"Kromer's Report for the First Quarter of 1869"

One feature of the station is that the paths have a European width about them. And one of the distinguishing features of the youths on the station is that they appear to care about the future - which is not a characteristic of their comrades in the heathen town. Boys in the school who are not gifted enough, or too old, or simply do not want to go to the Middle school in Akropong are learning a trade - 3 are learning carpentry, and one has waited a long time for a lockmaker to come to Osato whom he can be apprenticed. Samuel Amoa has learned to become self-supporting in carpentry, and has recently celebrated his independence by entering into a Christian marriage. Economically the mission has had an appreciable impact on the Akim people as a whole - the mango is now to be found growing in many places, and every big village has some coffee which they take to Cape Coast to sell. Amoa’s wife was a daughter of Ampao of Kukurantumi. She had lived and worked in the households of Kromer, and later Eisenschmid. She was baptised 'Maria' at Christmas. Kromer reports on the case of Opuni (see the Annual Report). He had been entrusted with slaves and money by his father - head of a rich family in Asante - to make purchases on 'the Akim frontier' (here and in the Annual Report he is described as a youth. He had heard from his grandmother that she had been stolen from Akim during an Asante invasion, and that some of her relatives were still alive in Akim. He had resolved to try to visit this family, and when he had made the 'usual' purchases, loaded the slaves, and given the remaining money to the elder slave, he set out on this mission. In the next town he was recognised as an Asante, arrested, sent to the Okyenhenes who then had him sold, and in this way he came into the hands of his grandmother's family as a slave. The family treated him well, however, and were prepared to send him on expeditions not only to Accra, but also to the Asante boarder. He could have run away there with no difficulty (he in fact actually met a brother who urged him to do this), but he did not, and Kromer ascribes this to his interest in the Christian religion. He is now both a trustworthy, slave and a baptismal candidate with a real desire to learn.

15.04.1869

15.04.1869

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