"E. Ofori’s report on the Kibi Community for the Year 1883"

Major events in the year were the opening of the new chapel, the extension of the pastor's house and the building of a new teacher's house. ‘The Christians are also improved in agriculture which business is not cared much in this place of Akim but now they have seen that if one becomes a Christian he must be diligent in agricultural business, also to get something for himself and his family to live on and also for the spreading of the gospel'. He describes the usual weekly liturgy, Buck's death having stirred up a desire to pray for the health of congregations and missionaries. Tax is well-paid, and the old women who have nothing willingly pay half. By the end of the year the size of congregations in Kibi and its immediate outstations was: Kibi 324, Apapam 52, Apedwa 21, Asafo 7, Tete 5. There was an overall increase of 113 in the course of the year. Of the latter figure 49 were actual converts, 31 of them in Kibi itself. Individual histories: Sara Ofosua - a wife of 'the' chief (but obviously not Ata) felt contented with the fetishism as the wife of a chief accepted in a levirate marriage on her husband's death. However the youngest son of hers became a Christian and spoke to her a great deal about the advisability of becoming a Christian - 'that those who serve the fetishes and stand against the word of God are abominable in the sight of the Lord, and should therefore be judged to everlasting death: She in the end decided to become a convert after her husband's death, and did so strengthened by the thought of her husband's last sickness which was long-lasting and in which his fetishes did not help him’. Martha Adwapa - daughter of Sara Ofusua, taught by the death of 5 of her 7 children that fetishism is a shame 'now I think it is better to give myself and my two children up to the Saviour of Mankind, under whose protection the life and death are the same with endless joy in the Happy Home'. In Apapam the 4 adults baptised are all members of a family 'headed' by an old Christian woman. In Tete the three baptised adults include one Joseph Yeboa, a descendant of former chiefs who feels he can no longer boast in the decaying riches of his ancestors. In Apedvga 2 adults were baptised, and the 3 children baptised included one born of heathen parents, but with 6 fingers - the parents themselves wanted him baptised and promised to pay for his education - they had been previously childless and wanted someone to care for them in old age. On street preaching and contact with the heathen in Tibi, Ofori reports that in fact the heathen come even to the Bible Studies on the Salem, and when a head of a family becomes a Christian then the rest of the family usually follows. At the end of this report is the note that in future the writer wishes to be known as Esau Ofori and not Esau Kwadwo.

07.01.1884

07.01.1884

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