"Ramseyer's Report for the Year 1893"

Part of the report is printed in the Annual Report 1894, pp. 57ff. In the course of the year a large schoolhouse with two rooms was built for the Boarding School, also, a sleeping room for the boarding pupils. In Bompata there are several houses on Christian land. Reporting on the expedition to Atebubu, Ramseyer puts it at 400 soldiers, 10 officers, and 600 carriers. Many of the Christians were recruited as carriers - Ramseyer acutely worried about them since they were months without being able to attend a service. He also thinks the small number of baptismal candidates was a result of the expedition, since so many of the people left the town in order to avoid colliding with the Hausas. Part of the force camped in Bompata. Ramseyer reports briefly on the outstations - 2 further adult baptisms in Atibie, several catechumens in Obo, the first 5 adult heathens baptised in Asakraka though not yet on mission land, 22 baptisms in Nkwatia where the people are building a new chapel, in Bepong the people have at last been persuaded to move onto the mission land. For a time an assistant catechist was at work in the farming village Ntawadua at the foot of the scarp - an elderly man received catechumen's instruction and is now numbered among the catechumens at Obo. In Asante Akim the first baptisms will occur soon – in Patriensa the chief who is also the fetish priest did not want to receive Boamma, but the people were very enthusiastic about him. Two catechumens are receiving instruction there and many people say they are only waiting until the Mission buys land to become Christians. Kumawu and Kwmnang have also been visited, but clearly feel that they cannot accept a teacher until there is one in Kumasi. The rest of the report is concerned with a journey into Asante Akim following news that Ahyiaem (the seat of Yaw Sapong Juabenhene) and Agogo had asked to be taken into the protectorate and to be sent a teacher. The journey took place in December. They travelled direct to Agogo, spending a night in the forest en route, where it rained for three hours. In Agogo he met Boateng from Bompata, and Assistant Catechist Meyer was handed over to the chiefs and people. The chief is only recently recalled from Kumasi and enstooled. The people begged Ramseyer to help them be accepted in the Protectorate, and Ramseyer said that he was politically neutral but would transmit their wish to the Governor. Ramseyer describes the welcome in Agogo in glowing terms. They travelled to Ahyiaem in one day via Patrensa, where they picked up Boamma. In Ahyiaem the women were celebrating custom for a near relaitve of the queen mother, but they received a warm welcome from the Juabenhene and the men. The king received them in a courtyard part of whose fences were made of palmfronds, since the building had not been completed. Ramseyer's response to the request for a teacher was to station Boamma there temporarily, assuring them that a teacher would be sent in February. He repeated that missionaries are not involved in political affairs. The next day they had a private interview with Yaw Sapong at the latter's request, in which he communicated his anxiety to be taken into the Protectorate on the one side, and his fears about the Asantehene's reactions to his bid for independence on the other. He won Ramseyer’s sympathies in this interview to the extent that Ramseyer decided to travel home via Accra in order to lay this cast before the Governor. Ramseyer writes tried to calm his fears, and assured him that even if it should happen that the Governor does not accept his proposal he (the Governor) will do all in his power to safeguard his life from the Asantehene. Ramseyer noted however that the Queen Mother was absent from these discussions and fears that she is hostile (this is implied, not stated), and therefore that working there will be hard. He wonders if it would not be better to station a catechist at the larger Juaben town Odumase, which has already once asked for a teacher. In Bompata he met the English officer who is there with 40 Hausas - Ramseyer reckons this is a sort of observation post, partly with reference to Yaw Sapong. (Ramseyer travelled to the coast via Kotoku). A Ramseyer subscript of 19 April states that the catechist designated for Juaben was stationed in Odumase (his name was Kwelfo), partly because of the pressing advice of the two Asante Akira catechists.

21.03.1894

21.03.1894

Text