Mark Dingemanse

Travel journals provide some of the first written sources on Akpafu. I
have [previously](https://ideophone.org/akpafu-david-asante-1887/)
posted an excerpt from a 1887 journal by David Asante. This here is an
excerpt from a similar journey two years later. The whole journey took
three months, but this excerpt relates only a trip to two Akpafu towns
on 17-18 December 1889. Nicolas Clerk, an indigenous missionary born in
Aburi, was alone during the first part of the journey and accompanied by
his colleague Hall from Dec. 30 onwards.

The account was originally written and published in German. This excerpt
was translated by Mark Dingemanse in 2011.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Out of Bowiri I went 2 hours southwards to visited the town Odome with
about 300 inhabitants. The town is beautifully situated on a hill and
has a street in the middle. The whole town was startled when we got
there, so during my sermon I had to call out several times, "Do not be
afraid, I bring no evil tidings." I asked them after my sermon whether
they would accept the doctrine, to which they replied that their head
chief was in another town which we were planning to visit. If he told
them to accept it \[the doctrine\] they would do it.

Since it was already quite late, we slept there \[in Odome\] and we
arrived the next day (18 December) after a one and half hour hike in the
town of Apafo (Akpafu). This town has a charmingly beautiful location on
a high mountain. The view is very beautiful. The town has well over 500
residents and is built in terraces on the slopes of two mountains, with
a road in the middle where the mountains collide. So one who stands on
the street can see all corners of the town.

After we had rested a little, we went to the house of the chief to greet
him and to report the reason for our visit. To our surprise, he offered
us Schnaps, which we of course rejected. We invited him to come out on
the street with his people. (It is unfortunate that so much Schnaps and
gunpowder is being imported from Bagida, so that one can get these goods
cheaper in the interior than in Accra. Far inland, where we were, people
often asked for Schnaps and they did not want to believe that we do not
drink liquor. In fact many probably never knew of the drink before, much
less tasted it, but they have an unquenchable thirst for it.)

Our hand bell summoned the people and in a moment we had a large number
of listeners before us, whom I told of their God and Saviour. Then I
asked them if they would accept it if we would come live with them.
There was a consultantion, and immediately they declared themselves
willing to accept us. I put before them the other points as I had done
in Bowiri, and they promised to build a house for the teacher, to
provide students for the school, and to give Christians all rights. When
asked how many students they would give for a start, they said, "As many
as there are; we all want to worship the true God". I was received very
friendly here, and they also wanted us to go to another nearby town to
bring the good news, but because I was a little feverish, I found it
advisable to return to Bowiri.

The main business of the Apafo people is that they melt iron. The blocks
of iron ore are dug in the mountain and melted in large furnaces made
for this purpose. The Apafo's have the bad habit to boil tobacco and to
take the water drawn from it in the mouth after getting up in the
morning; whether they swallow it I do not know. They keep it in their
mouth for a while, during which they express themselves only with signs
and with unclear sounds if they want to speak. Before they go to sleep
they take this poison in their mouths again. Cleanliness of the teeth is
not practised here as elsewhere.

1.  Clerk, Rev. N. J. 1892. "Neue reise in den Hinterlandern von Togo
    nach Nkonya, Buem, Obooso, Slaga, Krakye von 2 Dec. 1889 bis 5 Feb.
    1890" *Mitteilungen aus den Geographische Gesellschaft zu Jena* 9:
    77-98.


Travel journals provide some of the first written sources on Akpafu. I have previously posted an excerpt from a 1887 journal by David Asante. This here is an excerpt from a similar journey two years later. The whole journey took three months, but this excerpt relates only a trip to two Akpafu towns on 17-18 December 1889.

Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

A visit to Akpafu by Nicolas Clerk, 1889