Ghana 5Th

There have been some incorrect conceptions when it comes to the lives of Africans before the advent of European and American colonization. According to a lot of historians, Africans were not one thing more than savages whose only contributions to the world were farming and slaves. This is not true. The history of ancient Africa is just as interesting, complex, and sophisticated as any other ancient civilization, yet closely without exception; it is only Egypt that receives any thoughtfulness at all when writing history. Because of this mentality, European and American historians have long espoused that Africa and it is inhabitants had no culture or history of their own, except what was given to them by outside factors.

However, long before the colonization of Europeans, Africans built kingdoms and monuments that rivaled any European monarchy. Nevertheless, because of racial prejudice, much of Black African history has been distorted and ignored to give justification to the enslavement of millions for financial profit. This paper will be talking about the ancient African kingdoms of Meroë, Ghana, and the Swahili and their rich contributions to the pages of history.

The kingdom of Meroë started around 1000 BC when Nubian rulers built up a politically independent state known to the Egyptians as Kush. Eventually, the rulers of Kush would move to Nubia and establish the kingdom of Meroë (Davis & Gates, p. 30). These rulers established their capital at Meroë around 300 B.C., and the kingdom lasted there for more than nine centuries.

However, some historians feel that because Meroitic culture imitated the Egyptian culture so closely, the Meroitës brought no culture of their own to the pages of history. This is not true According to archaeological proof came upon in North Sudan that is over 2,500 years old, there was an old civilization along the Nile River at lower and Upper Nubia (modern day Sudan) that was older than the civilizations in the North (Egypt). Also, there is proof that proves that the known Old Egyptian Civilization was an modern stage of an even older civilization located in the Sudan (Davis & Gates, p. 35).

This proof proves that Meroë had a culture and history that was even older than of the Egyptians. If anything, Egypt was a carbon copy of Meroë. This kingdom likewise had it is own language. Most historians however, attributed their language and alphabet system to the Egyptians. It was a mutual faith that ancient Black Africans could not and did not construct a written language. However, inscriptions in a distinct indigenous alphabet appear in Meroë as early as the 2nd century B.C, proving that these assumptions are not true (Davis & Gates, p. 110).

This written Meroitic language was applied into the 5th century, when Old Nubian in the long run substituted it. Widespread use of Meroitic on monuments gives evidence of that a significant share of the population was capable to read it. However, the significations of these inscriptions stay unknown, as this hieroglyphic-derived script is as yet untranslatable.

Another little know fact with regards to the Meroitës is that they had a unusually high number of

queens who ruled without male intervention. One queen, Queen Amanirenus led her army versus a Roman invasion in 24 BC. She won the original battle, and in spite of losing a second battle, the Romans had enough, accorded to a truce and went back to Rome. Rome never did conquer Meroë, and this kingdom continued to thrive for another 200 years. Actually “queendom” would be more accurate, since the leader of Meroë was commonly a warrior queen, called a “kandake” which means “queen mother” or more plainly “gore”meaning “ruler”(Fairservis. p.60).

In terms of economics, Meroë was famed for it is massive iron production, the basi large-scale industry of it is kind in the Nile Valley and had spacious trade with Greece and Rome. Because of the production of iron, the armies had better weapons to use for the duration of battle and the farmers had better axes and hoes to work their lands. Meroitë traders exported ivory, leopard skins, ostrich feathers, ebony, and gold and soon gained direct access to the expanding trade of the Red Sea (Shillington, p. 40).

The kingdom of Meroë at last went into decline. Causes for the decline of the Meroitic Kingdom are still largely unknown. The Meroitic kingdom faced formidable contest because of the elaboration of Axum, a powerful Abyssinian state in modern Ethiopia to the east. About A.D. 350, an Axumite army captured and destroyed Meroe city, ending the kingdom’s independent existence.

The West African Empire of Ghana is another kingdom whose history was downplayed and attributed to outside factors. Although the Berbers in the first place founded Ghana in the fifth century, it was built on the southern edge of Berber populations. In time, the land became overshadowed by the Soninke, a Mande speaking people who lived in the region bordering the Sahara (McKissack & McKissack, p. 112). They built their capital city, Kumbi Saleh, right on the edge of the Sahara and the city quickly became the center of the Trans-Saharan trade routes.

Ghana assembled outstanding wealth because of the Trans-Saharan trade routes. This wealth made it possible for Ghana to conquer local chieftaincies and demand tribute from these subordinate states. This tribute, however, paled next to the wealth generated by the commerce of goods that passed from western Africa east to Egypt and the Middle East. This trade principally involved gold, salt, and copper (Koslow, p. 70).

A hereditary king called the Ghana ruled Ghana. The kingship was matrilineal (as were all Sahelian monarchies to follow); the king’s sister provided the heir to the throne (McKissack & McKissack, p. 115). In addition to military power, the king appears to have been the supreme judge of the kingdom.

Although northern African had been eclipsed by the religion of Islam since the eighth century, the kingdom of Ghana never converted (McKissack & McKissack, p. 120). The Ghanaian court, however, permitted Muslims to settle in the cities and even encouraged Muslim specialists to aid the royal court administer the government and counsel on legal matters.

The primary founders of Ghana in the end proved to be it is demise. Unlike the Ghanaians, the Berbers, now calling themselves Almoravids, fervently converted to Islam and in 1075, declared a holy war, or jihad, versus the kingdom of Ghana. Little is known when it comes to what precisely happened but nonetheless, Ghana ceased to be a mercantile or military power after 1100. The Almoravid revolution at last ended the sovereignty of Ghana.

Europeans and Arabs similar have portrayed the history of the Swahili kingdom as one of Muslim-Arab domination, with the African people and it is rulers playing a passive role in the process. However, recent archaeological proof found shows that the Swahili humans are descendants of the Bantu speaking humans who settled along the East African coast in the firstborn millennium (Horton & Middleton, p. 70). Although both Arabians and Persians intermarried with the Swahili, neither of these cultures had anything to do with the establishment of Swahili civilization. These cultures became absorbed into an already flourishing African civilization founded by ancient Bantu Africans.

The eastern coast of Africa changed profoundly around the close of the firstborn millennium AD. During this time, Bantu-speaking Africans from the interior migrated and settled along the coast from Kenya to South Africa. Next, merchants and traders from the Muslim world realized the strategic importance of the east coast of Africa for mercantile traffic and begun to settle there (Horton & Middleton, p. 72). Marriage amongst the Bantu women and men of the Middle East devised and cemented a rich Swahili culture, fusing religion, agricultural architecture, textiles, food, as well as purchasing power. From 900 A.D., the east coast of Africa saw an influx of Shirazi Arabs from the Persian Gulf and even little settlements of Indians. The Arabs called this region al-Zanj, “The Blacks,” and the coastal areas tardily came beneath the control of Muslim merchants from Arabia and Persia (Horton & Middleton, p. 75). By the 1300′s, the major east African ports from Mombaza in the north to Sofala in the south had become exhaustively Islamic cities and cultural centers.

The language that grew out of this civilization is one of the most mutual and widespread of the lingua franca: a lingua franca is a secondary language that is a combining of two or more languages. Swahili or Kiswahili comes from the Arabic word sawahil, which means, “coast.” Swahili belongs to the Sabaki subgroup of the Northeastern coast Bantu languages. It is closely related to the Miji Kenda group of languages, Pokomo and Ngazija (Horton & Middleton, p.110). Over at least a thousand years of intense and varied fundamental interaction with the Middle East has given Swahili a rich infusion of loanwords from a wide assortment of languages. Even with the substantial number of Arabic loanwords present in Swahili, the language is in fact, Bantu.

The Swahili civilization expanded southwards until they reached Kilwa in Zanzibar (from the Arabic word al-Zan). Later, it is inhabitants carved out a little territory even further south around Sofala in Zimbabwe (Horton & Middleton, p. 140). While the northern cities remained localized and had little influence on African culture inland from the coast, the Sofalans actively went inland and disseminate Islam and Islamic culture deep in African territory (Horton & Middleton, p. 150).

The major Swahili city-states were Mogadishu, Barawa, Mombasa (Kenya), Gedi, Pate, Malindi, Zanzibar, Kilwa, and Sofala in the far south (Horton & Middleton, p. 155). Kilwa was the most famous of these city-states and was in particular wealthy because it controlled the southern port of Sofala, which had access to the gold, developed in the interior (near “Great Zimbabwe”), and it is emplacement as the furthermost point south at which ships from India could hope to sail and return in a single monsoon season.

These city-states were very cosmopolitan for their time and they were all politically independent of one another. In fact, they were more like competitory companies or corporations, each vying for the lion’s part of African trade. The chief export was ivory, sandalwood, ebony, and gold. Textiles from India and porcelain from China were also brought by Arab traders (Horton & Middleton, p. 175). While the Arabs and Persians played a role in the growth of the Swahili civilization, the nobility was of African dissent and they ran the city-states (Horton & Middleton p.195). However, the nobility were Muslims and it was the Muslims who controlled the wealth. Below the nobility were the commoners and the resident foreigners who made up a big percentage of the citizenry.

However, Islam itself penetrated very little into the interior amidst the hunters, pastoralists, and farmers. Even the areas of the coast near the marketing towns remained comparatively unaffected (Horton & Middleton p.198). In the towns, the mud and thatch houses of the non-Muslim mutual people surrounded the stone and coral buildings of the Muslim elite, and it seems that most followers of Islam were wealthy, not poor.

Still, a culture invented for the Swahili that fused African and Islamic elements. Family lineage, for example, was traced both through the maternal line, which controlled property, an African practice, and through the paternal line, which was the Muslim tradition. Swahili culture had a strong Islamic influence but kept a heap of of it is African origins.

These city-states begun to decline in the sixteenth century; the advent of Portuguese trade disrupted the old trade routes and made the Swahili mercantile centers obsolete. The Portuguese wanted native Africans to have no percentage in African trade and busily set when it comes to conquering the Islamic city-states along the eastern coast (Horton & Middleton, p.225). In the late seventeenth century, the imam (religious leader) of Oman drove the Portuguese from the coast, and gradually traditionalisti his authority over the coast.

The existence of these ancient Black African civilizations proves once and for all that Africa had a culture and a history of it is own other than Egyptian that endured for centuries before the advent of outside factors. The kingdom of Meroë ruled for centuries before the Egyptians and deserves it is lawful place as one of the premier ancient civilizations of the world. The kingdom of Ghana proved that Africans were competent of managing their own affairs without the intervention of Europeans. The Swahili and their language were around for centuries before Arabians and others “discovered” them.

These civilizations had their own culture, language and commerce before the advent of Europeans and Muslims in Africa and for the most part, the world does not recognise anything with regards to them. That is a major crime versus the study of history and hopefully, through more archaeological studies and writings, the rich and interesting history of these splendid civilizations will be told and cherished for future generations.

Ghana 5th

Review

Most helpful customer reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful.
A Complete, Comprehensive Guide
By Patrick Nolen
Most Travel Guides just focus on the southern areas of Ghana, near Accra, Takoradi, Cape Coast and along the coastline. This book covers the entire country and every possible way of getting around.

For example, the Lonely planet’s West Africa Guide did not provide information on how to get from Bolga to Wa. This book gave us the bus company, time and price of the trip. When arriving in Bolga we asked how to get to Wa and most of the people there were not really positive, but sure enough the book was completely accurate.

Another example was when we were in the Volta Region climbing Mount Afedzeto. There were no places to stay, but the guide says that if one asks for the Peace Corps on duty, that member will gladly give you a room. Sure enough we had a very comfortable place to stay for the night.

This book is well written and the best on the market. There is an incredibly helpful guide to the animals one will see in Mole national Park and a great general guide about how to get around and what to are “cultural taboos.”

The author’s writing style makes the book easy to read and allows you to know him well after only reading one section.

It is the only guide book that is fitting for such a diverse and delightful country.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful.
Helpful if you were going to Ghana 5 years ago
By Elizabeth A. Poulsen
This book is very detailed and helpful, the only problem is that much of the information has not been updated for quite some time. There are many places listed that are no longer in existance (restaurants, banks, etc) and many new places that are nowhere to be found in the book. It says it was updated in 2007 but I was in Ghana in early 2008 and most of these things I am referring to have been around (or not been around) for quite some time. Also, the prices mentioned in the book are about 50% lower than what can be expected when you go to Ghana, and perhaps even more given the rapid rate of inflation there; the prices of almost everything went up at least some amount during my 4-month stay there, from beach fares down to avocados at the fruit stands.

A few nitpicky details:
The book recommends against taking public busses without air conditioning (and therefore does not give schedules for them). However, on a tight schedule or budget (or even not) the non-air-conditioned busses are more than comfortable.
Also, the book says that a taxi ride to Mole National Park from Tamale should take about 2 hours (or 2.5, I can’t remember). This is WRONG, it takes about 5 hours.
The fee to get into Labadi Beach was 2c on weekdays, 4c on weekends and holidays, not the .50c that the book cites. (This discrepancy is probably due to the general unreliability of prices/rapid inflation mentioned earlier.)
The book mentions Macumba nightclub as a popular place in Accra. I lived across the street from Macumba, and the only people for whom it is popular are hookers and the creepy men looking for hookers. To be fair, the book does allude to this. Other popular nightspots that aren’t mentioned in the book include Cinderella’s, The Office, Tantra, and Aphrodesiac.

Overall, the book is certainly the best on the market as far as Ghana travel goes, if not solely for the reason that it is the only book that I am aware of dedicated to Ghana and not just West Africa with a tiny section on Ghana. It provides reliable enough information to be able to get around the country, as well as valuable background information on Ghanaian culture and history. Travellers should simply be forwarned that not everything in this book can be taken at face value, and travel plans (and budgets) need to be flexible enough to accomodate for this fact.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
Some thoughts on Briggs’ Second edition, guide to Ghana…
By Leverett R. Smith

In that this follows a number of other reviews of Philip Briggs’ “Ghana–The Bradt Travel Guide” (second edition), there may be a “coals to Newcastle” aspect to my comments. I found the first edition, recommended by a Ghanaian friend, very helpful on a trip to Ghana in February of 2001. I’ve since bought the second (updated and expanded) edition, and find it as readable as the first, as well as continuing to give a reasonable level of detail about getting around, places to stay, and things to see. There are some pet items that in my view would have warranted mention, such as the universities in Cape Coast and Kumasi, but it’s not reasonable to expect everything about a country to show up in 354 pages. Having worked in Ghana years ago, I was not starting from zero when picking up Briggs’ book. I had also been checking with a few Ghanaian friends, and had been looking into websites. Maybe that’s the main point to make: No single source of information, even a very good guidebook such as this one, can be entirely complete and up-to-date.

From the U.S., at least, your visa application may be your first encounter with Ghanaian bureaucracy. Unless you live close to the embassy in Washington or the consulate in New York, get started at least two months in advance. Once in Ghana, you’ll need to get adjusted to some third-world realities. Those used to North American and European infrastructure and scheduling efficiency may have to remind themselves that things really will typically take longer, that power and water outages can be frequent, that transportation will not always be fully predictable, and that breakdowns should not be a surprise. Get on the road early whenever possible, make sure that you fill that bucket in the bathroom promptly on arrival, and keep a flashlight handy. Ghana is not, in short, the sort of “autofocus” vacation area that we may tend to expect, but instead qualifies as your “grittier, more economical, more authentic African experience”. Keep in mind that if you have travelled all day and arrived somewhere hot, sweaty, dusty and grimy, that your initial impression of a destination will probably not be as favorable as it will be a day later, once you have had the chance to clean up, rest up, and get calibrated to the place. Ghanaians pointed out to us, and our experience verified, that transportation functions more efficiently in southern and central Ghana than it does further north, and one should plan accordingly. Philip Briggs’ guide to Ghana will definitely help in that planning.

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