Complex sentence: The Bamana became the dominant cultural community in western Mali: the Bambara language, mutually intelligble with the Manding and Diola languages, has become the principal interethnic language in Mali and the an official language of the state alongside French.
Split into simpler sentences: The Bamana became the dominant cultural community in western Mali. The Bambara language, mutually intelligible with the Manding and Diola languages, has become the principal interethnic language in Mali and the an official language of the state alongside French.