On Saturday morning, the 12th of May 1917, at the height of the First World War, the newsboys went around town in Accra (Christiansborg) distributing the newest edition of the Gold Coast Leader. The newspaper, edited by members of the local intelligentsia, had readers all along the British Gold Coast and devoted itself to the “interest and welfare of the Country and Race”.[1] That Saturday’s edition of the newspaper featured an article titled “What have they done or how have they offended?”, in which the reader found an impassionate agitation in favour of the Basel Mission (BM).[2] The author did not indicate their name but simply calls him- or herself “Nationalist”, a position which already gives away the direction of the text as well as the author’s stance towards the colonial government. It is highly likely that “Nationalist” belonged to the educated elite of the Gold Coast and maybe even received his primary education at one of the many BM schools on the Gold Coast.[3]
The author, who claimed to speak for an undisclosed “us,” which may be understood as constituting Gold Coast nationalists, did not want the colonial government to force the BM’s departure from the colony. The author also questioned the replacement of the BM by the Scottish church. If the BM were to be replaced, the author encouraged the colonial government to choose local catechists and people educated by the BM.
To understand this reference to a possible forced removal of the BM missionaries and its replacement with Scottish missionaries we have to go back in time to January 1917, five months before the release of the article. One day an unannounced visit by two missionaries of the United Free Church of Scotland caught the oblivious Generalpräses of the BM off guard.[4] The goal of that delegation was to get to know the BM, its workings, the local people in its pay, as well as its infrastructure.[5] This surprising four-week visit disquieted the members of the BM, especially since their position at the Gold Coast was far from secure. Even though officially a Swiss institution, the colonial government’s suspicion towards its many German missionaries greatly strained the relations and the fear of expulsion and internment haunted the thoughts of many of the BM’s members.[6]
Within the next few months, the rumour that all of the members (not only those of German descent) of the BM were to be deported spread among the general population. It is in response to this rumour that ‘Nationalist’ picked up his pen and authored the article introduced above.
The text is written almost as a veiled threat towards the colonial government stating that the replacement of the BM by Scottish missionaries “we venture to advise […] would be very unpopular” and that the new missionaries would be “by no means sure of being accorded any welcome”.[7] Additionally to the question of whether this expulsion of Swiss citizens would even be legal, “Nationalist” suggests that this would put “in a state of disorder the tranquil harmless, divine work of salvation.”[8] The suggested solution in case the BM missionaries would indeed be forced to leave or did so on their own volition: replace them with local people educated by and intimately familiar with the BM:
Why not make use of their [the BM’s] native ministers and catechists to fill the vacant places with which they are already so well acquainted. It cannot be argued that a white face is more conducive to conversion in these days, and it cannot be established, however loyally, that a British road to heaven is the need of the hour.[9]
The defence of the BM and the wish for more autonomy for the local population were duly ignored by the colonial government. In December 1917 the colonial secretary informed the Generalpräses that all the German members of the BM were to be deported and by February 1918 even the non-German missionaries had to pack their bags and leave the Gold Coast.[10]
Ironically, with the beginning of the Scottish missionaries’ activities greater autonomy was granted to the local members of the church and by the end of 1918 year the foundation for what in 1926 would be named the Presbyterian Church of the Gold Coast was established.[11] It was staffed by “native ministers and catechists” of the BM, as well as by a small number of missionaries from the Free Church of Scotland. Due to this, the “Nationalist’s” hope for more decision power in the hands of the local people was to some extent realized. By 1922-1925, when discussions about the return of the BM were held, the local missionaries were strong enough to use tensions between the BM and the Free Church of Scotland to assert their own authority and prevent the return to the pre-1914 organization form.[12] Thus, wherein the article of the 12th of May 1917 still favoured the remaining of the BM at the Gold Coast, the dominant opinion among the local missionaries was far more self-assertive. By 1926 the Synod decided to rename itself to Presbyterian Church of the Gold Coast. No hints of neither Basel, nor Scottish influence remained in the name.
