"Mohr to Basel"

Laments the frequently changing personnel of the station - Munz for Huppenbauer, Sakyi for Ntow and Okanta, but includes a passage on Sakyi. Finding himself in that thickly clouded land, lying outside the protectorate where slavery and pawning were still allowed, where the people are industrious in craft and farming, was too much of a temptation for his character. He was the first man in Kwahu - other than the missionaries - who knew how to read, and he soon discovered how to make himself indispensable to the men of influence. Also he got involved with trade, especially in monkey skins - he used to 'settle' everything on his preaching journeys out of the missionaries’ sight. He became formally recognised as agent for merchants in Amedeka and on the coast, looking after consignments despatched to Salaga. But in these circumstances his preaching was scattered with the wind, because how could people accept him as the messenger of peace when they had just been settling his palavers, and when he had been involved in all the crooked methods that people use here in collecting debts of heathens they knew? He is typical of many of the indigenous helpers in the mission who use specious arguments to quieten their consciences when in fact their main motivations are a search for comfort and more money.

October 1880

October 1880

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