Do we need a “Dealing with the Past” Approach? Navigating Divergent Views on the Basel Mission Heritage

The first Basel missionaries arrived at the Gold Coast (today’s Ghana) in 1828. They were forced to leave by the British colonial power during the first World War in 1918.  They turned over their work to the Scottish Mission who supported the way towards a self-governing Presbyterian Church of the Gold Cost (later Presbyterian Church of Ghana, PCG), which emerged in 1926. Thus, Ghana and the PCG have a rich heritage connected to the Basel Mission (BM).

Connecting to this heritage, my personal association with Christian missionaries has been mainly one thing: negative. As many others including scholars in Europe,[1] I have only thought about their support of colonial regimes, injustices committed, imposed beliefs and ways of living, their connection to the colonial regimes, and repressed indigenous knowledge. Accordingly, before arriving in Ghana I was certain that there was a “wrong” that still awaited to be corrected – some remaining injustices that had not yet been addressed. Yet, I got to see and experience a very different, more positive perspective on the heritage of the BM in Ghana during this excursion and realized that the issue is far more complex.

Thus, to channel this complexity, in the following I will attempt to give an answer to the question whether there is a need to deal with the missionary past of the BM in Ghana based on oral history and my experiences, including the exchange with peers from the University of Ghana and PCG members as well as an interview with the descendants of David Asante, the BM’s first Akan missionary.

Remembering the Heritage of the PCG Community

According to our interlocutors and experience in Ghana, the PCG in many regards highly appreciates its heritage of the BM. The Basel missionaries are remembered as those who brought mango and cocoa to Ghana, those who implemented Christian values like discipline, and, most importantly, those who brought the gospel and translated it into Gã and Twi. Thereby, the BM is recognized as bedrock of modern Christianity in Ghana. These memories that are held in high regard can be recognized in memorials, in the naming of churches and rooms with former missionary’s names, or on the PCG website and in the preamble of the PCG hymnbook that explains the history and the establishment of the PCG, starting with the first landing of the Basel missionaries at the Gold Coast in 1828. Reverends of the PCG who I talked to explained that in Sunday school children learn about this heritage and their knowledge is put to the test in small quizzes. Overall, there continues to be a commitment to the missionaries and their values as illustrated by a sentence uttered by a staff member when visiting the women’s teacher college in Aburi: “If we do not keep the discipline up, the missionaries will turn in their graves.”

Nevertheless, people also remember less positive things and recognize that the Basel missionaries were no saints but humans and that they did things that were not exactly right, as Abraham Nana Opare Kwakye, Moderator of the PCG, told us during our closing dinner (22 January 2024), and other interlocutors mentioned in personal communication. One of these things were derogatory cultural interpretations and the lack of recognition of indigenous knowledge and traditions. Often, indigenous traditions and knowledge were condemned, even herbal medicine or using drums in church as one of our interlocutors explained to me (interview on 20 January 2024). In this sense, one can ascertain that the missionaries believed in the superiority of the BM and themselves. This can also be recognized in their long reluctance to let the PCG become an independent church. Interestingly, the PCG developed and grew faster after it became independent and gave more agency to the Ghanaian church members (interview, 20 January 2024). Nevertheless, until today there is the perception that European missionaries receive more recognition for their work than the Ghanaian founding fathers of the PCG itself like David Asante. Several descendants of Asante whom I interviewed expressed disappointment that the legacy of their ancestors is not adequately valued.[2]

The Concept of Dealing with the Past in the Context of the BM Heritage

Within peace and conflict studies, the notion of “dealing with the past”, also known as transitional justice, is a holistic concept. The four pillars recognized in the concept are the right to know, the right to justice and the right to reparations, as well as the guarantee of non-recurrence. It is commonly used for conflict transformation and to process the past within post-conflict societies. Yet, it has also found (theoretical) applications to the colonial past, institutional racism, violent extremism and more.[3] For example, Gallen (2023) applies a transitional justice perspective to the responses of Western churches to their historical abuse.[4] Thus, here I will apply the concept to the BM heritage in Ghana by examining each right. Beforehand, it is important to mention that it is argued that the concept of transitional justice is most sustainable and effective when focused on local agency and ownership;[5] thus, these are only suggestions.

The right to know refers to the right to know about the past and past injustices.[6] Its aim is that societies can construct knowledge and truth about the past by documenting, archiving and preserving memories.[7] In this regard, the PCG has an excellent memory culture with plaques and names of building, teaching children about the church’s history and supporting the living history of people. Yet, as was mentioned in one of the interviews, there is a gap in remembering the achievements of Black missionaries and reverends.[8] Moreover, many documents continue to be in the BM Archive in Basel and, accordingly, the PCG members and Ghanaian researchers do not have access to relevant documents and knowledge because of the distance and costs involved.

The right to justice is usually meant to hold those who have committed human rights abuses accountable through different mechanisms like international tribunals, national prosecution and others.[9] Connecting to the right to know, the case at hand might particularly benefit from restorative justice through e.g. returning documents like land deeds to the PCG in Ghana.

The right to reparation can take different shapes: individual and collective reparations, but also symbolic reparations.[10] In the case of the BM heritage, this appears to be closely connected with the discourse on colonialism. Members of the PCG who we talked to also mentioned support for the upkeep of buildings like the BM school building in Osu, Accra, or the house of David Asante in Akropong as important. Subsequently, in this context, taking continued responsibility for (former) BM buildings that local communities cherish and value might be more relevant than one-time reparations.

Lastly, the guarantee of non-recurrence might not directly apply to the case of the BM heritage in Ghana as the PCG appreciates the Basel missionaries and their former work. Yet, the divergence between their perspective and a European/Swiss perspective shows the need for to decolonize the discourse in Western countries. Similar to the missionaries in the past, the agency of the local population is often not recognized today. Accordingly, the West has to learn to listen, accept and respect the perspective of the local population to build up a right to non-recurrence. This applies to organizations like Mission 21 and the Evangelical Mission in Solidarity (who are working on decolonizing their work and including their partners abroad in decision-making) just as much as to states and individuals.

Respecting Local Agency Now and Then

Concluding, respecting the agency of the local community is essential. The PCG community has their own, positive and sympathetic approach of dealing with the missionary past. They see a lot of good in the missionaries’ work and are grateful for their historic presence. Accordingly, the challenge of coloniality and the missionaries’ heritage primarily rests with Western, formerly colonizing societies. Yet, informed by statements of members of this community, this contribution has outlined the relevance of a dealing with the past approach and a few suggestions of what this process could address. Nevertheless, it is up to the local (church) community to decide how they want to handle the BM heritage.

Lastly, it must be mentioned that this contribution reflects my impression and personal experience and is informed by interactions with people who are members of the PCG or committed Christians in another congregation. Thus, it must be complemented by more comprehensive research.