The Malian National Archives are located at Kuluba, an administrative suburb of Bamako. The collection is remarkable because of its vast scope. While for the post-independence period only materials from the Republic of Mali are included, for the colonial period the collection includes documents from what was then called the French Sudan, of which Bamako was the capital. At various times the French Sudan comprised, besides all of modern Mali, portions of Mauritania, all of Burkina Faso, and for brief periods portions of Senegal, Guinea, Ivory Coast, and Benin. In addition, documents from the military department of Niger (now Republic of Niger) also came into Kuluba.
Among the documents one might not expect to find at Kuluba is a collection from the southeastern portions of Mauritania, including territory that at one time formed parts of the cercles of Kayes, Nioro, and Timbuktu, as well as the entire cercle of Nema. These districts, comprising the modern Mauritanian centers of Walata, Timbedra, and Aiun el-Arms, an area of nearly 300,000 square kilometers, were removed from the Sudan and appended to Mauritania in 1945. Many documents from what is today the nation of Burkina Faso are also found at Kuluba. All of what was later to be called Upper Volta was part of the Sudan until 1914, when it was made a separate colony. In 1932 the cercles of Wahiguya and Tugan were reattached to the Sudan, and again removed in 1947 when Upper Volta was reconstituted.