Today’s posting brings you the second part of Pfisterer’s 1904 article (see the previous posting for details on the context and provenance of this piece of missionary writing). This part gives us information on religious beliefs; myths of origin; the afterlife and reincarnation; so-called ‘fetishes’ (kùɣɔ/àɣɔ in Siwu) and how they are to be served (the indigenous hilly rice plays an important role); functions of priests and their servants; the mabia cult of priestesses; amulets and other objects wielding spiritual power; and funeral customs, including an all too brief bit on the funeral dirges Agawu (1988) has written about. All of this is brought, of course, with the characteristic arrogance of the colonizer and some added recipient design (Pfisterer was very conscious of the fact that he was writing for the loyal and pious supporters of the Norddeutsche Missionsgesellschaft in Germany).

Andreas Pfisterer in 1891 (BMPIX QS-30.001.0982.01)

In the future, I want to talk about some of the issues this text raises. To mention just one thing, Pfisterer narrates how he destroyed a powerful object (left in someone’s home by a witch doctor) by burning it on the public forum for all to see. The significance of this event cannot be overestimated. Pfisterer simply wanted to demonstrate the irrationality of the beliefs of the Mawu. But in the eyes of those present, he was participating in a rather dangerous type of spiritual power play. The fact that he could destroy the bewitched object without being harmed himself established his own spiritual power over that of the witch doctor, providing the Mawu with excellent reasons to align with Pfisterer and the superior power he apparently represented. More on this later; now, let’s see what Pfisterer has to say. Continue reading →

One of the goals of The Ideophone, besides functioning as a sounding board for ideas on expressivity and sound symbolism in African languages, is to make available sources on Siwu and other GTM languages which are otherwise hard to come by. This posting is the first in a series furthering that goal. Below you will find the full text (in German) of an early account by Pfisterer, the first missionary to live in Akpafu. Ignoring the colonial tone of voice and the inevitable racial prejudices, we get valuable information on sociolinguistics, oral history, housing, smithing, socio-economical conditions, polygamy, and slavery.

Before giving the floor to Pfisterer, let me provide some context to his account (if you can’t wait, you can skip right to Pfisterer’s own words — don’t forget to look at the beautiful picture below, though!). A lot of material documenting the missionary history of Akpafu can be found in the archives of the Norddeutsche Missionsgesellschaft, which have been deposited at the Staatsarchiv Bremen. More often than not, these missionary documents consist of only marginally interesting chitchat about building projects, visitations of other mission posts, and the health of the missionaries, but every once in a while we get more ethnographic detail.

One source offering such detail is a 1904 piece by Andreas Pfisterer on Kawu and the Mawu in the periodical Monatsblatt der Norddeutsche Missionsgesellschaft. Pfisterer was the man who established the first mission post at ‘Akpafu’ (today’s Akpafu-Todzi) in 1897. He was originally with the Basel Mission, but was ‘dismissed in 1899’, upon which he changed to the Bremen Mission and stayed in Ghana until 1910. According to a brief history of the station by one of the later missionaries, Hermann Schosser (Schosser 1907), Pfisterer had abandoned the Akpafu station by 1902, leaving behind an unfinished house and the indigenous catechist Mensa with his Christian family.

Pfisterer’s account was published in two parts, and in an attempt to keep the postings here within reasonably length I will keep to that division, reproducing the first half of his account below and the second half in a second posting. I have marked a few obvious errors that were present in the source; any remaining typographical errors are probably mine.

Andreas Pfisterer with his pupils before the school in 1899. Note the ‘chosen ones’, especially the smartly dressed boy (in black) to his left, who is even wearing a pocket watch. No names are given. The chalk board says ‘Schule in Akpafo, 1899′ (BMPIX D-30.52.016)

Continue reading →