Merchants, missionaries & migrants : an introduction

The contributions to this volume commemorating three hundred years of diplomatic relations between Ghana and the Netherlands are grouped under three headings - merchants and merchandise, missionaries, and voluntary and involuntary migrants - reflecting the three most important areas of contact between Dutch and Ghanaians over the centuries. The first part opens with a paper on a mission carried out in 1701-1702 by David van Nyendael, envoy of the Dutch West India Company (WIC), to Kumasi, which forms the starting point for the tercentenary celebrations. It also includes papers on the slave trade, the cocoa trade, and the role of Dutch 'schnapps' in Ghanaian ritual. The contributions on missionary activity deal with the tragic life of Jacobus Capitein (1717-1747), the first black minister stationed in Elmina, and the significance of Pentecostal churches for Ghanaians in the present-day Netherlands. The contributions on migration include stories of individual people who migrated back and forth between the Netherlands and Ghana, such as two Euro-African women from Elmina, as well as chapters on the Ghanaian diaspora, covering Suriname, Indonesia and the Netherlands. The contributions are by Ineke van Kessel, Michel R. Doortmont, Akosua Perbi, Henk den Heijer, Emmanuel Akyeampong, Victor K. Nyanteng, Henri van der Zee, David N.A. Kpobi, Rijk van Dijk, Natalie Everts, Jean Jacques Vrij, André R.M. Pakosie, Endri Kusruri and Daniel Kojo Arhinful