"Ramseyer to Basel"

Reporting their arrival in Abetifi. He finds there faces he recognises from their stay as prisoners, and everyone knows who is he and are surprised to see him back again. The hut where he lived for two days as a prisoner is now in ruins. Politically the situation seems to be that although the chiefs of Obo and Obomeng had wanted to restore links with Asante they had been persuaded to drop the idea by the other chiefs. Ramseyer thinks they will have to restore links with Asante sooner or later but doesn’t think this will affect the situation much. Nevertheless he admits that the Kwahus are showing great respect for the colonial government, in the last week they had cleaned the whole road from Kwahu to Akim, partly in the fear that if they did not do this they would be punished by the colonial government (Buhl after reading the letter in Christiansborg adds a note that because of this David Asante was able to travel from Abetifi to Akim in 3 ½ days). On their way into Kwahu they had passed through Obo because they felt that the choice of sites for a mission station lay between that town and Abetifi. Obo they decided against because the obvious hill for a mission station was too far from the town and too far from water. In any case Abetifi is the residence of the Kwahu chief, and only three hours from Obo. On the 5th February the mission became owners of land on a long hill to the north of the town, about 7 minutes away from it. From it you can see almost the whole of the Abetifi town. There are plenty of stones for building. They plan to build a living house on the station first because it will not be possible to build swish once the rain starts, while the stone walls for the chapel will be possible. They are starting off in any case with temporary houses, because their rented rooms in the town cost 4 dollars per month, and they are “open” – in the whole of Abetifi are no rooms with doors and shutters.

08.02.1876

08.02.1876

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