"Schmid to Basel"

This letter is partly printed in Heidenbote 1887 p2f. Schmid mentions rice as especially the crop of Mpraeso, Nkwatia and Bepong. There are weather statistics - temperature and rainfall for the months June-September 1886. They have experienced great difficulty getting any of the few carpenters to come and work on the repairing of roofs. They are having to pay Fr.12.30 for the carriage of a 55-60lb load from the coast. In 6 1/2 years residence in Akwapim Schmid saw not a single weaver. You see little printed calico in Kwahu – more Grey Bast. The Ga pots with which he compares Mpraeso were from Shai. In their dealings with the Abetifi chief one of the points which he wanted the missionaries to concede was that for 6 month no-one but his own people should be sent to the coast to fetch loads for the missinaries. He stresses the contrast with Akwapim rather more strongly in the manuscript than appears in the printed version. He has been helping in cases of genuine need – he has handed out a total of 175 Francs in return for promises of future work on the station or in carrying loads from the coast. Reporting on the Abetifi community Schmid says that in most cases their spiritual life is not above zero yet. They have joined the Christian community to be free of the fetish priests rather than because of the appeal of the new religion - their disinterest in worship etc. showw this. Even the elder, Johannes Ata, only came back in August from a trading journey to Krakye and Salaga which had lasted 6 months. On his return he found two of his children dead. The first had actually had the mark of its baptism wiped off by a fetish priest in a public ceremony - the mother was a divorced wife - and when she wanted the missionaries to bury the child they would not. The other child - whose mother is the current wife but a heathen and perhaps an excluded Christian - was taken off to a fetish at Mpraeao apparently so that the missionaries would not know about this. On his return Ata said that he would never travel again. No minutes of the sittings of the Presbyters were to be found on his arrival. Subjects discussed in these meetings since his arrival were (inter al) (1) The revival of Sunday School in view of the fact that the majority of the adults on the station were illiterate – including the elders themselves. (2) The resting of mission land for farming (3) The keeping proper records of the Christian community. By no means all of the Christians were living on the station. About Bepong he reports on the fining of a man by the Fetish priest of Nkwatia. It looks as if this was the leader of the Bepong Christians.

23.09.1886

23.09.1886

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