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A Dutch Embassy to Asante in 1857: The Journal of David Mill Graves1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Larry W. Yarak
Larry W. Yarak*
Affiliation:
Texas A&M University
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Extract

Historians would readily agree that among the most important sources for Asante history are the written accounts of foreign visitors who traveled to Kumase during the nineteenth century. A work such as Ivor Wilks's Asante in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge, 1975), for example, is almost unthinkable without T. E. Bowdich's Mission from Cape Castle to Ashantee (London, 1819) and Joseph Dupuis' Journal of a Residence in Ashantee (London, 1824). These two published and reprinted primary sources are justly famous for their rich evocations of encounters with Asantehene Osei Tutu Kwame (reigned 1804-23) and members of his court. But there are a number of unpublished accounts—and those published in relatively obscure places—which also contain important historical data but which are lesser known and less often cited by scholars. In English one thinks of, among others, British Governor William Winniett's journal of his visit to Kumase in 1848; in French the extensive notebooks of Marie-Joseph Bonnat; and in German, the report of the missionary A. Riis.

A number of Dutch-speaking visitors also traveled to Kumase during the nineteenth century and left valuable written accounts, though few have ever been published. Language barriers have often prevented full use of the rich data they contain. Among the more important are those of Willem Huydecoper in 1816-17, Jacob Simons in 1831-32, Jacobus de Bruijn in 1836-37, H. S. Pel in 1842, and David Mill Graves in 1857, extracts from whose journal I have translated below.

Graves served as secretary on a Dutch diplomatic and trade mission which was dispatched by Governor J. van den Bossche to the Asantehene, Kwaku Dua Panin (reigned 1834-67) in July 1857.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 24 , January 1997 , pp. 363 - 380
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1997

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Footnotes

1.

Research for the introduction and annotation of the documents translated below was made possible by grants from the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars, the U. S. Department of Education, and the Joint Committee on African Studies of the Social Science Research Council and American Council of Learned Societies with funds provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation. I am grateful to them for their assistance. I wish also to thank Brenda Blair and two anonymous readers for their comments on earlier drafts. I hasten to absolve them of any responsibility for the errors that may have escaped their scrutiny; for these I have only myself to blame.

References

Notes

2. British Parliamentary Papers, 1849 (XXXIV), 577-89.

3. Recently published as Marie-Joseph Bonnat et les Ashanti: Journal (1869-1874), trans, and ed. Perrot, C. H. and van Dantzig, A. (Paris, 1994).Google Scholar

4. “Reise des Missionaris A. Riis in Akropong nach dem Aschantee-Lande im Winter 1839 bis 1840,” Magazin für die neueste Geschickte der evangelischen Missions- und Bibelgesellschaften, 3 (1840), 174–238.Google Scholar

5. See Huydecoper's Diary: Journal from Elmina to Kumasi 28th April 1816-18th May 1817, trans. Irwin, G. (Legon, 1962).Google Scholar

6. Simons' journal may be found in Algemeen Rijksarchief (National Archives of the Netherlands, located in The Hague—hereafter ARA), Archief van het Ministerie van Koloniën, 1814-49, 3965: Government (Elmina) Journal for 1832, appendix.

7. Whom I take to to be the author of the “Extract uit het Dagboek der Reize van eenen Officier der Nederlandsche Zending naar den Koning van Ashanté (in het Binnenland van Africa) in de Jaren 1836 en 1837” (“Extract from the Diary of the Journey of an Officer of the Dutch Embassy to the King of Ashanté (in the Interior of Africa) in the Years 1836 and 1837”). This document is on deposit as MS H. 1089 in the Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde, Leiden, the Netherlands, without author attribution. De Bruijn was the embassy's secretary.

8. See Aanteekeningen gehouden op eene reis van St. George Delmina naar Coomassie, hoofdstad van het Ashantijnsche rijk, en geurende een kort verblijf aldaar (“Notes Kept on a Joumey from St. George Delmina to Coomassie, Captal of the Ashantijn Empire, and During a Short Stay There”), Leiden, n.d., but ca. 1842.

9. ARA, Archief van het Ministerie van Kolonien, 1850-1900 (hereafter MK), 5901: verbaal, dd. 17 August 1858, No. 314 (secret), enclosure: Van den Bossche to Minister, dd. The Hague, 12 January 1858, No. 8.

10. Ibid. See also Baesjou, René, An Asante Embassy on the Gold Coast: The Mission of Akyempon Yaw to Elmina, 1869-1872 (Leiden, 1979), 24–25Google Scholar; and MK 769: verbaal, dd. 13 December 1858, No. 14, enclosure: Nagtglas to Minister, dd. Elmina, 9 November 1858, No. 21 (confidential).

11. Carel Bartels (ca. 1818-83) was the son of Card Hendrik Bands (1792-1850) and Ama Praba, and the grandson of the Dutch governor C. L. Bartels (d. 1804). He was one of ten children of C. H. Bartels by Ama Praba and another Elmina woman. Most of his seven sisters were, like Charlotte, married to prominent trading and political figures in Elmina, among them several Dutch officers in the fort up to and including the rank of governor. Carel Bartels was also the builder of a massive three-story house, the remains of which still stand and are known today in Elmina as “Mt. Pleasant” or “Carl Bartels's Castle.” It stood prominently on a small rise in the “new” area of Elmina, directly across the bay and in full view of the main Dutch fort.

12. MK 705: verbaal, dd. 24 April 1858, No. 16, enclosure: Van den Bossche to Minister, dd. 15 January 1858, A (secret).

13. MK 1963: verbaal, dd. 7 September 1867, No. 11, enclosure: Nagtglas to Minister, dd. The Hague, 19 August 1867. From a document estimating the mission's expenses prior to its departure, it is apparent that the mission was expected to return to Elmina in about thirty days; see ARA, Collectie J. Van den Bossche en E. M. Francis (hereafter CVDB) 22: Table of stipends due to the King of Elmina, chiefs, etc….drawn up by C. Nagtglas, dd. 30 June 1857. In fact, the embassy did not return for nearly two and a half months. Charles Bartels apparently intended to travel to Kumase with Van den Bossche; see CVDB 21: Graves to Bartels, dd. Kumase, 21 August 1857.

14. MK 5901: verbaal, 17 August 1858, No. 314 (secret), enclosure: Nagtglas to Minister, dd. Elmina, 6 October 1857, No. 80.

15. Writing in the mid twentieth-century, Elmina historian J. S. Wartemberg described Graves as having been an “erudite gentleman;” see his Sao Jorge d'El Mina: Premier West African European Settlement (Ilfracombe, n.d.[ca. 1950]), 57.Google Scholar See also Baesjou, , Asante Embassy, 43–44, 173-74n435.Google Scholar

16. On the Dutch cession see Baesjou, Asante Embassy, and Coombs, D., The Gold Coast, Britain and the Netherlands, 1850-1874 (London, 1963).Google Scholar

17. MK 5901: verbaal, dd. 17 August 1858, No. 314 (secret), enclosure: Van den Bossche to Minister, dd. The Hague, 12 January 1858, No. 8. See also Document A, below.

18. MK 5901: verbaal, dd. 17 Aug. 1858, No. 314 (secret), enclosure: Nagtglas to Minister, dd. Elmina, 6 October 1857, No. 80. The symbol for the Dutch guilder is f; in the mid nineteenth-century one British pound equaled f10. All the gifts for the Asantehene were supplied to the Dutch government by Carel Bartels.

19. Ibid., Van den Bossche to Minister, dd. The Hague, 12 January 1858, No. 8.

20. Ibid., Nagtglas to Minister, dd. Elmina, 6 October 1857, No. 80. On the origins of the Asantehene's debt see MK 918: Exh., dd. 22 February 1860, No. 1, enclosure: Nagtglas to Minister, dd. Elmina, 23 Dec. 1859, No. 100. During 1831-42 Dutch authorities at Elmina and Kumase “recruited” men for service in the colonial army in the Dutch East Indies. Most men were in fact nnonkofo (Akan, s. odonko, usually translated as “slave”) whose “freedom” the Dutch purchased from their masters. About half of the more than 2,000 men enlisted in this period were obtained in Kumase, though the Asantehene supplied only 235 of the 1,000 men he agreed to deliver by a written agreement he signed in March 1837. The recruits were transported to the East Indies on Dutch ships, and many served there with distinction. Several hundred survived the rigors and dangers of colonial army life to retire on government pensions, with which many returned to Elmina. For recent, brief overviews of Dutch military recruitment in the Gold Coast and Asante, see Baesjou, , Asante Embassy, 23–25Google Scholar; and Yarak, Larry, Asante and the Dutch, 1744-1873 (Oxford, 1990), 109–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar I am currently preparing a book-length study of this fascinating episode in Ghanaian, Dutch, and Indonesian history.

21. Two women were among the ten people paid as Kwasi Mensa's hangmatdragers, i.e., “hammock-bearers;” MK 5901: verbaal, dd. 17 August 1858, No. 314 (secret), enclosure: Nagtglas to Minister, dd. Elmina, 6 October 1857, No. 80.

22. ARA, Archief van de Nederlandsche Bezittingen ter Kuste van Guinea (hereafter NBKG), 368: Elmina Journal, entries for 9 and 11 September 1857.

23. Ibid., entry for 28 September 1857; MK 5901: verbaal, dd. 17 August 1858, No. 314 (secret), enclosure: Nagtglas to Minister, dd. Elmina, 6 October 1857, No. 80; see also Document C below. For an extended analysis of the Asante “Yam Festival” or Odwira, see McCaskie, T. C., State and Society in Precolonial Asante (Cambridge, 1995), chapter 4.Google Scholar

24. MK 5901: verbaal, dd. 17 August 1858, No. 314 (secret), enclosure: Nagtglas to Minister, dd. Elmina, 6 October 1857, No. 80. These gifts were also supplied by Carel Bartels and included such items as plantain, salted meat, rum, French liqueur, eau de cologne, knives, tobacco, and various textiles and drinking glasses.

25. Ibid. See also Nagtglas's letter to Kwaku Dua in NBKG 604: Nagtglas to Kwaku Dua (draft), dd. Elmina, 5 October 1857. On Kwasi Boakye, see Yarak, Larry, “Kwasi Boakye and Kwame Poku: Dutch-Educated Asante ‘Princes’” in The Golden Stool: Studies of the Asante Center and Periphery, ed. Schildkrout, Enid (New York, 1987), 131–45.Google Scholar

26. NBKG 935: Financial Records for the Fourth Quarter 1857, receipt signed by Graves, dd. 14 November 1857.

27. NBKG 423: Governor's Annual Report for 1857, dd. Elmina, 1 August 1858.

28. MK 769: verbaal, dd. 13 November 1858, No. 14, enclosure: Nagtglas to Minister, dd. Elmina, 9 November 1858.

29. MK 5901: verbaal, dd. 17 August 1858, No. 314 (secret), enclosure: Nagtglas to Minister, dd. Elmina, 6 October 1857, No. 80. The Asantehene's debt was never paid off.

30. This was the principal goal of a second Mensa-led Dutch embassy to Kumase sent in 1858; see MK 5952: verbaal, dd. 25 January 1859, No. 1 (secret), enclosure: Nagtglas to Minister, dd. Elmina, 11 December 1858, No. 24 (secret). I have been unable to find a diary—or even a reference to the existence of one—which might have been kept during that journey. Graves did not accompany this mission.

31. MK 5909: verbaal, dd. 25 December 1859, No. 434/3 (secret).

32. Handelingen der Staten Generaal (Dutch Parliamentary Papers—hereafter HSG), 1873-74, Bijlagen, II, No. 156: “Verslag wegens de overdragt aan Engeland van de Nederlandsche bezittingen ter Kuste van Guinea” (“Report on the Transfer of the Dutch Possessions on the Coast of Guinea to England”), dd. 30 June 1874. Graves' journal appears as Appendix I.g: “Journaal van het gezantschap in 1857 naar Coomassie gezonden, door den tolk D. Mill Graves,” (“Journal of the embassy sent to Coomassie in 1857, [kept] by the translator D. Mill Graves”), 19-22.

33. CVDB 27: “Ingekomen dagboek van D. M. Graves betreffende een reis naar Coemassie, hoofdstad van Assantijn, Afschrift, 1857” (“Received diary of D. M. Graves Concerning a Journey to Coemassie, Capital of Assantijn, Copy, 1857”).

34. CVDB 21: Graves to Van den Bossche, dd. Kumase, 12 August 1857. This letter also contains a reference to a previous letter Graves sent to the governor, dated 29 July, which I have not been able to locate.

35. It should be noted, however, that the handwritten copy bears no further annotation affirming that it is in fact an “authentic” copy of the original, an annotation which usually is to be found on official copies of nineteenth-century Dutch colonial records.

36. For a recent analysis of Kwaku Dua's personality and reign, see McCaskie, , State and Society, 180–99.Google Scholar

37. For recent discussion concerning “human sacrifice” in Asante see Williams, C., “Asante: Human Sacrifice or Capital Punishment? An Assessment of the Period 1807-1874,” IJAHS, 21 (1988), 433–41Google Scholar; Wilks, Ivor, “Asante: Human Sacrifice or Capital Punishment? A Rejoinder,” IJAHS, 21 (1988), 443–52Google Scholar; and most recently, Wilks, , Forests of Gold: Essays on the Akan and the Kingdom of Asante (Athens, Ohio, 1993), chapter 7, esp. 217Google Scholar, where all Asante killings of humans are assimilated to either “judicial executions” or “mortuary slay ings.” Cf. McCaskie, , State and Society, 201, 213–14.Google Scholar

38. See below, Document B, entries for 23-25 August.

39. See below, Document B, entry for 10 August. Simons noted repeatedly in his journal that people along his route to Kumase called him a “white man.”

40. The “big” or “Sunday” adae. See below, Document B, entry for 16 August.

41. The “small” or “Wednesday” adae. See below, Document B, entry for 9 September.

42. NBKG 604: Van den Bossche to Kwaku Dua (draft), dd. Elmina, 22 June 1857.

43. See sources cited at notes 32 and 33.

44. This was Nkyidwo, in the Asante calendar, one of the best “good” days on which to conduct business; on the Asante calendar see McCaskie, T., “Time and Calendar in Nineteenth-Century Asante: An Exploratory Essay,” HA, 7 (1980), 185–89Google Scholar; Adjaye, J., “Time, the Calendar, and History Among the Akan of Ghana,” Journal of Ethnic Studies, 15 (1987)Google Scholar; and most recently, McCaskie, State and Society, passim. I am grateful to Ivor Wilks for providing me with a copy of his computer-generated concordance between the Asante and Gregorian calendars.

45. This town has apparently since been absorbed into modern Kumase. T. B. Freeman described “Franfraham” as “a small croom [town], about a mile and a half from Kumasi, (built for the accommodation of strangers travelling to the capital);” see his Journal of Various Visits to the Kingdoms of Ashanti, Aku, and Dahomi in Western Africa (3rd ed.: London, 1968), 45.Google Scholar

46. Hoofden.

47. Notabelen.

48. Opperhoofd.

49. Ministers.

50. Capiteinen.

51. stoelen.

52. troepen.

53. Hofbedienden.

54. Thesaurier.

55. Hofmeester.

56. Opperhofnar.

57. Presumably the Diana monkey of the West African forest (Cercopithecus diana).

58. paantje.

59. Carabijnen.

60. praalstoet.

61. “Dasje,” or “dash.”

62. pisang. This word could also be rendered as “banana,” but as Graves refers to it being pounded or mashed, it seems more likely to be “plantain.”

63. “Atjenpon” may be identified with some confidence as Akyampon Yaw. The phrase identifying Akyampon Yaw as “one of the ministers and recently appointed Barber of His Barbaric Majesty” was not included in description of events of 6 August which is found in Graves' letter to Van den Bossche of 12 August (see CVDB 21). It is interesting to note that Graves here describes Akyampon Yaw as a “minister,” rather than a “linguist,” yet he is subsequently observed clearly performing the duties of a “linguist,” or counselor (Akan, okyeame; pl. akyeame). The appointment to the royal “barber” is an apparent reference to Akyampon Yaw having been selected to occupy the Deboso stool, and office of the royal household, whose traditional duties included clipping the Asantehene's hair; see Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, AS/65: Deboso Stool History. However, Akyampon Yaw's name is not included in the list of stool occupants given there. On Akyampon Yaw and for further discussion of these matters, see Yarak, Asante and the Dutch, chapters 5 and 6.

64. Linguisten. The refererence is to the Asantehene's akyeame.

65. verroest, literally, “rusted in.”

66. Abbreviation for engels, a unit of weight; one engels was equivalent to one-sixteenth of a Dutch troy ounce of 30.75 grams, or at this time f2.50; see Garrard, Timothy, Akan Weights and the Gold Trade (London, 1980), 228.Google Scholar In his letter of 12 August to Van den Bossche (CVDB 21), Graves specified that Kwasi Mensa received 2 oz. 4 eng. of gold dust, his “women” or “wives” (vrouwen) 9 eng., the King's envoy 9 eng., the carriers 9 eng., and Graves himself 9 eng.

67. regimen, presumably from the French. I am grateful to Gérard Chouin for this explanation.

68. bekken.

69. Kaantjes.

70. Graves' obscure verb here is ontwierden, which I take to be the past tense of ontwerren, dialect for ontwarren, “to unravel, disentangle;” I have rendered it as “detected.”

71. Graves' phrase: gingen op hetzelve op leven en dood.

72. This entry is puzzling, as 9 August was Nkyikwasie, and a full week before the “big” or Sunday adae. Perhaps Graves is referring to the beginning of the festivities which would culminate in the celebration of the adae on the next Sunday, or perhaps to the ritual withdrawal of the Asantehene from public business; see McCaskie, , “Time,” 190–91Google Scholar, who asserts however that the Asantehene withdrew six days prior to the adae, not seven. And note that the Asantehene received the embassy and conducted state business on the following day.

73. Graves' phrase is in- en opgezetenen van Elmina.

74. A slightly different version of the Asantehene's message is found in Graves' letter to Van den Bossche of 12 August (CVDB 21). Here the king expresses his gratitude as “deepest;” he states specifically that his wish for the governor's health and good relations with the people of Elmina comes from both his chiefs and himself; and he concludes his message with the explicit statement that he wants the governor to visit him at Kumase.

75. This was Kurukwasie, the day of Akwasidae, or Sunday adae in the Akan calendar when the Asantehene made offerings to his ancestors; see McCaskie, , State and Society, 152–53.Google Scholar

76. Agoardento.

77. Hofdienst.

78. Stad.

79. offerden…op.

80. A reference to the asamanpomu, for which see McCaskie, , State and Society, 202, 307.Google Scholar

81. This is clearly a reference to the structure known as the aban, which Ivor Wilks has called the “Palace of Culture”; see Wilks, , Asante, 178 and 200-01n.Google Scholar; cf. McLeod, Malcolm, The Asante (London, 1981), 50–51Google Scholar; Yarak, , Asante and the Dutch, 42n., 80, 115.Google Scholar

82. afmaken. The printed version of the journal, in an apparent typographical error, renders this maken, “to make.”

83. Koninginnen, presumably a reference to the royal women, i.e., the matrilineal female relatives of the king.

84. meiden.

85. gesacrificeerden.

86. zich…ontnuchteren.

87. paangoed.

88. I.e., the official staff of the Dutch coastal administration.

89. That is, she died.

90. This was Kurudapaawukuo, the day of Awukudae, the “small” or Wednesday adae in the Akan calendar; see McCaskie, , State and Society, 152–53.Google Scholar

91. lever.

92. vrouwen; this could also be translated as “wives.”

93. The printed text has a typographical error here, giving enz. (“and so on”), rather than eng. (engels), as appears in the handwritten copy.

94. Same as preceding note.

95. Jams-Costume, i.e., the Odwira.

96. Kasteel. This refers to the aban. See note 81 above.

97. Presumably by comparison with the towns on the coast.

98. Capotboomen.

99. despoot.

100. Again, presumably by comparison with the coastal towns.

101. The printed text gives “Eduakin,” an apparent typographical error.

102. This was Fofie in the Akan calendar, an “extremely bad day;” see McCaskie, , “Time,” 183, 185, 194.Google Scholar

103. Opoku Akrowa, described in Document C as one of the Asantehene's “captains,” had earlier served as the king's envoy to the Dutch in 1838 (NBKG 772: Huydecoper to Vander Eb, dd. Kumase, 30 January 1838). I am unaware of any recorded oral information regarding the office he occupied or his career.

104. Envoyé.

105. ARA, MK 5901: verbaal, dd. 17 August 1858, No. 314 (secret), enclosure: Nagtglas to Minister, dd. Elmina, 6 October 1857, No. 80, appendix: Kwaku Dua to Van den Bossche, dd. Kumase, 14 September 1857.

106. tractement. This was more commonly known called kostgeld by the Dutch, or in English, the annual “stipend,” which was due on presentation of the “Elmina note” to the governor at Elmina. For a detailed analysis of the issues surrounding the annual Dutch payment of kostgeld to the Asantehene, see Yarak, Asante and the Dutch, chapter 3.