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Missionary Practices on the Gold Coast, 1832–1895: Discourse, Gaze and Gender in the Basel Mission in Pre-Colonial West Africa Seth Quartey

Missionary Practices on the Gold Coast, 1832–1895: Discourse, Gaze and Gender in the Basel Mission in Pre-Colonial West Africa by Seth Quartey

A valuable scholarly analysis of the ways that the practices of members of the Basel Mission informed the nineteenth-century mission field of the Gold Coast.

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  • Formats Hardcover
  • Hardcover ISBN 9781934043448
  • Pages 248
  • Date July 2007
  • Size 6 x 9 in or 229 x 152 mm

This is a valuable scholarly analysis of the ways that the practices of three members of the Basel Mission (Evangelische Missionsgesellschaft Basel)—Andreas Riis (1804-1854), Rosine Widmann (1828-1909), and Carl Christian Reindorf (1834-1917)—informed the nineteenth-century mission field of the Gold Coast between the years 1832-1895. This study is based upon the original handwritten documents of these three missionaries, which are housed in the Basel Mission Archive in Basel, Switzerland.

The book is located within the larger discipline of postcolonial studies, and more particularly within the framework of Tzvetan Todorov’s discussion of ‘signs’ in his 1984 work The Conquest of America. The study also is set against the backdrop of the important theories on missions in the writings of Schleiermacher, Fabri, and Warneck.

A significant contribution made by this study is that it contains the first discussion of the female German missionary Rosine Widmann, who serves as a kind of example of the then current Missionsfrauen.

This book leads to a better understanding of the Gold Coast, and makes important contributions to scholarship in the fields of mission studies, German historical theology, German studies, and African studies. This book will also be of interest to those studying topics such as colonial discourse, travel writings, women missionaries, gender and ethnicities, and African voices.

Seth Quartey (PhD, University of Michigan) is Assistant Professor of German at Washington and Jefferson College. Prior to this appointment, Professor Quartey was Lecturer at Bowling Green State University.

Professor Quartey's teaching and research interests lie in the fields of nineteenth and early twentieth century German literature, Comparative Literature, German Colonialism, Contemporary German Culture, Post-colonial studies, Sociology, Business German and Culture.

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations


PART ONE


Chapter l. Introduction

The Gold Coast (GC)

Religion and the Formation of the GC

Brief History of the Basel Mission (BM)

Early Beginnings of the BM in the GC


Chapter 2. Literature and Concepts

Missionary as Concept of Progress

Mission: Commerce, Consciousness, and Discourse


PART TWO


Chapter 3. Riis, Widmann and Reindorf

Andreas Riis: A Lifetime of Colonial Drama

Innocent Arrival on the Gold Coast

Stumbling to Akropong

Building the Mission House

Conflict with the Danes

Marriage to Anna Wolters

Riis: Naturalist and Ethnologist

New Beginnings with the West Indians

Misconceptions and Conflicts

Riis and the Question of Slavery/Disenchantment


Chapter 4. Rosine Widmann. Gender and Discourse on the Mission Field

Life in Korntal

Widmann’s Mission and Quest

Journey to London

London and Environment

Enroute to Africa

On the Gold Coast

Meeting with Georg Widmann

Carrying the Missionary

Turbulences and Opinions

Missionsfrau Zeal

Gender, Discourse, Identity

Death, Accusation and Excuses


Chapter 5. Carl Christian Reindorf: Colonial Subjectivity, Drawn Boundaries

Carl Christian Reindorf

Conceptual Basis for a Pre-colonial and Colonial Identity

Reception of History

Reindorf and the BM Hierarchy

From “The Stronghold of Satan” to “Christianity”

Reindorf’s Image of the European

The BM, Reindorf and the Question of Slavery


Chapter 6. Conclusion


Endnotes

Bibliography

Archival documents

Secondary Literature

Index

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