Malian vs African

Malian and African both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
Malian	Yes	Yes	No	No
African	Yes	Yes	No	No

As nouns, African is a hypernym of Malian; that is, African is a word with a broader meaning than Malian:

Malian (noun)	African (noun)
a native or inhabitant of Mali	a native or inhabitant of Africa

Malian (adjective)	African (adjective)
of or relating to or characteristic of Mali or its people	of or relating to the nations of Africa or their peoples