Zanj, Ghana, And Ethiopia

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorHigh School, 10th grade November 2001

download word file, 2 pages 0.0

Downloaded 1772 times

Zanj, Ghana, and Ethiopia The Zanj, Ethiopian, and Ghana civilizations share many similarities but at the same time they are different in many aspects.

To many people the Zanj culture is also know as the Tanzanian's or the Swaziland's. This society spoke the language Bantu while having many Arabic influences. This culture is the main leader for making leopard skins. They also had large exports for tortoise shells. People like these shells mainly for making combs. One of the other large exports these people have is Ivory. The Zanj would kill large elephants just for their Ivory tusks. Unfortunately they used no other part of the elephant. Conveniently the elephants reproduced at a rapid enough rates so they could have large amounts of shipment. One of the more common ways to kill and elephant for this culture was to seduce the elephants or make them drunk. Then they would kill the animal and use what they wanted of it.

The Zanj had on main ruler in which they called the Wafalme. This was a king and ruled over the whole kingdom. Strict rules were placed upon the ruler. If he was to lie or be tyrannical he would be executed and his seed would be excluded from the throne.

Ghana, made up of two towns, is known as one of the earliest trading empires to grow. These two towns were placed on a plain right next to each other. This land was very rich in gold and jewels. These people were not like the Zanj. They used vast amounts of gold on mostly everything. They would weave it into their hair; use it on buildings inside and out, and many other places. The main people of this culture would wear robes of cotton and silk instead of animal hides. The people were well kept and much cleaner. Vegetables were greatly loved by these people. They shared a love for their land greater than most people of this time. The government was strong and the people shared a great love to their king. While in his presence some would drop to their knees and sprinkle dust on their heads. The Muslim side of this culture would only stand and clap their hands while the king was around. For two years in a row theses people suffered a severe drought. Many people died and the killed of almost all of their cattle due to sacrifice for rain.

Ethiopia grew greatly because of a trade route that linked Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea that was right next to it. King Ezana started a movement and converted the people to Christianity which made it the official religion. This type of Christianity was known as Monophysitism. Ethiopia continued not to allow the Islam religion into their society from their beginning to end. When these people invaded other civilizations they killed men women and small children showing no mercy towards anyone. The king started a war against the people of Sabradin for their difference in beliefs. He did not win this war and was defeated by what they called the power of God. Their people would still not convert to the religion forced upon them for as much as it meant to them. The soldiers started to get frustrated in all their endeavors and lost their loyalty to the king. Plans were set out to stone him to death and to slay him with a sword. Religion and everyone's beliefs were very controversial during this time causing many difficulties. Most of the other cultures did not have these major problems as did the Ethiopians.

Through all of these examples there were many similarities and differences between all of these cultures.