Technology: C- (Arianna)
In the Ancient Ghana Empire the only large advancement was the camel. The camel allowed the Ghana Empire to start a trade monopoly. It gave them the ability to carry a great amount of items; such as gold and iron, through the barren desert. Ghana had the richest gold mines in all of the land, everyone wanted to get their gold. This lead them to power and money, almost controlling the trade system. This trading wouldn't have been so easy without the camel to be able to carry their goods, and have such an adaptability to the desert. This was the only advancement through out Ghana's reign, but it was a very strong one. 
Art & Architecture: D (Arianna)
The only art there really was, was jewelry. They were able to make gold necklaces, bracelets, even dog collars with the abundance of gold their land provided for them. A Muslim scholar, Al-Hamadani, described the king.  He said he was covered in necklaces and bracelets, like a woman. His dogs, of course, had thick, chunky gold collars around their necks. But this was the only actual sign of art in the Ghana Empire. Their architecture was quite basic.  Adobe to keep it cool during the day, and warm at night, made out of sun baked bricks,  and flat roofs because there wasn't a lot of rainfall.  The were simply made for their environment, not very creative, but taking it into the perspective of that time period  it could have been very advanced, and modern. But I feel like their buildings were very limited style wise. 

Ancient Ghana's society B+ (Sidney)

Ancient Ghana's society B+ (Sidney)

          In the Ghana empire, the society was strong because of the king's trading monopoly. In his empire, being Dinga Cisse, they were famous for trading slaves, salt, and gold. One arab writer, Al-Hamdan, said Ghana had the best gold mines in the world in their time. With all the trade, many religions came in. Although the king didn't accept the religions, he let his people pick the religions of their choice.
          It is a myth that every year, the people of Ghana would give a sacrifice of a virgin to Bida, the black snake. One year, the women who was suppost to be sacrificed was rescued by her fiance. Angry, Bida took his revenge on the land by bringing drought and make the gold mines dry. this slowly made the empire die, with the king's trading monopoly gone. If the empires society was a tad bit better, than it would have been able to find a solution that would move them through a couple more years of ghana reining. It could have been better if it had a uniform religion in the land. This could give the people uniform ideas to help them in the future.

Religion- B (Sienna Higgins)

            The people of the Ghana Empire spread their religion using stories over writing because they were illiterate.  The religions in the empire, however, were very diverse.  It is believed that when ancient Ghana first began, most of it’s believed in animism.  Either way, most of them believed that in order to make sure they were protected and cared for they needed to believe in: a supreme deity that was more important than semi-divine people or lesser gods, the importance and possibility of the intervention of their ancestors, and libation (ceremonial liquid pouring) and sacrifice.  This is because Islamic and Christian beliefs co-existed for so long with animism that eventually aspects from all of these religions were combined.  So technically the religious beliefs did unite the people because almost everyone believed in the same foundations and could relate to each other because of that.  Most Ghanaians believed in using rites of passage to go from one stage of life to the next (ex: childhood to adulthood), too. 

            However, the trade and government of the Ghana Empire did more uniting of the people.  The people of ancient Ghana traded with many Muslim merchants, and the government welcomed people from conquered, non-Serahule areas in its courts in order to bring the people together.  Because the kings were tolerant and the Serahule people were illiterate, they had Muslims like the Spanish Muslim Al-Bakri write about the empire’s history.  This encouraged the people to accept others differences and work with them, and therefore the empire became more united with not only outside Muslims but Muslims in the conquered lands of Ancient Ghana as well.  The Ghana Empire united its people more through religious tolerance than religion itself. 

            The various ceremonies in the Ghana Empire were used to cope with difficulties.  The people would usually have someone go into a meditative trance and embody an ancestor or deity in order to figure out what to do about something that had occurred.

            I give this empire a “B” for religion because the country was very united, but religious tolerance was a better reason for this than the people actually believing in the same religion and coming together in the form of social cohesion. 

Government- A (Sienna Higgins)

            The Ghana Empire began under the rule of Dinga Cisse and consisted of many clans of Soninke people.  Dinga Cisse was seen as semi-divine, so he was able to earn the loyalty of his people not only through politics but religion as well. 

Ancient Ghana had a very organized, power based government.  The leaders of the central government (in Serahule) were the king and his ministers.  In order to create a foundation of money for the empire’s use, each king imposed taxes on all the people.  The kings of ancient Ghana set the government up so that they would rule over lesser kings, and therefore have more control because the empire was composed of many states that had been conquered. Rulers of non-Serahule areas were elected using their area’s procedures and then the decision was finalized by the present king of Ghana. No one was treated better than the other or elected because of favoritism.  However, Serahule was the main area that contained the capital city and the king’s residence.

 Even though not everyone in the empire lived in the Serahule areas, the kings of ancient Ghana were still able to keep control.  They would insist, in order to keep their adherence to the main king strong, that the sons of each lesser king be sent to the main court.  All lesser rulers (so that of the Serahule and conquered peoples) had to show their loyalty by contributing supplies every year and warriors to the imperial army when they were immediately needed.

I would give them an “A” because they were able to generate money for the empire.  They were also very successful at creating a government with many levels of leaders to keep control.

Hmmmm....

This is really cool....
So how's life everybody?  You'll find me asking that question a lot, but seriously, how goes it?