Stories
Mission 21. An Organisation Dealing with Its Colonial Past
Visitors to the Basel Mission (BM) website today can see photos of the mission house, read about what the foundation still does today and, especially, learn about the history of the BM…
A Gold Coast Nationalist’s Agitation for Basel Mission Autonomy during the First World War
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…
The Introduction of Cocoa in the Gold Coast: The Roles of the Basel Mission and Tetteh Quarshie
Introduction This entry was inspired in part by an excursion I embarked on with a team of scholars and research students from the Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture and universities…
Positionality and Knowledge Production about West Africa in the Basel Mission
Positionality as a Key Topic During our excursion, we were often confronted with differing viewpoints on the history of the Basel Mission (BM) and its work. From the outset of our excursion…
Mission at Home
“How did I end up here?” was a question I often asked myself during the seven days of our excursion to Basel and southern Germany. What I imagined to be a “why…
Reflections on Nineteenth-Century Palace Court Language in Theophilus Opoku’s Annual Report for 1900
Introduction On 2nd July 2024, I visited Gerlingen in southern Germany alongside colleagues from the Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture, the University of Ghana, and the University of Basel. Our…
Lived Religiosity in Ghana and Switzerland
As one of the students to experience both excursions, firstly the trip to Ghana in February and secondly the tour of Basel and southern Germany, I was able to get a unique…
Cultures at Crossroads: A Conversation with Carla Bassi about Her Time in Ghana
In early July 2024, I was fortunate to have a fascinating conversation with Carla Bassi at a senior’s residence in Meggen, where she lives together with her husband Bruno. I gained valuable…
Imagining the Gold Coast: The 1908 Ethnographic Exhibition of the Basel Mission
On the outskirts of Basel, in an inconspicuous building, countless artifacts from around the world are stored: The depot of the Museum der Kulturen Basel houses, among other things, the ethnographic collection…
Tenacious skepticism?
I am the child who always returns… A shadow on the edge of faithIn the face of knowing and unknowingYet I am here, an enigma of beliefChallenging what is known,With each breath…
At a Loss for Words: A Reflection on Colonial “Aphasia” and the Basel Mission Archive
I have made several attempts to write this reflective piece on our joint excursion between students and researchers from the University of Basel and several institutes in Ghana in July 2024. While…
The Basel Mission, the Basel Trading Company and the Beginnings of Cocoa Cultivation in Ghana
When I signed up for the seminar on “What’s God Got to Do With It? Colonialism and the Basel Mission in Ghana” in the fall term of 2023, my main interest was…