"Zimmermann‘s Quarter Report"

p 2. Visit to Abokobi. Plan for Christian settlement there, beginning of their house. pp 4-5. His first free sermon in Ga without manuscript. Abokobi again. pp 6-10. The criminal and the rum bottle. Printed Heidenbote 1852, pp 57 ff. p 11: Joy of the arrival of Widmann and Däuble and Quinius with the Wesleyan mission boat. pp 12-13. At the Dakobi stream fertile tracts. Christian villages would do well there. A short discussion of the water needs in Africa, the correct use of water, and a proper searching for it, as will be found when christian hands are at work, will turn Africa into a veritable paradise. He offers two exemples of possibilities – the Dakobi stream, a tributary of the Kole, ha found dry two hours down from its sources, tho' in the upper reaches it was still flowing…with a proper course made it would flow all the year round. Also a man now dead, called Richter, had a fine well near his house, but it had been so close that he had filled it up for fear that his house would be damaged. p 14. where you see a thicket near a house, it is certain to contain an image of ? (or regarded as the home of) a fetish. From his wife he has learned about pagan customs during pregnancy. When a woman becomes pregnant, she straight away wears a ring of iron, silver, or gold, on both little fingers, to ensure that the child will not have 6 fingers. She may eat only in secret in order that the fetish does not see her and kill her child. Every day after washing she must paint her belly with white earth to make the child handsome and ‘white’. In the 4th or 5th month several fetish amulets will be bound around her. Towards the time of the birth the woman goes to a fetish priest to ask after the kra of the child (his short explanation of the kra is omitted). After initial formalities the fetish priest takes a pot of water called the Kulo, drinks some rum, and spits out into the water. He can then see the child in the water. First he looks to see if there is any curse or accident (impending), and when this is not the case he says 'Nusu ko be tsuitsiro nal' The child then comes and calls 'Ao (Atoa, Aho), Amaniabar (Mother, father, grandmother, be greeted). (Z. explains that Amaniaba is a characteristic greeting during a. fetish ceremony and means‚ (may) good luck come’.), Then the mother calls our ‚Mi Bi' – My child. Then the fetish priest asks the child about his needs (Verlangen) whether he wants to be born, and whether everything is in order. At this, the child answers yes er no, according to circumstances. In the first case he will answer perhaps ‘Yes, I want to be born, and I will bring you much happiness but make everything ready well, welcome me and treat me well. If on the other hand things are not in order - if for example there are quarrels or if the father does not live with other or is not known, then the child may answer I want to be born, but there are many obstacles, I have no father, no mother, so I shall quickly return again unless things are made better'. P 16. the chief craft in the two Shai villages is pottery - he estimates that more than 100,000 people draw their supplies of pots from here. The local people use them for the most part as their bottles, casks, tubs, buckets, dishes, water containers, cases and money boxes. In size they vary from 1/2 to over 100 Mass (apparently this measure is tankard-sized) and cost between 1 Rappen and 2 Francs 30. Lacking the potter’s wheel, the people use a very simple technique - it is the women’s - the men make farms on the plains. A well prepared clay is made into thick ropes and the pot is built up of these - out of pure clay, just like an African house. The inside and outside is then scraped until it acquires the correct shape. During the burning salt is used (NFD). The women then carry the pots around the whole area (Land) - or they are fetched by people from the various districts where they are used. p 17. The building of clay houses has been developed extensively in the hill-villages of Krebe and Shai. A flat piece of ground is dug, and then a layer of clay bricks ¾ x ¾ x 1’ high are put down. When these have dried another layer is added and so on until the house is 6-8' high. In single stony houses the thatched roof is so put on that it is quite separated from the walls, standing on its own posts. Posts and spars are usually made from bamboo - the white ants do not eat this wood - the thatch from palm-branches. The windows and the doors are formed from strong mats, or sticks bound together. Lock and bolt are formed by a stick bound into door or window, which when the door or window is shut can be tied tightly to a fastening in the wall (waagrecht gedrahtet und an die Wände gespannt ist). Small fastenings and wooden nails can be put into the wall while the clay is not yet dry. p 18. He also gives a very short description of the building of a ‘Stockhaus’ wattle and daub walls. Apart from the smiths and the mat and basket weavers of different types. Z. writes that he knows no distinction professions in Adangme. What in Europe is done by various craftsmen in this district is done by the local people - usually the women - in addition to their work in house and field. This is the case with milling, baking, butchery, tailoring and to a certain extent weaving, inter al. Baking is not allowed by the fetish in the interior, so that in Adangme bread is cooked. Z. draws the form of a mill in Adangme. A ground plan - the under-millstone (a) is walled in (b), and the miller grinds with (c) in the depression (e) in another depression which collects (auffangen) the flour. Among the Gas, on the other hand, the mill has this form (a) is the under millstone; (b) the upper, smaller millstone, round in section; (c) a pot to catch the grain. (a) is often sharpened by being struck by a harder stone, as our own millers do in Europe. The corn is usually milled wet, and the flour then immediately baked. Mill and oven are usually found on the same plot of open ground, and on days when baking goes on people are to be seen there from 5 a.m. to nightfall milling and sharpening and heating and baking - and buying. Now and again roasted corn is ground up to be used as food for journeys, eaten with water. This should be a very healthy food. Apart from corn they will esp. in Adangme. Bread made from this is very coarse. Lastly there are beans introduced from Europe - like the pea, the pod is not edible…They grow well, can stand dry weather, and is very suited to climbing bowers etc. p 20. He gives a simple drawing of an oven. These things are made by making a pile of sand and ashes of the right size and shape covering this with small flat stones, and then putting the clay on top. Once the clay in dry the filling is removed…. p 21. A summary description of the preparation of palm oil. The nuts are beaten in a stone container, and the red oleaceous flesh is put in a large bag strung up over another container and pressed together with a lever (Hebel) so that all the oil is pressed out. Agriculture is carried on at a rather high level, esp.in Krobo. The Krobos, supply their neighbouring tribes with corn, this is the commodity you see esp. in their many markets. Their palm-oil woods supply the coast with palm-oil in large quantities, as well as supplying the district (Land) with palm-vine and building material. p 23. The catechism of Stanger can be used well. p 27. Hope, that Christian farmers and craftsmen from Europe will form a Christian colony here.

30.12.1851

30.12.1851

Text

27 pages