How cultures exchange ideas. Ancient World Cup: Côte d’Ivoire

[00:00:00]Interaction between different cultures is one of the most important processes in shaping human history, and it's one of the things that most fascinates me as an ancient historian. We see a really fantastic example of this in these Sudanese style mosques, which you can find in the Côte d'Ivoire. Eight of these mosques, spread across different places in the north of the country, are now recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. One of the things that's interesting about them is that they combine local techniques in creating earth buildings with architectural styles that emerged in Djenné in Mali from the 12th century onwards. And they also reflect engagement with North African Islamic empires. These architectural forms were brought south, first by merchants and later by migration. What we see here is how a new architectural idea can be brought into a region through the movement of people or through trade, and then made a reality by engagement with local techniques which utilize available resources and are suitable for the climate. Now, the surviving structures were primarily built between the 17th and the 19th century CE. And that might seem a little bit late for a series that is all about the ancient history of all of the nations competing in this summer's World Cup. As ever, a little plug to subscribe to the channel to make sure you see all of those videos. Anyway, what we see with these buildings is the way that architecture can evolve over time and the way that more modern structures can be created through engagement with a more ancient past. But I also find looking at examples from beyond the ancient world can really help us rethink we encounter when we're studying antiquity. I'm not going to pretend to be an expert in this material. I'm mainly getting it from the UNESCO World Heritage website and from a few academic sources that I flicked through. I'm not going to pretend that I know this stuff in loads of detail, but as historians, we sometimes get so preoccupied with our own field of study that we get really, really narrow. We learn loads about one particular topic, but that means we forget how other periods, other places can teach us something new. And sometimes I think it's really valuable just to look at something, even quite briefly, that we're not familiar with, because that can give us new inspiration for looking at the material we work with every day. For instance, this example reminds us of the importance of merchants and traders in spreading ideas from one culture to another. As ancient historians, this is something we can sometimes underrate. We can sometimes focus on military campaigns and campaigns of conquest. And as somebody who studies Alexander the Great, I think this is quite a powerful reminder.