"Hall's Report on the Journey in the Back Country of the Anum Mission District"

In an appendix to this report written by Müller it seems Hall wrote a Twi script for the Christian Messenger, of which the report in the correspondence is a German translation. He justifies writing a report about a district other people have visited on the grounds that changes are happening all the while - if one went to a village 10 times there would always be something new to describe. In Anum the Christians are described meeting in the evenings to learn more hymns. In Boso the community had gathered to welcome them – only a few of their children had been sent to the market in Dodi. They are standing fast in the face of persecution, James Asawa is the elder here – a very energetic man. In Kpalime the people gather in the evenings to be taught hymns by Teacher Okanta’s wife. Müller distributed biblical pictures. People said that they would put them at the bottom of their boxes to give their children then they were older. Hall remarks that the Kpalime (Farema) community in fact is composed of people from Kpalime, Kaira and Tsatey. Hippopotamuses come out of the Volta at night onto the grassy plains north of the the Abo river near Kpalime. Tsohoo is depopulated by strife among the inhabitants. Hall believes on account of a ‘magician’. This is partly a hippopotamus hunters' settlement. They slept in Botoku, where they had difficulty finding a clean house. 12th January - through Owusuta, to which 11 villages belong namely Ayngbe, Dsigbe (or Todei), Anyinawase, Tsikwei, Hoime, Anyafo, Waa, Takpetaa, Hatoo, Uotongbe, Gadse. The Owusuta chief’s village is Dsigbe; it is on a hill, the rest are on the plains. The villages are all small now - out of fear the people allied themselves with Adubodof but were taken off to Kumasi - only small numbers managed to escape and return to their country, the chief included. (There were 12 houses in Dsigbe). They then passed Tutunya (or Vakpo’s 5 villages) and spent the next two nights in Anvoi. 13th Jan - the Anvoi people were many of them at a custom in Tutunya. The missionaries passed through Atawuranu and came to the two villages of Daame and Gyanna. In one or both the people fled into the bush thinking they were a government party. Commandant Williams en route back from Peki had visited this area and imprisoned a chief and fined him £30 for having two men killed during the custom for a chief. At the same time the chief of Atawuranu had tried to stop the Ada merchants from passing through his lands en route for the North. This was in order to preserve his market. In speaking here they had to use Ewe, and were interpreted by the Kpalime Christian George Kwasi. They seem to have taken pains to make clear their separateness from government. There was a blind man in one of the villages apparently carrying a quite normal life, farming etc. The people in this area are potters, finding their clay at a certain spot on the Volta, and selling their wares in Anvoi market. The Anvoi people remembered an earlier promise that they should be sent a teacher. 14th January. They left Anvoi and passed through Okyerefo and Siaove where they preached. They reached Kpando, a market place where Salaga people are living - in that respect the town is just like Tetewim (a Krobo town where Hall had spent the first night out from Akropong). In the Salaga part of them town it is very unpleasant - the place is full of fish and very dirty. Only the part of the town where Chief Dagadu lives is clean. They set out to preach in a large open space. Only the king's 3rd brother, who had been in Akwapim, showed the influence of civilisation - he had built fine houses with verandas which were furnished within a little as if by someone who had been with Europeans. All the other houses had their doors at ground level. In the town was a big market place where people from all regions had brought their wares for sale. The main commerce was in foodstuffs both cooked and uncooked. There is nothing you cannot get from this market. From many Nkonya villages they bring Ode yams, plantains, bananas (green and yellow), ‘stockyams', rice, maize, all sorts of fish, game, beef, crabs, tobacco, ashes (used in soap making and in preparing snuff), palm nuts, palm kernels, cotton yarn, raw cotton. They purchase earthenware tobacco pipes, cutlasses, and knives, salt, pots, different herbs, all sorts of beads, European and local cloth, matting, pepper, pineapples, lemons, oranges, tomatoes, okra (Hibiscus esculentus), shea butter, beans, palm wine, local beer, calabashes and so on, The market begins at 9 in the morning and is closed at 3pm. The chief of the Salaga people is called Osman Kato - he is an easy and benevolent man. He is a Siriki, in the time of Kwade he lived in Nyeduase Adukrom, and was for a short while too a soldier. He understands a little of the English language and speaks Twi well. He and the chief asked for someone to come and teach the children - and they heard that the same request had been made to Commandant Williams. 15th and 16th January -to Ntwumuru having passed thrugh the Kpando villages of Aloe, Tesi, Agbenohoe, Dafo, and spent the night in the first Nkonya village, Praprawasi. Hall says he began to be very happy that he had arrived in an area where he had long longed to be. In Praprawasi they met a man who had been baptised by Reindorf in Mayera. From Ntwumuru they visited the village of Benteriase (belonging to the Ntwumuru chief) and Kagyabi. Hall reports a dialectic about giving fufu to a fetish (he remarks on the large numbers of fetishes in Nkonya and Krepi houses - sometimes standing in the four corners). In this case the fetish was a large wooden figure. The people claimed that the fetish eat the spirit of the food, at which Hall said they must be blind because a food obviously had no spirit – only a man had a spirit. The Ntwumuru chief said that he would not hinder them if missionaries worked in his town, (When they arrived to greet him he was counting cowries). Hall remarks that like all the Nkonya and Buem towns this was a dirty place, and the people rarely washed, sleeping in the open air, the adolescents quite naked and lying by each other quite irrespective of family unit etc. 17th January to Wurupon, reeching en route in Ntomda and Tebo. In Ntomda they saw a caravan en route for Salaga. The leader was wearing a broad hat, and carried a long European sword. After him came five small children who were to be sold. An escort cerried a dane-gun. The leader greeted the missionary party after being discomposed to discover a European on his roads while the escort drove the children forward. The missionaries seem simply to have asked him if he did not know slavery was illegal in the Protectorate. Hall remarks that people who carry on this traffic in children deserve to meet an accident every day and to be overtaken by death at a moment when they are not expecting it. In Wurupon Hall found the people in the lower town more attentive than those in the upper. They are cleaner here and better clothed than the people in Ntwumuru. It was easier to get provisions - a hen cost 6d (1/2 Mark). Because of the clothing and cleanliness Hall thinks that mission work would sooner achieve results here than in Ntwunuru. Despite a woman's protests they were allowed to roast yellow plantains, despite the fact that there was a fetish prohibition stemming from a fetish with a house nearby. The house belonged to 'some youths’. 19th January - from Wurupon to Konso where they stayed - although they had not intended this - because they met an Accra family who pressed them to stay, and also they discovered the village where they intended to stay the night was too far. They met first a wife picking Okra on a farm. The man of the family was called Boku - he had been living there a long time. He ferries people across the river when it is high. Because of his energy the Nkonya and Aka people hate him, and they say about him that he is living in their land to get rich. They have not succeeded in harming him yet, however. They met at the same place a Christian from Boso named Catherine Ama. Her home is with her husband in the Aka farming village Kubeta but visits her mother in Konso. Hall regrets that none of them can read to strengthen themselves with the bible. 19th January. After passing a grassy plain they came to the village of Tewobabi - going through a farm belonging to the chief of Tewobabi. They reached the hill called Tapa (Takpa) and then to the village of the chief of the area - Tapa. Their reception was so enthusiastic from the men of the area that they could not preach straight away. There was trouble in the village because three men had get involved with the chief's wife, one of whom being his own brother, another being an Accra man. The matter was being investigated by the people of the village themselves - the Accra man was in the block, and the chief's brother had been fired - it might have cost him his life if he had not been. 20th January. They preached in Tapa and Amannya (there were three villages in some connection, and he gives the names as the two above and Akaneem). To Worawora where they stayed on Jan 21st also. A fine but stony village, no main street, only an open place at the centre. The people pressed them to send someone to stay in the village. Their host had a door in his house which had bought in Kpalime and brought to Worawora. There are dour Worawora villages - Worawora, Apeso Kubi, and Akura. The people are farmers raising yamss and rice. If you wear clothes there they charge you with being proud. 22nd January. Kugye, Atonko, Gyasekan. In the first the interpreter interpreted Hall's sermon so exactly he was very surprised. In Gyasekan they met Samuel Anim, the husband of Catherine Ama, the woman they had met in Konso. 23rd January. They spent the day near Borada, but as the people there were involved with a Custom they climbed a high hill to Adukru. There was a large ruined village up there which used to be Borada, but it had been destroyed in the Asante war, after which most of the pecele decided to rebuild in the plain below. Hall remarks that it was a village like that of the Krobos, and the people themselves claimed that it had been a very fine town. Samuel Anim had to act as their interpreter. The people of Adukru ware at first afraid of them, but after they had preached they were very friendly and tried to give them presents of cowries. 24th January – Apanya (the chief of Borada presumably) ordered his people to attend a meeting to hear the preaching. The priests were present decorated, and in long robes. Hall preached on the blindness of serving the fetishes, and the opening of eyes which follows becoming a Christian. The linguist was puzzled - he had understood the fetishes stood between them and God. Hall seems to have stressed the Christian's direct approach to God. The chief was already prepared for the arrival of the party in that - he had heard of developments in Anum and Boso; he said that wherever they wanted for a missionary settlement they could have it, and he had two boys whom he wanted to be taken to Akropong for schooling. At this place they were given a white umbrella which had been left by the 1884 Salaga party in Asukoko. Realising they had left it behind the missionaries had then asked a youth to care for it until another of them visited the area - now it was handed over to them. The umbrella in fact belonged not to a European but to a Lobi servant of Dr Mähly. They had planned to go through Adome Apafo to Lolobi, but the chief would not hear of it since there was a nasty sickness there. So he gave them a guide to take them on a different road to Lolobi as as Tetemang. They stayed the night in the latter - it is built in such a steep place that some of the houses are built under overhangs. They could buy nothing with silver – the people only used cowries. 2 strings bought a yam. 25th January - through Apafo where they were intergiven by an Apafo man who had stayed for some time in Cape Coast. The chief asked them to bring guns for him to buy next time they came. 26 January – Apafo to Santokrofi. In the latter the people were worried that they would take a specimen of their work to Europe in order to copy it and so harm their trade. Hall did not understand until it was explained to him that when people throw two strings of cowries at your feet this is a sign of welcome like the offer of water in Akwapim. 27th January, through the 5 Pekyipong villages and spent the night at Avaga, after the chief in Pekyipong tried to detain them even with threats. He said that Chief Kwadwo Dee was his elder brother. 28th January, passing through the villages Kulea, Groknaati, Gbadome, Deme, Logba, and the Avatime village Djokpo. They spent the night at an outstation called Jerusalem. There was a catechist called Joshua, and a teacher, also they met Richard Kwatia and his wife from Aburi, travelling in this district in pursuit of trade. He died the region somewhere and the people where he died took the trouble to take him to a place where he could have a Christian burial. 29th January - to Akave where they spent the night (at Jerusalem Müller who began to suffer from fever At Pekyipong hired hammockmen). 30th January. Through Agatae Nyeduase Peve, Abrofoom to Tsatei where their arrival coincided with the birth of a child in the house of the elder of the Christians. Next day being Sunday Müller took services in Kpalime and Boso, Ball in Tsatei, the Christians assembling in a long room where weaving was carried on. In Anum they met Mr. Geuger who wanted to buy a big boat - but the owner of the boat could not get it to the river. Additional anthropological information: Nkonya houses have very low eaves, but are very roomy. Nevertheless the stranger prefers to sleep in the houses where they weave. For at night they shut their houses when they go to sleep. The honouring of elders in Nkonya Boem and Krakyi pleased him - if you go to greet an elder you do it with a bow. The kitchens are kept so clean that you can sleep in them. The houses are decorated with the pots of their daughters - when a girl marries she takes her pot away with her - until then they all stand in a row inside. The Nkonya have the reputation of murderers and robbers, like the Krobos. Many travellers to Salaga are killed. Hall says daily through having to remain behind through illness and so losing the protection of their travelling companions. Human sacrifice is offered to their fetish Sia also - the fetish has two large drums which are only beaten to the occasion of human sacrifice. They say ‘Nkonya Wurapon’, and 'Efi totete' - 'death is let loose in Nkonya as of old'. This is still practiced. At the fetish’s yearly festival a man is only allowed to drink (Hall says in the fetish house) if you have a skull as a cup. Hall offers a description of the barbarities of practice in the area in the event of murder or accidental killing (they are treated alike according to him, and endemic in that 'play' is always leading to heated exchanges even between friends). The normal pattern is revenge - either the death of the man responsible for the earlier death, or revenge visited on his village (if the killer was from a different village). According to Hall the Kagebi people even burnt the Boem chief’s village under these sort of circumstance - the chief was persuaded only after a long period to return to his proper village site, and even now his house is small considering his position. The Kagebi people have a saying – if you flight with sticks, it soon comes that there is an uproar, and people start using arrows. There is also great fear of eating the food and drink in another village because of the danger people think there is that they may be poisoned. Marriage does not involve the husband in debts as it does in Akwapim - the husband only has to give the bride a mat and a cloth. Only one aspect of the marriage takes much activity - the preparation of food. The husband must provide the meat, and the special food is cooked for eight days. The husband has to bring the bride for 8 days 2 dishes of fufu -at the same time on the first day 24 balls of abete are made, with a thin soup made from maize flour ripe bananas or plantains together with a piece of flesh which can be divided into 24 pieces. Next day there must be 6 fufus with meat. On the eighth day a ram is killed, whose head is made into soup and poured over the fufu. After 8 days the girl is brought to her husband's house, people go with her, carrying her ‘hearth’: when they arrive then fire le lit and she makes abete without salt - that goes into the soup which is made of different herbs. This is divided between the families, her husband and her husband's friends. On that eighth day the bride does not anoint herself with shea-butter after her meal, but a red 'medicine' made from a certain tree. The custom for widows is not so honerous as in Akwapim. She may not eat only so long as the body of her husband is unburied - once buried she must wash, and eat fufu. What is not permitted is anointing herself after washing, or decorating herself. This is only allowed after she has been given medicine which purifies her. If the dead husband's family do not want to care for the widow they prevent her eating fufu for eight days by becoming their dead relative when she has prepared her food. They have only one festival as far as Hall could see - that in honour of their fetish Sia, which they celebrate once a year. Hall specifically states that people say they have no planting festival, no harvest festival, and no Adae. This is a time for fine clothes and ornaments. He again remarks how in all the houses there are fetishes decorated with beads and cloth, to whom part of the household food is offered. They have only a six-day week (Hall writes down the day-names with the English day-name equivalents). Hall also gives a description of iron-working in the Buem area. The charcoal is made for holes in the ground, the fire being kept in for 8 days. Their actual iron working is done with an anvil made of quartz bedded in the ground, whose upper side is covered with something - Hall did not know what. When working, they do not stand still, but move around the anvil. They make their own tools – hammers, tongs, chisels specifically cited. The hammers have a very short handle, only a finger’s length and are made completely of iron. Their bellows are very old-fashioned handled and when they are worked they make a noise like a drum. They are worked not by one man but by 3-5 working in turns. All the tools are beaten out in this way. Their hoes are unlike the Akwapim hoes that the shaft is bent. They saw the place where the iron is mined - very like gold-diggings, some of them quite deep. One of the smiths showed them how after rubbing his hands in the dust on the floor of the smithy he could pick glowing iron out of the fire with them and rub it so that the sparks flew – still with his hands. Unlike the pople in Santrokofi, those in Apafo wanted them to stay with them, and pressed for a teacher. In a geographical note Hall says that Apafo is really two villages Apato-Gya on the hill and Apafo Dome on the plain. Lolobi is two places and Santrokofi 3, each five minutes apart. Iron is worked in these places. In this area of Buem the people call their houses Aban not adan - and indeed their houses are more stoutly built: - in Borada, Apafo, Teteman, Beyika, Lolobi and Santrokofi. In Santrokofi Hall reports that most girls are assigned for marriage very early to their lives – he seems to feel this is unusual

25.02.1887

25.02.1887

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