"Asante's Report over a Journey from Anum"

Reporting varying degrees of preparedness for the arrival of a teacher in Krepe country: - Botoku – the chief undecided, apparently worried about the impact of a school on the fetishes - Tutunya - they had set aside a place already cleaned for the school, and earmarked a house for the teacher - Anvoi - the place for the school was not yet cleaned, though they had earmarked a house for the teacher In Nkonya, large crowds of people listened attentively to their preaching for a whole hour. In Wurupon there was as an even bigger crowd. The general question was why had the mission not yet settled someone among them. Asante remarks in connection with Nkonya that Assistant Catechist Immanuel Boakye is exceptionally good at preaching to the heathen – he was a real heathen, and now is a sturdy Christian, and can speak from heart to heart out of his own experience. From Nkonya they went along the caravan route to Krakye. On the day they reached Akrosso they were able to speak with individuals on the road, but only in a Tepa village (good reception and gift of provisions for the journey) were they able to preach to a crowd. In Akrosso they preached - Asante evidently felt the people had very little understanding of Christianity, preached on 'the biblical history' (a repeated theme in the reports by which is probably meant the story of the Fall and the Redemption), but 'one could see that the people did not grasp it'. They preached to a friendly reception in Apaso, and in two villages on the Oti, one large and one small, both called Ahenkro. In Krakye they could not raise an audience in the Mohammedan quarter, but in Krakye proper the chief and elders came in response to the bell. They both preached to an attentive audience, indeed next day - Asante reports there were conversations about the sermons, and the wish expressed(by ordinary people presumably) that a mission agent should be stationed there. He compares their reception with that he received in 1878. A Christian who was in Krakye recently says that ‘the preaching of the gospel on that side of the Volta has made Dente ill, and he will die soon'. There was smallpox in Krakye. Boakye's sermons was based on Isaiah 11.6, comparing Asante to the leopard and the wolf, and their erstwhile subjects with the lamb. Now they are all living together in peace, and the Word of the Lord has been fulfilled. Therefore the Krakye people should give up Dente and worship God. In Buem, except in one fetish village, they were everywhere received with great friendliness, attentively listened to, and asked when mission agents were coming to Buem. In Borada (Asante recalls the events of 1882 when he began to speak against Dente) the chief himself criticised Dente. They visited lmost all the Buem towns and villages. Summing up the trip Asante describes everywhere eagerness to receive the Mission: indeed in Nkonya a positive impatience, because they have been promising to come for so long. ‘I do not think that this general longing for the Word comes from an inner conviction, but much more because they are tired with their old religion and want a new one - or indeed because they want elucidation.

10.04.1888

10.04.1888

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