kita, Mali

Kita
Commune and town
Kita Location in Mali
Coordinates: 13°2′20″N 9°29′15″W / 13.03889°N 9.48750°WCoordinates: 13°2′20″N 9°29′15″W / 13.03889°N 9.48750°W
Country	Mali
Region	Kayes Region
Cercle	Kita Cercle
Elevation	330 m (1,080 ft)
Population (2009 census)[1]
• Total	48,957

Kita is a town and urban commune in western Mali. The town is the capital of the Kita Cercle in the Kayes Region. It lies on the eastern slope of Mount Kita (Bambara: "Kita-kulu"), known for its caves and rock paintings. Today, the town is known for its music, its annual Roman Catholic pilgrimage and its role as a processing center for the surrounding cotton- and peanut-growing region. Kita lies on the Dakar-Niger Railway and is the largest transit hub between Bamako (112 miles) and Kayes (205 miles). In the 2009 census the urban commune had a population of 48,947.^[1]

In November 1955, Kita became a commune of average exercise. On March 2, 1966, Kita became a commune of full exercise. The town grew in the 1990s around the cotton industry, but this has since declined.

A fictionalized version of Kita features as the setting for Malian author Massa Makan Diabaté's "Kouta Trilogy" (Le lieutenant de Kouta, Le coiffeur de Kouta, and Le boucher de Kouta).^[2]

Notable residents

• Bako Dagnon, female griot
• Cheick Hamala Diabate, griot and Afropop musician
• Mamadou Diabate,one of the world kora master player
• Massa Makan Diabaté, historian, author, and playwright
• Kandia Kouyaté, musician
• Djelimady Tounkara, musician and one of the foremost guitarists in Africa

See also

• Railway stations in Mali

References

1. Resultats Provisoires RGPH 2009 (Région de Kayes) (PDF) (in French), République de Mali: Institut National de la Statistique.
2. Drame, Kandioura. "Diabaté, Massa Makan." The Encyclopedia of African Literatures. Ed. Simon Gikandi. p. 195.

External links

• Plan de Sécurité Alimentaire Commune Urbaine de Kita 2007-2011 (PDF) (in French), Commissariat à la Sécurité Alimentaire, République du Mali, USAID-Mali, 2006.