Ghana Empire Art and Architecture (Duncan Patterson 3rd)

Ghana Art And Architecture (Duncan Patterson 3rd) Grade: B

         The Ghana Empire did not produce much art in there time period of 400 CE until 1230 CE, there people were primarily focused on the vast amounts of gold that was located in the region which is present day North Western Africa. Although they had much gold in the region they could not use it to their advantage in art or building tools because every gold nugget that was found was sent to the highest leader, which was the king. Even the people that found the gold could not keep it, all they could keep was any gold dust that was left behind or found.


        Their buildings had a massive influence on style and structure from their religion. There were many mosques found from the ancient Ghana empire that were very large and extremely ornate. Also findings from Ancient Ghana empire were 80 small clay figures. These clay figures were mainly of important people or of animals like the figure to the figure above and to the right.  They also made many tiny sculptures of important leaders and also animals out of wood. These sculptures took a lot of time and much detail was put into each piece as you can tell in the piece below.
       
        The Soyinka, or founder of ancient Ghana were the first people to produce iron products in west Africa. These helped them defeat other tribes or empires trying to overthrow theirs. The advancement in iron working became a critical part in the Ghana empire for protecting themselves as well as it gave them an advantage over other groups in west Africa.


      Overall i gave the Ancient empire of Ghana a B in their Art and Architecture because they had some famous sculptures of clay pieces that have been recovered in recent times. They also put a lot of effort into each and every one of their projects as you can see with the great detail in the pictures. Also they had an advancement in iron making, this allowed them to produce tools, protect themselves, as well as having an upper hand on the other areas in west Africa.

Government: B+ (Staci Brower)

The Ghana Empire lasted from 830C.E. to 1235C.E. The empire lasted for a while due to the government having a lot of power. This empire was ruled by a monarchy, meaning dictated by a king. The king was called "Ghana", meaning war chief. The king’s main goals were to keep their relationship with Saharan traders, and acting as a religious leader.

The Ghana Empire depended greatly on trade. The empire mostly traded salt, ivory, and gold. In return, they would receive manufactured goods. Although they traded a lot, they wanted to expand. So, the Ghana Empire started to use camels to make travel for trade much easier. Also this expanded the routes, because the camels could travel for longer distances. Thus they gained new places to trade with, and expanded. The more the land they had the more power the king had. After a while the king had so much power that they could create large armies and employ many messengers, and servants.

A weakness of the empire would have been its downfall. The downfall occurred when the Almorvids grew in power while seeking trade routes. Abu-Bakr was the leader of the Almorvids who captured many of the main trading cities of the Ghana Empire. He declared war on the Ghana. Eventually Abu-Bakr and his army captured the capital, Koumbi Saleh. Soon after the capture of the capital, Abu-Bakr was killed. The Ghana Empire at this time had fallen apart and was very militarily weak. Now the Ghana Empire was taken over by its original metropolitan roots.

The Ghana Empire deserved a B+ in my opinion because they did have a lot of improvements. They gained new land, and trade routes. Also they gained a new way of transportation. The king created a big army to try and protect the people. But, they were marked down because their army was not strong enough to defeat the Almorvads, and could not come together after they had been broken. Overall, the Ghana empires government was quite successful.

Ghana Dynasty

Relgion B- ( Morgan Hewartson)

The traditional religions indigenous (occurring naturally in a particular place) to Africa has, for their time they were still a dynasty (750-1076 AD) had been orally rather than scripturally written. Most based on ethno- based creation myths. they usally associated with animism (belief that non-human entites are spiritual being). Generalizations ae diffcult due to the diversity in African based Religions: of a belief in the power, and ancestral spirts. That meaning the idea of libation (offering to a god or spirit/ memory of those whom died). Bringing protection and generosity. Nedding to go to the Rite of passage (event that makes a person's progress from one status to another). All this means is the role of humanity is generally seen as a hermanizing relationship between nature nad super-naural forces.       


             The Ghana dynasty was very accecpting to tother religions. When the Musliams came, they brought Islam to them. They accpeted the religion some of the Ghana people convirted to Islam. there was not really a disagreement between the Ghana dynasty and the Musliams who came. the two religion united all the people in the Ghana dynasty. Bringing the realationship between the nautre and super natural forces, and the Islams ways.

ghana society B+ (nena martinez)

the society of the ghanamineing and use of iron to make there tools and wepons that they had used to take over neighboring contries makeing a need for a new form of a social organization. the king of the ghanna empire owned the gold mines makeing to miners and the people who buy the gold pay a tax on it. the ghana empire has slaves and slave trade. the slaves worked for royal or rich land owners and armies of the rulers. a tribute of this empier lasting as long as it did was its society they had a very solid society makeing it easyer to manetin for the rulers.

Economy: A                  (Amber V.)

            Ghana Empire was located near many gold mines. This made it so they had a abundant amount of gold.  Because Ghana was near a lot of gold mines, they stared to trade gold along with copper and slaves.They also allowed merchants to come in and sell their merchandise. When the merchants would come the would not only sell but they would buy too. The Empire toke advantage of this and the merchants on the products the sold and the items they would buy.
            Ghana empire stared to become rich because they had a large amount of gold, they had taxes on what merchants sold & bought, and they became Tran-Sahara traders. Ghana's main trade was with the Arabs. The Arab's where in need of gold as was the Ghana Empire was in need of salt. Because Ghana had a abundant amount of gold, North Africa become the main place to trade. Gold was not the only thing they also had some miner trade item such as copper and slave.
              Because was a Tran-Sahara trade, had a balanced trade, and made money off the merchants that came and went I gave the Ghana Empire a "A" in economy.




Technology: A                                                           (Amber V.)
            Ghana was mainly about the trade. they had meany thing like gold, copper, and iron. The Ghana empire used iron to make their life more efficient and made war & hunting easier. They learned how to make iron tipped spears instead of stone tipped spears. This made the process of making weapons easier.
             I gave the Ghana Empire an "A" in technolgy because they made it more efficient and easier to make weapons. They also used this new idea to create a new source of trade.


Summary (Duncan Patterson) Grade:B


          Overall i would give the Ghana empire a B because of many reasons. They had some advancements in human life with many different tools they built with iron. They also were a very successful trading empire, with their main products being gold and salt. Northern Africa needed the gold to have a sustainable payment method and where Ghana was located they needed the salt to help keep their animals and people alive. They were very organized in their ways of government. It was very stable and with a stable government advancements and less civil wars were a result. They also had power for a long period of time, which means they were powerfully and they also had great protection so it was almost impossible to overthrow the Ghana empire when they were at their peak.