[Archives catalogue]: Guides / Finding aids: Archives: D - Ghana: D-01 - Incoming correspondence from Ghana up to the outbreak of the First World War: D-01.59 - Ghana 1893: D-01.59.VI. - Abetifi
His first report on the Nkoranza war. His information on events in Asante (he offers this is in the face of the many rumours circulating) is that about 1,5 years previously Nkoranza had declared itself independent of Asante, whereon Prempeh had gathered 'the few people who remained true to him' and sent an army off to Nkoranza which had to withdraw per several battles. The army was brought together again and sent against Nkoranza (Ramseyer repeats Haasis' report that many young men had fled to the coast in order to be free of involvement in the war) - Ramseyer is not sure what has happened except that the Nkoranzas are not a populous peoples and that they had no allies, and had withdrawn towards Ateobu. The Kumasis then threatened Ateobu with war - but Ateobu has been for the last 2 years under British protection - the colonial government has decided to act. Three weeks before this letter was written Ferguson travelled through Abetifi in a forced march to Ateobu to discover how the land lay. He brought a letter to Ramseyer from the Governor saying that this step was necessary - they must show the Asantes that they could protect their Protectorate. 10 days before the receipt of the letter the first section of 55 Hausas with one officer and one doctor arrived, and five days later 2 more officers and 120 soldiers. They have two cannon and a sort of mitrailleuse. En route is Colonel Scott and 6 more officers and 150-200 Hausas - and a maxim gun. The officers and troops so far are billeted in the town, but they will receive Colonel Scott on the station. Ramseyer wonders if with all this force the Colonial Government intends to attack Kumasi: 'I have often asked the Governor about Kumasi’s being taken under English law, and it seems this is only a question of time.'
A sequel to the letter No. 134 above. The 'mitrailleuse' is some sort of gun firing rockets. The English officers are now all on the station which they admire - several are hawing to live in the houses of the Christian families. The 400 hausas are billeted in the town. One day the officers were officially greeted on the station by the various Kwahu towns dancing war-dances in their honour. The missionaries are not clear what Scott's mission is. They believe it involves creating a situation in which the Asantes cannot disturb the peace again, so they felt it was their duty to write a letter to him setting out the arguments for putting Kumasi under British law. This letter was very graciously received and sent to the Governor. Meantime more towns are trying to break free of Kumasi. Agogo has destooled its chief and applied to be put under the English protectorate. And Ramseyer himself received a letter from Yaw Sapong (his ambassador was accompanied by ambassadors from Konongo) written by ex-sir teacher Odei addressed to him which asked him out of the kindness of his heart to save their lands from destruction by the English troops, and also to send a teacher which had done such a lot for other states (Ramseyer interpolates that he refers to Bompata here), and also to get his land accepted into the Protectorate. The request for a teacher is repeated - he can point out to us whether we are going good or evil'. Colonel Scott's reply was to send an officer to the coast for guidance, and to request that people be present in 14 days’ time empowered to sign a treaty.
The Nkoranza war continued. This letter is mostly taken up with reporting that the whole matter has gone back to London at Cabinet level, and according to Ramseyer is in the balance with Gladstone opposed to further annexations. Ramseyer feels strongly that the latter is the only course - human sacrifice continues, there is a danger to the surrounding areas. He for his part is taking steps to move into the places where the doors have opened - Agogo and Ahyiaem.
[Archives catalogue]: Guides / Finding aids: Archives: D - Ghana: D-01 - Incoming correspondence from Ghana up to the outbreak of the First World War: D-01.58 - Ghana 1893: D-01.58.I. - General District Conference for the Gold Coast
Asks Basel to make representations to Berlin on the matter of the slave trade in the Volta region.
The slave trade south from Salaga is almost exclusively in children of the ages 7-12 years, and while there appears to be slave holding in Buem according to Clerk, in Nkonya and the strech of land southwards to Anum there are few because people are too poor to buy them (he excludes from this judgement the population in Kpandu). Therefore there are more slaves in the British protectorate than in the area immediately to the north, brought especially by the Ada traders. The evil lies in the transport (he includes Accra and Ada people among those actually moving the slaves around) once with a master they are taken into the family, often marry a daughter or relative of the masters, and the children are regarded as free. Many of the children at the schools in Vakpo, Kpando and Worawora are in fact children one of whose parents was a slave - there has recently been a case of a father withdrawing the child he had by a free woman because of the mother's protests and sending instead a child he had by a slave woman. He has been enquiring into cases where slaves have indeed fled from their masters and taken refuge with the Christians. He has known none come to Anum since he first went there, and the mission agents know of only single cases where slaves have come to them for protection. Usually these prove on examination to be connected with some misdeed of the slave. Since the mission agents have over and over again given such slaves back to their masters is perhaps one reason why more cases of this kind do not occur. Catechist Okanta in Kpando has recently had a case of a woman slave coming to him and begging for help because her daughter was about to be sold to Keta. As for cases of slaves coming south in flight to British or German Protected territories - Rösler has heard of none in his enquiries. They mostly try to return to their homeland, and he suspects try to avoid going into another area with foreign people and a strange language. He believes that many are caught in the neighbourhood of Krakye and returned to their masters for a fee. Another common mode of escape is to take the opportunity offered by a journey to the coast with a load; at the coast such people often meet their own countrymen and join them. Some return with so-called certificates of freedom, and settle where they want. Over the utility of a free-slave colony in Buem, Rösler writes that according to exact information the situation of slaves among the Twi peoples is more rigorously hemmed in than among the Ewes. And would not slaves feel the rules of a mission run colony a new sort of slavery? Their idea of freedom is quite different from ours. Furthermore an industrious slave, according to the mission employees Rösler consulted, is unlikely to run away from his master, because he will be well treated and allowed a lot of freedom - indeed some slaves themselves own slaves. The idle ones would still be idle in the Colony (Rösler offers as an example of the problems this entails a youth who had been bought free by a teacher at the age of 7, and even though he lived in the Anum mission house had such a strong streak of refractoriness in him that now he is no longer a scholar he has had to be sent away). Another problem with the whole scheme is that the people who would be most hurt by the scheme - the chiefs and rich men - are the very people who have to be approached when the mission wishes to settle in a new place. There might be something to be said for taking this step when the Emancipation has been proclaimed, and many foreigners are looking around for some new home. In discussing the impracticability of getting co-operation from indigenous rulers for the project, Rösler puts first the weakness of the rulers in the Volta region. (In his first paragraph Rösler says he did a special tour of his outstations in order to be advised on this question, though there is no evidence he got further north than Kpandu.)
Mentions that many former slaves from the interior are members of the church in Pepiase, and ‘feel very happy with us'. This says Ramseyer is evidence that while the project would no doubt go through many sad experiences, it would not be hopeless.
Schopf's Quarter's Report on the Slave-Colony Question
The Apenkwa people estimate the number of 'Donkos' living in the villages and hamlets on the Accra Plains as about 1000, and Schopf himself estimates the numbers of such people in Accra at 2-3000. Schopf puts Apenkwa forward as the location of the slave home - or some such place. The Apenkwa people themselves are enthusiastic - they would keep watch for slaves coming into Accra with loads in order to tell them about offers a number of other fairly obvious reasons why this would be a better area than on the boundary of the Protected Territories. He is also keen to get the people of Apenkwa more land to free them from having to observe King Taki's two fetish days.
Advises against tempting ex-slaves into the church with material advantages, saying that they are mostly heathen, and maintain heathen customs. But with two pieces of geographical insight against the setting up of a colony on any scale - settlement on the Accra plains is scattered because of the problem of finding water - also because of the shortage of firewood.
Steiner about the position of the Basel Mission on the Slave Question
A short article on the slave question in general, ending with the idea that slaves might be helped to set themselves up as farmers, but can fend for themselves and then come under mission influence in the normal way. There were many ex-slaves in the English forces in the campaigns of 1874.
Rösler's Report on the Station Anum for the Year 1893
[Archives catalogue]: Guides / Finding aids: Archives: D - Ghana: D-01 - Incoming correspondence from Ghana up to the outbreak of the First World War: D-01.59 - Ghana 1893: D-01.59.VII. - Anum
In the course of the year Missionary Martin travelled to Europe. Missionary Obrecht was posted to Aburi, and Missionary Lehmann posted to Anum. Among their local assistants Assistant Catechist Ruben Kwame was transferred from Tsate to Gyasekan, and replaced by Teacher Dako from Anum. Three local assistants had to be expelled from the mission, Teacher James Opare in Worawora, Thomas Ofei in Kpalime, and one of the Akwamu area teachers. In each case marital irregularity was the problem. They have held four catechists' and teachers’ conferences in the year two for those of the upper area in Ntwumuru, and two for those of the older area in Anum (the conferences were a combination of serious discussions based on papers written by all the participants, and informal gatherings e.g. in the Anum mission house). The mission anniversary brought the whole district together - Rösler notes how five languages could be heard (including German, English and Kyerepong) though most of the people can understand Twi and many speak it. Building - Hall and Clerk now have their houses finished. A new and roomier chapel in Kpalime has also been finished. In Boso the walls of the new chapel have been completed. In Vakpo the rain has destroyed part of the swish walls of the chapel in process of being built and the work is at a standstill. Rösler regrets that a sideline of their work like building takes so much time and energy - if they use wage labour they have to pay a lot because the workmen know that there are no others to take their place. If they ask the congregations to do it then the task is constantly to get them to work, and there is usually tension over the question whether or not the missionary is forwarding all the available money for the use of the building - and whether he could not get more from Basel if he asked for it. The European missionaries travelled for 131 days in the year, the local workers for 375 days. Many places asked for teachers during the year. Of the 85 baptisms of heathen in the district as a whole the largest number were in the Akwamu area - after which came Vakpo where 8 adults and 9 children were baptised. There were 16 exclusions. Spirits drinking is on the increase in the community. When so many of the catechists and teachers have 'no inner life' it is not to be wondered that the congregations lack inner life also. They still have difficulty keeping children in school, and the effective of the withdrawal of financial assistance to pupils in middle schools will mean that they will get no catechists etc. from the Volta area in the mission. In Anum an increase of 3 adults baptised was balanced by 4 exclusions - two were a married couple who lived in continual strife, parted and left the station. A third was an ex-elder who took a second wife (heathen) and took to liquor. A fourth because she swore a fetish oath before the elders of the town during a case about a quarrel. They people are if anything too friendly with the people of the town. Sunday morning services are well attended, not so the morning and evening prayers. Boso - 3 adults baptised, and one elder dismissed, and replaced only with difficulty. Liquor is being drunk by a number of the members, which leads to public quarrels between members and the destruction of family peace. In Kpalime the members of the community worked hard on their new chapel, but the 'fall' of Philip Ofei was a hard blow and several catechumens lapsed as a result of it. Tsate has benefited by the withdrawal of Reverend Kwame, who was not loved by the community on account of his love of power. They now number 64, mostly living on the mission land. They have a coffee plantation, and their main occupation is the preparation of local cloth. The Christians nominally at Vakpo are all in fact from Bomeh one hour away, and have settled themselves in a separate village. Kpando is offering little in the way of results even the school numbers have declined once the novelty wore off and the Mission refused to begin with the teaching of English as was requested. The town is a haunt of people for some reason or other excluded from the English colony. During the year the Mohammedan chief Osman Kato died.
Reports that war has been going on for months between the Asantes and Nkoranza. Nkoranza has asked Krakye Dente for help, and now Krakye Dente has twice asked Buem for assistance, though Buem is refusing, Clerk appears to connect this with the preaching of Christianity in Buem. The priest of Dente has gone with his following to Nkoranza; whether he will go as far as the fighting when he finds out that no Buems are following Clerk’s doubts. The troubles in Salaga continue. The king driven out of the area has still not been able to get back to his capital in Pami. There is a subscript by Ramseyer dd 1 Dec 89 with the information that the English Government told Krakye Dente to return to his town, and this he has done.
General District Conference for the Gold Coast
[Archives catalogue]: Guides / Finding aids: Archives: D - Ghana: D-01 - Incoming correspondence from Ghana up to the outbreak of the First World War: D-01.60 - Ghana 1894
[Archives catalogue]: Guides / Finding aids: Archives: D - Ghana: D-01 - Incoming correspondence from Ghana up to the outbreak of the First World War: D-01.61 - Ghana 1894