West African: Cultural And General Beliefs Of The Black Culture (Essay Sample)

Student’s name Professor’s name Course Date Black Culture Culture is the general beliefs and customs of given group in a society. It encompasses language, art, religion, music, and the way of living within a community. Culture creates behavioral patterns and interactions that help in socializing and understanding a specific group within the community. The style of living as depicted in this context involves aspects of the type of food, houses, clothing, and kind of marriage within a society that promotes identification in the community at large. For example in The King and The City, people could make blanket mats and trade with local people in business hence creating a way of living among the people of Kano. On the other hand, people of Kano could manufacture pots thus practicing pottery that can be used for cooking at large (The King & the City 39:36). In this regard, the paper will talk about the black culture incorporating to the way of living among the African countries. The cultural practices in Africa involve Arabs, Muslims, and African nationalists at large. West African countries play a significant role in determining the history and cultural traditions concerning this context of black culture. In this case, Africans controlled the sub-Saharan trading activities that involved gold, pot making, and selling of blanket mats. Gold was a source of wealth among these communities in Africa especially the people of Mali who mined their gold along the Niger Delta. Kings in Mali used gold as a source of power and wealth as depicted in the Caravans of Gold film (Caravans of Gold 5:19). Another cultural practice the king could achieve in the medieval period was to teach people of the Islamic law, hence turning the city of Timbuktu into a centre of learning. He involved people in theology and politics at large thus creating capacity building among his subjects who became intellectuals in decision making especially in governing their city. African historical development concerning culture also involved facilitating agricultural economic development. It is in books that below the Sahel there was savannah grassland and people who lived in this region did not keep cattle alone but also planted crops and cereals such as millet and sorghum, which fed their families. Furthermore, it led to the diversification of agricultural practices thus leading to cotton textile industries and manufacturing sites that provided woolen clothes to community members. Another cultural tradition concerning their way of living that West African countries recognized was iron smelting. They developed an excellent art of bronze through iron making practices that they discovered and facilitating their trading activities. Artisans who worked around the villages smelting iron through gold and copper metals also participated in intermarriages and passed their skills to the coming generations. Trading of gold, metal and constant supply of food in the communities led to the rise of kingdoms in West Africa. There was an expansion of territories due to the amount of wealth the nation had. For example, Soninke expanded their territories across their neighboring communities and assimilating the populations. Politics and economic state of a kingdom achieved most of the goldfields controlling the sub-Saharan trading activities at large. Trading activities led to the exchange of cultures among community members especially between Muslims and Christians who had different religious practices, for instance learning the Swahili language and culture. An administrative culture was introduced in Ghana, which its work was to oversee community activities. It is also important to note that Mali and Ghana became allies because both countries mined and traded gold for a living. Their kingdoms were strong, and their kings could wear gold bracelets and necklaces that displayed power and wealth in the society. The social, cultural life in West Africa incorporated the captives, commoners, and the noble in the society. Kings, army commanders, and administrators wore the best clothes of the most elegant cotton materials in the community. They had expensive gold jewellery, and upon their death, they could be recognized among their people. The above narrative elaborates the socio-cultural way of life among the black people. Additionally, the essence of social stratification is in the capital city of Kumbi-Saleh in Ghana whereby high African centres are distant from Islamic centres...