Ghana, - Pre-Colonial History
Modern-day Ghana, , consists primarily of the former Gold Coast.
The region of modern Ghana has been inhabited for several thousand years. The Gold Coast was a part of the western division of the great empire of the Emperor of Benin, which extended from Benin up to the river Gambia, and that it was governed by kings appointed by the Emperor.
The historical kingdom of Benin was established in the forested region of West Africa in the 1200s C.E.
Artists of the Benin Kingdom were well known for working in many materials, particularly brass, wood, and ivory. They were famous for their bas-relief sculptures, particularly plaques, and life-size head sculptures. The plaques typically portrayed historical events, and the heads were often naturalistic and life size.
Its rulers were renowned for their wealth in gold, the opulence of their courts, and their warrior-hunting skills. They were also masters of the trade in gold, which drew North African merchants to the western Sudan. The military achievements of these and later western Sudanic rulers and their control over the region's gold mines constituted the nexus of their historical relations with merchants and rulers of North Africa and the Mediterranean.
The Gold Coast was the name for a region on the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa that was rich in gold, petroleum, sweet crude oil and natural gas.
The Kingdom fell to British invasion in 1897.
The history of the Gold Coast before the last quarter of the 15th century is derived primarily from oral tradition that refers to migrations from the ancient kingdoms of the western Soudan (the area of Mauritania and Mali). The Gold Coast was renamed Ghana upon independence in 1957 because of indications that present-day inhabitants descended from migrants who moved south from the ancient kingdom of Ghana.
The Beliefs of the Youruba people, are a prevalent belief that remains strong throughout the region. From these people, we get mythology of Oshun, Yemoja and Ogun, the other Orishas.
The Orishas were unique reflections of human beliefs. They were beings of the Earth, and reflect the forces of nature. They were centrally tied to the ascension of humans to a divine state of existence.
The brutality of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade has spread the belief in these deities to the West taking various forms in the Caribbean, South America, and the American South.
The Orishas are still venerated to this day hidden underneath the canvass of forced religions. Their following thrives as do the seeds stolen from the land.
