homework 04.28.10

We will begin where we left off: with the city of Ghana.

Ghana: there weren't many stories or facts uncovered about this city until about 1050-160 AD. This unique culture-group flourished during 400 BC - 100 AD, though, in fact, it existed in some form or another until 1400 AD. The main occupation for the people of Ghana was the slave market. Ghana began and eventually ended due to slave trading. It became so rich and prospering because of slave trading, that this began to encourage other countries to follow suit.

In 400-300 BC, the Ghanans began to exploit those around them. They were known to be the greatest of all the slave traders. They traded mainly to Rome and Carthage. They did, however use slaves for themselves also. This brought in a considerable amount of money which gained them gold, silver, and many precious gemstones. This led to many lives of luxury.

*Quick note that I found intriguing: The Africans enslaved more Europeans than Americans ever enslaved Africans.

In 1400 AD, the new level of slave trading had died off during the medieval age. In Europe, it had died completely. But soon enough, with the economy dwindling, people began to see that the Ghanans were still as rich as ever due to slave trading. So slave trading was brought up to the markets once again. In fact, the Portuguese began to trade the Africans to the Europeans. Eventually, the whole continent of Africa was enslaved. "What goes around, comes around."

An example of something like this was in early 19teens - the 1920s, when Jewish doctors developed technology for the creation of eugenics, and soon enough, it was turned against the Jews, as it turned into the Holocaust. Hitler came into power and turned it right around.

The richest culture was turned completely around and was in severe impoverishment. The Europeans saw that Africa could be a gold mine, so it was divided up and the whole continent became enslaved and in poverty.

They had basically only two different types of buildings after the enslavement: either great and powerful palaces, or slave trading prisons/markets. Everything in Ghana, their cotton weavings from the lower Nile, silk from China, carpets from the East, all their rare spices and herbs...everything was taken from them and turned over to the rich and greedy Europeans. You were either a slave or a slave owner. There was absolutely no middle-class whatsoever, unless you count the slave traders. "The have and the have nots." You either have it all, or you have nothing. This point must be hammered home, because it can be paralleled with where America is going right now. You will either have everything (and be a part of the government) or you will have nothing (how the good guys will be treated).

The cities around Ghana revolved around their idea of man against man. When Ghana was enslaved, everyone else around them went rock-bottom. Human exploitation: nobody can trust anybody else. This culture turned racial animistic.

In the 1st millennium, there was tribe that emerged from the Western African forest. The Aksums didn't leave a written record of themselves, so it is hard to know exactly what they did or were like. Because of this, although we know that they had a lot of oral traditions, we also know that many of them are lost. They also traded, and they made their own jewelry, particularly glass beads. The Aksums had a lot of Mongolian influence. At the time of Tolima, in the first century AD, the Aksum became very powerful. They would trade ships to the Arabs. They were great navigators and ship-builders. They refined the Babylonian astrology technology as well as correcting the star-charts. They found that they needed to be changed constantly because earth's axis was (and is) always moving.

Christopher Columbus found out from the mass of a river the land mass of Africa.

Asuna(?)was the first African architecture outside of the Mediterranean. They were the first African tribe to convert to Christianity in mass. They made their buildings out of mountains. They would literally carve out the mountain. This was especially helpful in hiding their churches. They were geniuses at mathematics. The Asunas had natural a/c built into their houses. On the other hand, they didn't produce things...they weren't great with herds/flocks or agriculture. They would sell their information to gain these things however. This made them very vulnerable. The Arabs moved in and took the smartest Asumas and forced them to work for them

We tend to either undersell or over inflate the African cultures. We would undersell because of racial animism, or over inflate because of political correctness.

Patristic Age

There were many gifted, talented, and brilliant individuals who transformed the world within an amount of two lifetimes.
In America - the Founding Age
In England - the Victorian Age. Their literature for example: their authors were masters at their work: Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Kipling, Tolkien, Lewis and many others.

There are bevys of geniuses who are passionate, focused, driven, and self-less. Within a culture war (the decline of Rome for example) these people come together. They create a strong structure of culture. It is impossible to overestimate this kind of work. Art, music, literature, political institutions and many others are influenced.

The Romans truly hated the Gospel. It would change their culture entirely. It would mean the end of Roman roads, as well as Roman life. Its power, wealth, and so forth would all be destroyed. The Gospel would be Rome's ultimate death.

Barnabas was the partner of Apostle Paul. He worked in Antioch. Every city was known to have one church...one bishop. He was the first bishop over the church at Antioch. The maximum that any church had at one time was 500. There were also smaller private groups that met in homes. The bishop still oversaw these homes and their services. The house services would have elders/deacons to look out for that area's widows and orphans. The bishop would oversee a large number of smaller churches. Barnabas was gifted in encouragement. His nickname was "son of encouragement." Antioch was the first church to send out missionaries during the 1rst and 2nd century. Barnabas would bring out talents and gifts within people. He was the one, however, who was not very gifted in preaching.