‘The missionary Ramseyer and his wife’: the missionary couple Rosa Bontems and Fritz Ramseyer. Coloured with AI.
‘The missionary Ramseyer and his wife’: the missionary couple Rosa Bontems and Fritz Ramseyer. Coloured with AI. University Library Basel

Fritz Ramseyer – Swiss missionary and colonial agent

British cannons paved the way for the Basel Mission to Kumasi, the capital city of the West African Asante Empire, in the 19th century. Swiss missionary Fritz Ramseyer also played a key part.

Peter Haenger

Peter Haenger

Peter Haenger is a historian specialising in social and economic history.

Fritz Ramseyer, originally from Neuchâtel, was 21 when he embarked on his training at the Pietist Basel Mission Seminary, in 1861. Three years later he travelled to the West African Gold Coast as a missionary, where he oversaw building work in Christiansborg, the former Danish stronghold near Accra, and learned English and the local language, Ga. In April 1866, he married fellow Swiss missionary, Rosa Bontems. The couple were transferred to the town of Anum on the Volta River, a dangerous political conflict zone.
Map of the former ‘Gold Coast in West Africa’.
Map of the former ‘Gold Coast in West Africa’. University Library Basel
By this point, the local Asante Empire and the British colonial powers had already fought two wars for control of the Gold Coast. In the late 1860s, the military situation intensified again. In 1869, an Asante army tried to regain political influence in the lost provinces in the south and attacked the small town of Anum. The Asante troops captured the Ramseyers together with their young son and the mission’s commercial clerk Johannes Kühne, and took them to Kumasi. The kidnapping made Fritz Ramseyer a famous figure across large parts of Europe. His family’s fate, in particular the death of his son on the forced march from Anum to Kumasi, was reported in all the Basel Mission’s information channels. The Ramseyers and Kühne spent a total of four years held captive in Kumasi, as the Asantehene (King of Asante) viewed the Europeans as a bargaining chip in the conflict with the British.
Map of Kumasi. The Swiss missionary couple spent four years here.
Map of Kumasi. The Swiss missionary couple spent four years here. University Library Basel
During their captivity, Fritz and Rosa Ramseyer and Johannes Kühne recorded their observations and experiences in diaries, which were published in 1874. The diaries were hugely popular, offering European readers a unique insight into an unfamiliar African kingdom. Besides the ethnographic and political observations, the writings of Ramseyer and Kühne clearly supported the expansion of British colonial rule: “Asante must bend the knee before the colonial rulers, and the Mission must be pursued among the Asante people,” Ramseyer wrote in August 1872. The kidnapped Europeans perceived their captivity as a divine test, and Ramseyer developed a teleological perspective, viewing the suffering as preparation for a future mission in Asante. In 1872, the British purchased the Elmina fortress from the Dutch, ignoring old territorial claims by the Asante to the coastal region. A direct war between Kumasi and the British was by then inevitable. When a British army was formed in Cape Coast under the command of Sir Garnet Wolseley, the Asante released the hostages without gaining anything in return. After marching on Kumasi, the British troops razed the Asante capital to the ground. The case of Kumasi as the capital of the “most bellicose people in all of Africa” provoked a sort of crusading fervour in the Basel Mission and in England with regard to future missionary work in Asante. Fritz Ramseyer was the driving force behind a potential ‘Asante mission’. He successfully completed a missionary propaganda tour of England’s churches to raise money for the planned Basel mission.
The Ramseyers with a group of British officers, Kumasi, between 1899 and 1908.
The Ramseyers with a group of British officers, Kumasi, between 1899 and 1908. Basel Mission Archives
While the Gold Coast was declared a Crown colony following the British military victory, British rule did not extend beyond the Pra river border, so the Asante Empire initially remained independent. The Asantehene refused to allow missionaries to settle in Kumasi as they were perceived by the King’s court as the fifth column of British colonial power. It was Fritz Ramseyer who turned the attention of his superiors in Basel to Kwawu, a plateau outside the control of the Crown colony. Prominent chiefs from Kwawu took advantage of the weakness of Kumasi in 1874/75 and broke away from the Asante Empire. The secessionist-minded chiefs agreed to the opening of a missionary station on their territory. The first praeses was Fritz Ramseyer who saw the station in Abetifi as a stepping stone for the real missionary work in Kumasi. In the years that followed, the mission evolved to become an unofficial political force in Kwawu. Ramseyer used his good reputation to work towards the signing of a protectorate agreement between the erstwhile Asante province and the colonial power. In the late 1880s the moment finally came and the protectorate agreement was formally signed by local chiefs in the presence of District Commissioner Dr Smith. Ramseyer also signed the agreement as a witness and the historic moment is captured in a photograph.
Signing of the British protectorate agreement with Kwawu in the presence of District Commissioner Dr Smith, a Krio from Sierra Leone, and Fritz Ramseyer.
Signing of the British protectorate agreement with Kwawu in the presence of District Commissioner Dr Smith, a Krio from Sierra Leone, and Fritz Ramseyer. Basel Mission Archives
The accelerated colonial partitioning of Africa fundamentally threatened the independence of the Asante Empire from 1890. Ramseyer maintained links with the dissident Asante chiefs, and was therefore able to supply the British with information about the political situation in Kumasi. He openly called on the then British Governor to follow an interventionist policy: “For humanity’s sake, for the welfare of the country… to do the finishing stroke and bring Kumasi and all that is remaining of Asante under the British Flag.” In November 1895, the British opted for a military solution to the ‘Asante problem’. British troops reached Kumasi without any notable resistance on 17 January 1896. The next day, Governor Maxwell also found himself in the capital of the Asante Empire and broke the news to the Asantehene that his Kingdom would be placed under British ‘protection’. Asantehene Agyeman Prempeh was deposed and ultimately exiled with his court to the far-off Seychelles in the Indian Ocean.
‘Room in the mission house at Abetifi. Gold Coast,’ between 1891 and 1899.
‘Room in the mission house at Abetifi. Gold Coast,’ between 1891 and 1899. Basel Mission Archives
The official historiographer of the Basel Mission, Wilhelm Schlatter, noted with some pride that the British Governor immediately sent a message to Ramseyer following the occupation of Kumasi, stating: “Kumasi will henceforth be open to missionaries”. On 22 February, Ramseyer arrived in Kumasi. Four years later, however, missionary Mohr, for a time the General Praeses in Asante, criticised the fact that it had been “a big mistake to have turned up in Kumasi at the same time as the conquerors”. People in Asante associated missionaries with the colonial rulers and the process of spreading Christianity made slow progress. The national pride of the Asante, which Ramseyer always referred to as ‘hubris’, obviously did not disappear overnight. The last national uprising of the Asante took place in 1900, this time under the leadership of a woman, the Queen Mother Yaa Asantewaa.
Yaa Asantewaa, the Queen Mother of the Asante Empire, is still considered a role model for African anti-colonial resistance today.
Yaa Asantewaa, the Queen Mother of the Asante Empire, is still considered a role model for African anti-colonial resistance today. yaaasantewaa.co.uk
The European missionaries, including Fritz and Rosa Ramseyer, sought refuge in the British fort outside Kumasi. Following an eight-week siege, the trapped Europeans ventured an escape, reaching the coast 25 days later. The uprising was ultimately crushed by the British, and Asante formally became part of the Gold Coast Colony and thus subject to British colonial rule. In December of that year, Ramseyer stood before the ruins of his station in Kumasi and set about rebuilding it. For the second time, the colonial power had cleared the way for the Basel Mission by gunfire.
The missionary couple Rose Bontems and Fritz Ramseyer, undated photograph.
The missionary couple Rose Bontems and Fritz Ramseyer, undated photograph. Basel Mission Archives
Rosa Ramseyer had to leave the Gold Coast in 1904 for health reasons and died two years later in Switzerland. Fritz spent a further four years in Kumasi. He died in 1914, also in Switzerland. So he didn’t live to see the day during the First World War when the British transported all the German staff from the Basel Mission to an internment camp. In 1928, the mission church, which had since been reorganised according to the Scottish model as the Presbyterian Church of the Gold Coast, became independent.

Published on: 29.10.2024

URL: https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/en/2024/10/fritz-ramseyer-swiss-missionary-and-colonial-agent/

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