In response to growing urban demand, we remark, since the 1960s on the outskirts of Bamako, the multiplication of periodic markets locally called "fair". This study questions the development of these fairs in a 150 km radius around the capital of Mali and highlights that the modernization of the trade process of Bamako's suburbs has an impact on the emergence of new central places. This study uses both urban supply and market place studies. Fairs are here analyzed through social practices and spatial models. Beyond the essential role of fairs in supplying Malian cities and the relevance of such a subject, up to now poorly documented, this thesis shows that the development of rural municipalities, urban development and the structuring of commercial networks are three interactive phenomena. The sphere of influence of each fair constitutes a labor market area and normalizes farming practices. Farmers moreover use the network of fairs to meet their own needs: supply of goods and services but also mobility. Rural areas around Bamako benefit from the growth of urban markets and they transform gradually as the network of fairs becomes denser. A quantitative approach which focuses on the analysis of the central places and uses the work of W. Christaller and Skinner contributed to highlight the geographical link between the fair and the city: the fair is creates an urban landscape. The study thus demonstrates that the current urban structure on the outskirts of Bamako was strengthened by the development of fairs.
