"Ramseyer to Basel"

2 members of the community have left for Ada - Emmanuel Osabude and Lydia Mamle. Osabude was a key member of the congregations and will be much missed. There are also two, perhaps three, serious catechumen. One is an ex-mason-apprentice of Felzer, another a former servant of Br. Müller. The third is more doubtful — the wife of the Anum Christian Johannes Ahyima. She attends instruction because her husband wants her to, but Ramseyer hopes that as more and more is explained to her in Guan (Ramseyer uses the name, explaining that it is a sort of Kyerepong language), she will come to want baptism for herself. The school continues to consist of their 7 servants only - along with a separate class for three small girls who also work for them on the station. No preaching tour has been possible, but street preaching is regularly carried on in the three quarters of the Anum itself. Of the seven servants, one is especially gifted - Joseph, a boy with a crooked back. There was some talk of him going to Akropong, but he is rather weak, and he is very useful in the life of the station, a potential monitor, and a successful interpreter. In the preceding months they suffered the quite open theft of 3 boxes of trade goods by the people of the village of Sokote. The Sokote story is that an Anglo owes them 862 dollars. On one occasion when they were panyarring an Anglo man on account of this debt, Chr. Rottmann offered to act as an intermediary to secure return of the debt, and they agreed. But nothing has ever happened about it, so they seized three boxes of Basel Mission merchandise - Chr. Rottmann's promise being two years old. Ramseyer reports that the ‘King’ of Ho, after at first seeming willing to get the boxes returned, later withdrew completely from the affair - each little village has its own chief, so one has to deal directly. On Ramseyer's vigorous protests in Sokote, the people who had actually committed the theft began to threaten that they would steal the consignment he actually had with him. But an Accra man 'who seemed to enjoy a lot of respect in the village' persuaded them not to do this, and indeed, since then traffic has been able to pass through Sokote unmolested. The war situation is worsening. The Ashantis (or better, the tribes on the right bank of the Volta who are vessels of the Ashantis) seem to definitely want to help the Akwamus. It is mostly a matter of merchants who want to see the blocking of ways at an end. They heard from Br. Binder in Anyako that these Ashantis had sent an embassy to the Anglos to try to persuade them to involve themselves in the war, and for a time it seemed that this would happen, but there is an unresolved quarrel with some Ashantis, and this has is keeping Anglo out of the war. They were happy at the thought that this would keep their route to the coast open, but the last post came with the report that the Anglos have set up a camp half way between Anyako and Waya, and that the road will certainly be blocked there. Br. Kühne will be able to tell them more when he arrives. Meantime they have been receiving requests for assistance from Dompre, and the 'Kings' of Anum, Posu, and Peki. Requests made in February were simply turned down. Then Dompre received a letter from Administrator Simpson which was read for him by the missionaries. This was dated Odumase, 8th March, and reported that he had been in Akwamu, that he had wanted to come further to Anum, but had been prevented by the impertinent Akwamus who had held him prisoner for two days. He wanted to speak with Dompre, but since he (Dompre) could not leave his important camp, he was sending him this letter to say that there were 5,000 Asantes in Akwamu. Ramseyer adds three exclamation marks): that he had written to the Aaantehene to tell him to command these people to return to Asante: and he also told the Akwamuhene that if he was helped in the war by these Asantes, the he (the Administrator) would call the whole Crepe nation to arms. The letter also mentioned the possibility of help (presumably for Dompre). Naturally enough this letter gave Dompre an inflated idea of his own importance, and not long after the Anum 'King' sent a message asking for 400 heads of cowries (Ramseyer gives the equivalent as 160 dollars). When the request was refused a second embassy was sent: and then a third which threatened that the King would withdraw from the missionaries the service of all their servants, and would also prevent people selling them food or fetching them water. In this situation they decided to hand over 80 heads, trying to make the distinction between paying tax for the war (which they did not want to do) and having money extorted from them, which was how they preferred to view the situation. Since then they have had no actual requests, though they knew that Dompre is threatening severe sanctions if they it do not respond to a request he is going to make. A Subscript by Schrenk dated 17th May reports that the whole colony is in uproar at the Asante threat. The Administrator is for war: Schrenk fears that the Administrator is a man who will risk the ruin of the colony in the cause of his own personal advancement, and that hard times could be in store for Anum.

26.04.1869

26.04.1869

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