"Asante's Report for the Third Quarter of 1877"

Contains information not only about the events in Kibi in September, but also a preaching journey in Akim in August. This covered 17 villages, its general direction (North West and North East of Kibi) was determined by news of places where there were converts though this was by no means all places. The three Tafo villages (Ati, Tafo and Osiem) were visited but appear not to have contained any converts. In Asunafo were 6 converts (all men and youths). Asante does not judge as zealous as those of nearby Abomesu (7 men and boys) who are leaded by one of the most notable men of the town. In Abomosu he was told by the converts that there are people in Aaiakwa and Saman who would announce themselves as catechumens if they had a teacher. Indeed in another part of the report Asante writes that the new catechist in Asiakwa has already some catechumens including an ex-fetish priest (Asante specifically writes in connection with the location of Abomosu and the normal way to Asante that the latter passes Asiakwa, Saman, Osino and Anyinam and leaves Abomosu to one side.) Due to heavy rains Asante was not able to visit Apinaman and Asaman where a catechist had already found that there were converts - 9 in the latter (6 having already lapsed out of an original group of 15) and 10 in the former. There are converts too in Asuom, Apapam and its 3 neighbouring villages. In this situation of great potential development Asante suggests that 3 experienced catechists should be posted to Abomosu, Asaman and Apinaman (perhaps ordained as deacons first) and to save money first put into rented accommodation in the actual villages until it can be seen more clearly what was to emerge. Over events in Kibi: Asante had forbidden the Christian teachers to write letters for Ata without his knowledge (they were, of course, Akims). When the Okyenhene heard this he sent messengers to his advocate on the Coast and these returned on the day before the assembly in which Asante was ordered to leave Akim. At the meeting on the 20th the elders of the towns already named were in the assembly, with the asafos (young team). In the manuscript he lists a series of 6 charges made against him by the Okyenhene the only one (not reflected in the printed version in the Heidenbote, 1878 pp9ff) being that Asante had accused him of common theft. The Friday between the formal assembly and banning of Asante, and the riot on the station was the Friday before the Adae festival. Ata had - at some stage in the few months previously or in the actual events of August and September, three times conveyed charges against D. Asante to 'the highest people on the coast'. At the end of the report Asante writes a commentary on some of the charges made by the king against him: concerning the charge that Asante had charged the king with theft, Asante had charged members of the king's household with theft of goat of his, which the king had had to take on himself. And Asante had struck three of the king’s ‘boys’ who had chased hens on the station one Sunday morning during the conducting of a service. Asante's report gives a somewhat more detailed account of the Akwapimhene's embassy to Kibi which hinged on the question why no representative of Akwapim had been present during the legal proceedings which led to the banning of Asante from Akim. When Ata returned from his visit to the Coast in the middle of August it was with the Governor's commission to disarm the Juabens in Akim.

08.10.1877

08.10.1877

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