The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi: A Novel (7 page)

On the 29th we were very pleasantly surprised. The king
sent us a gift of six young women, all blood relatives of the
king, with the notice that His Highness wished them to provide entertainment and consolation for us officers, and thus to
dispel the tedium of our stay in this place. Escorting the
women was a great band of torchbearers, followed by one
hundred and twenty slaves with bananas, twelve with yams
and one with a pot of palm wine. The following day Verveer
ordered our thanks to be conveyed to the king. On the 31st we
again received six slaves laden with bananas, two ditto with
palm nuts, five with beans, three with vegetables, as well as
sheep and a pitcher of palm wine. On 1 February the king,
believing his gift of women to have been prized by the officers,
regaled us with three more of his blood relatives.

This was all very well, but on the 4th we sent an interpreter with the halberdier of Elmina to the king once more,
with the urgent request to let us know once and for all on
which day we might expect to make our entry in the capital.

That very afternoon we were visited by a cousin of the
king, who was a grandee at court, with a large retinue. Their
message was the following: that the king, his master, and the
Ashantis in general, had the deepest respect for the king of
Holland and His Majesty’s subjects; that they all, without
exception, considered themselves his servants; that none of
them had ever had occasion to meet a man of such distinction
and high rank as the Royal Commissioner Major-General Jan
Verveer with such a large party of ranking officers and men;
that the king was doubly saddened by the loss of his blood relative because of the delay this caused to the embassy’s entry
into Kumasi, which was all the more regrettable for the advent
of the “evil days.” It seems that a superstition of the negroes
forbids all work and consultation during these evil days in the
firm belief that everything undertaken on those days will
come to nothing. As a consequence, His Highness was prevented from receiving the foreign visitors.

The king, he continued, had sent him to request humbly
that the embassy be patient until 10 February. He assured us
that His Highness would have received the emissaries of any
other nation, thereby exposing them to evil influences, but not
their beloved Hollanders.

Since the market for the multitude of persons in our company was very poorly supplied with provisions, the royal
broadcaster known as Thjoucho arrived the following day to
announce to all the inhabitants of this and all other settlements in the area that they had a duty, so long as the embassy
sojourned in these parts, to bring all victuals and other stocks
to the market daily. The prices had been fixed and it was
decreed that anyone avoiding these duties would be punished
in keeping with certain laws. The usual punishment consists
of cutting off one or both ears for a first o fence and the loss of
nose or lips for recidivist behaviour. From then on the market
was amply supplied daily with all provisions, for the duration
of our sojourn.

We departed at last on the 10th and arrived in Kasi at two
o’clock. The following day we received a visit from the king of
the lands of Becquin, the second in the Ashanti Empire. He
was clothed in his warrior’s dress, made up of a colourful
jerkin, ditto hose, sandals with heavy gold rims and a cap
made of tiger skin with attached tail. On the 12th we proceeded to Faverhan, where we received notice that we could
enter Kumasi the following day.

The next morning, 13 February, we set out for the capital
at seven o’clock in full regalia, followed by the men bearing
our gifts for His Highness. The capital is surrounded by
marshland, which was flooded at the time with 10 to 15 inches
of water. This caused further delay. We officers were conveyed
over the water one by one, which took fifteen minutes each. At
last we arrived at the outpost of Kumasi, where we were
joined by the slaves bearing gifts for H.H., who had travelled
ahead of us. We wished to proceed on our journey as soon as
possible, but were obliged to halt for a large band of guards-men. Verveer declared that it was not fitting to keep us waiting any longer, after so many disappointments. Messengers
kept coming with requests to wait a little longer, and eventually we sent notice that if we were not permitted to proceed at
once, we would return to Faverhan and indeed would return
home without concluding our mission. The reply to this was
that H.H. was seated, and that the procession might advance
within a short time.

We retorted that the meaning of their “short time” was most
unclear and that we did not comprehend why, if all was in readi-
ness, we were still obliged to wait. We decided to continue our
advance without their permission. We arrayed the slaves in such
a manner that the numerous gifts appeared to best advantage.
Major-General Verveer instructed the brass band to play the
national anthem and we made our way through the crowd of
armed men with considerable e fort. The guards however did not
obstruct us. We proceeded from the outpost and completed the
last leg of our journey in one-quarter-hour. To everyone’s dis-
pleasure our previous delay turned out to have been unnecessary.
Both the king and his grandees had been seated in readiness all
morning, and their boredom had reached such proportions that
foolish children’s rhymes were being chanted to while away the
long hours of waiting.

Thirteen pale-faced musicians emerged from the trees. They generated such a pandemonium as Kwame and I had only ever heard from the coppersmiths on a busy workday. Birds flew up in fright. Yet the pounding rhythm sent a ripple through the crowd: all around us muscles were flexed and bodies started swaying to the blasts of noise.

The musicians were followed by a standard-bearer, a party of white servants in hunting gear and one hundred black slaves in pairs. Each pair carried a litter laden with gifts: Chinese fans and vials of scent, Brussels lace and soap from Cologne, champagne, ginger, jams and preserved fruit. There were also costly textiles, gold fringes, gold braid and silver thread. A length of poppy-red serge was draped around a marble statue of Psyche: this creature, half bird and half man, was so white as to seem luminous. Three litters were laden with Dutch gin in stoneware crocks. There was Malaga wine in abundance and liqueur in mahogany casks. A handsome pair of handguns with attributes was presented to my father, as well as a silver-inlaid walnut case containing a hunting rifle with decorative facings, and lastly an open-work cuirass overlaid with silver and gold.

The band struck up again when the gifts were put on display. A lavish palanquin borne by six slaves appeared at the bend in the road. On it sat a man in full regalia, shaded by a dazzling orange awning. An interpreter announced him as His Majesty’s highest servant, Major-General Verveer, Governor-General of the Dutch East-Indian Army, envoy of King Willem I of the Netherlands. Two red, white and blue Dutch flags fluttered behind him, partly screening the next palanquins from view. One of these was occupied by a man who seemed less intent on making an impression of grandeur. He even looked somewhat embarrassed, and in this he was distinct from the others. His name was announced as Deputy Commissioner van Drunen.

Then came a straggling party of several hundred porters and men with chopping knives, which were by now blunted from cutting a path in the forest. Bringing up the rear were a number of slaves bearing what appeared to be large chunks of stone and columns of marble which they carried over their shoulders with incomprehensible ease, as if they possessed the strength of gods.

Until then all the
uburuni
we had known had been harmless and laughable: white men with ever-sweaty faces which they kept mopping to no avail. The shade of their skin was that of a corpse. Word had it that the smell they gave off was the same. These envoys would set about mastering some ingratiating words of Twi in the hope of gaining a residue of gold dust or—until this was prohibited by their government—a small consignment of superannuated slaves. And once they had paid for their acquisitions with far too many rifles, they would stagger away, blissfully drunk on palm wine. Their constitutions were frail, and in the place behind the palace gardens where men go to relieve themselves they were more likely to be seen vomiting than passing water. But on the whole they were not troublesome.

This time, however, a white man was being carried aloft. Until then this had been my father’s privilege, the only exception having been made for Kwame’s father when he returned victorious and his warriors vied for the honour of bending their backs to bear Adusei Kra. And here was a white man borne by six black backs. This had never been seen in Kumasi. I stole a glance at the Asantehene, expecting him to take punitive measures. He did not bat an eyelid.

When the whole delegation was in formation, my father accepted his gifts and gave the signal for leave-taking, without granting Verveer so much as a glance. This gave rise to some consternation among the Hollanders. In order to attract attention to themselves they ordered the band to strike up yet again. That helped. Kwaku Dua halted and listened. Verveer declared through his interpreter that this piece of music had been composed for the occasion and that it was entitled “March for the King of Ashanti.” But I looked in the eyes of his officers and knew this was a lie. Years later I recognized the tune as part of
Der Freischütz
, a rousing piece of music by von Weber, which was played to general acclaim at parades in Vienna and Paris.

My father was won over. The guests were directed to a stone building with a Dutch tricolour flying from the roof. It had been erected, the Asantehene informed them through his speaker, especially for the Hollanders. Another lie.

When the Dutch officials presented themselves that afternoon we made them wait for a suitable length of time. They carried their own chairs, which they put down in the forecourt, and there was a moment of alarm when they almost turned back because they deemed the place unfitting for their station and because they were not received forthwith. My father sent some dignitaries to explain that the European measurement of hours was unknown to us. Consequently they were invited to come back the next morning.

The following day Verveer again presented my father with a cuirass. The resident of Fort Axim put it on and strutted about to display the beautiful workmanship. My father put his thumb in his mouth and gave several shouts of admiration, but stayed on guard nonetheless. He asked if the cuirass did not warrant the use of epaulettes, whereupon Verveer removed his and handed them to my father, which was precisely what he had in mind. The Hollander was over-confident. He let it be known that it was customary in his homeland to find the doors of friends open to them, while the doors of enemies would be opened by force of arms. Needless to say, the next morning, 15 February, the palace gates remained closed to him.

From van Drunen’s report:

By the 16th the Asantehene showed himself to be more accommodating, and sent us eight persons from his court accompanied by
four speakers. They came bringing gold dust: 6 ounces 8 English
pounds for the governor; 2 ounces 8 Eng. for his second in command; the secretary, resident and physician together received
4 ounces 8 Eng.; the assistant and interpreter together 1 ounce
2 Eng.; the white servants 9 Eng.; the black servants 9 Eng.
Altogether 16 ounces 9 Eng. gold dust, all wrapped in fine
silken cloths. This did not add up to a one hundredth fraction
of the expenses of our expedition! Also an ox, a pig, six sheep,
ten guinea fowl, and two hundred chicken eggs were brought.
In addition ten slaves arrived with a supply of pineapples,
eight with sugar cane, forty-six with yams, fourteen with
African nuts, fourteen others with sundry vegetables. One
thousand and twenty-five slaves were laden with bananas,
twenty-one with firewood and two with palm wine, making
up a total of eleven hundred and forty bearers. In the meantime jesters arrived, mainly repulsive dwarfs and hunchbacks,
who lurched about for the purpose of amusing Verveer. To no
avail.

But on the 17th the governor-general made a cunning move
to speed up the ceremonials. Having presented the Asantehene
with champagne, confectioneries, toilet water, two pier
glasses, two flower vases and a mantel clock, the governor-general requested permission to present the king’s son with a
gift, too. A timid youth, not fully grown, stepped forward.
Verveer handed this child, Kwasi Boachi, a dagger, declaring
that he should use it in defence of his Fatherland and the
Ashanti people. In jest he conferred the rank of general upon
the boy. The king was visibly moved. Before we departed, the
king ordered an organ, of which the pipes were broken, to be
brought to us with the request to repair it, which demand we
were of course unable to satisfy. Then H.H. requested us to
dance for him; however, we replied that white men are not
accustomed to leap about on an earthen floor.