"Asante's Report for the Second Quarter of 1874"

Very morose concerning the community - two members had to be excluded for adultery soon after his arrival, and shortly after it was discovered that the elder, William Dapa, was a habitual thief. He has still not met half the people on the list of members. Haas told him they were away trading, Asante regards them as probably making a calling out of being vagabonds. Besides the servants of the mission ataff and the School-boys there is hardly anyone in the chapel usually. Street preaching was usually carried on with a large and attentive crowd especially from among the relatively large numbers of Asantes currently in Kibi. These consist of princes and their followers from Juaben and other smaller states, who are in Kibi with relatives they are prepared to offer as hostages in peace negotiations with the British, and also in pursuit of British protection for themselves. They are in Kibi because they want the Okyenhene to act as a go-between for them. 'They all believe that our business of preaching and the school would be the best means against the constant war between us and Asante' - they want missionaries to go to them. The whole of the Asante area that was not Asante proper, and part of Asante proper too, has fallen away from allegiance to the Asante empire, and wants to be accepted into the British protectorate - when everything has been set in order a great mission field will be open north and east of Kumasi – Nkoranza, Gamang, Ntwumuru, Brong, Krakye, Worawora, Juaben, Kwahu. The Kwahuhene has already told Asante to write to Europe and tell them he is ready to receive missionaries, and the Juaben ambassadors assure him that when their king has heard what they have seen of the mission in Kibi he will ask for a missionary presence too. In the boarding school there are two main problems - the chief and elders do not want to send pupils, and the food is so little that pupils run away because of it. Asante complains that the Kibi people do not even grow enough plantains to feed themselves, but have to go to other Akim villages to get food. He is having to bring in food from elsewhere, too, including yams from Akwapim. Compared with the Kibi people, the Kukurantumi people with their farms are much less inclined to travel. In subscripts both Mader and Buhl contest this view, the former reckons the food point is only an excuse for the losses in the school, he himself feels that Haas has been too inconsistent in his discipline. The latter feels that Asante has not taken enough time to understand the situation and has adopted a rather different standpoint from that from which he viewed the Larte community

13.07.1874

13.07.1874

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