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.