Little Karen & The Last Danish Governor
Little Karen & The Last Danish Governor
Little Karen & The Last Danish Governor
LITTLE KAREN
& THE LAST DANISH
GOVERNOR
- a curatorial
The name Little Karen refers to the servant in the old Danish traditional folksong ‘Og Det Var Liden karen’ - ‘And It Was
Little Karen’ which is here an analogy of Danish Guinea, the former Danish colonial possession and ‘her’ assessment of
which the last Danish governor was assigned - to determine if the King of Denmark should claim her as his possession and
from there invest the requisite outlays for her development.
The presentation is in an effort to support the broader appreciation of the Danish colonial era in Danish Guinea and also
to broaden and to facilitate the accompanying conversation and implications – in a defining era which saw the abolition of
slavery and the attempt to shift to agricultural and mineral commodities.
For almost two centuries, Denmark laid claim to a hundred-mile stretch of the coast in what is now southeastern Ghana, between Accra and the
Volta River. In the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, perhaps a hundred thousand slaves were exported to the New World
through Fort Christiansborg, the seat of the Danish government on the coast, and three other smaller forts. … When the continued existence of
the Atlantic trade in slaves began to come into question, however, and with it the economic survival of the Danish West Indies, the tropical soils
and climate of the Danish forts' environs became matters of interest to the state.
The Guinea Commission and Denmark’s Postabolition African Colonial Policy, 1803-50
Daniel P. Hopkins
PREFACE
At the same time that it was legislating against the Atlantic slave trade, the Danish government was investigating the suitability of the territory
around its establishments on the Guinea coast for the cultivation of profitable tropical export commodities - the products of the Indies, as they
were commonly referred to.
The notion that new plantations of sugarcane, cotton, indigo, coffee, and other tropical crops might now be established in West Africa, whence
enslaved laborers had for centuries been exported to work those same crops in the Americas, appears not to have been far from the thinking of
European colonial governments confronted by a wave of abolitionist sentiment. Indeed it was one of the central assumptions of the abolitionist
movement that the Atlantic slave trade could not be choked off until legitimate forms of trade were established with Africa, and colonies - of
either European settlers or black American freedmen - to stimulate African production and advance the civilization of the continent were
commonly contemplated.
In the standard reckoning, the colonial period of African history does not begin until the European powers imposed formal regimes near the end
of the nineteenth century. The seeds of European colonialism, however - settlers; crops and their culture from across the sea; and tentative and
uncertain new colonial approaches to metropolitan authorities, capital, and markets - had been germinating at least since the latter part of the
eighteenth century. In all this colonial ferment, Denmark, a highly cosmopolitan and outward-facing society, was no differently placed than any
of the major maritime powers except that the scale of its overseas operations was smaller, and the international movement of colonial news,
aspirations, and attitudes can usefully be traced and gauged in its archives and the contemporary published record.
As also appears to have been the case elsewhere, arguments advancing a new policy of African agricultural colonization, though they may
subsequently have become entwined with metropolitan abolitionist goals, came up out of Africa itself in the official reports (and a few published
memoirs) of slave traders, clerics, scientists, and other individuals stationed in the forts and lodges along the West African coast. Opinion
regarding the feasibility of colonizing in Africa was divided, to be sure, on the Guinea coast and in Copenhagen.
In the autumn of 1803, as the Danish ban on the Atlantic slave trade was taking hold, an important new agent of colonial policy arrived in
Copenhagen from the African coast. Peter Thonning was a young student of natural history who in 1799 had been sent from Copenhagen to
Denmark's establishments on the Guinea coast with instructions to assess the potential of such natural or agricultural products from Africa as
might enter into the commerce of the wider world when, on the cessation of the trade, the Danish slave forts on the coast lost their former
function. Thonning, very much a man of the Enlightenment, educated in the highly economic and geographic traditions of Linnaean natural
history, had spent three years in the Danish enclave on the Guinea coast, looking over the country with a sharp scientific eye. He had botanized
widely, compiled a fine map of the territory around the Danish forts, and collected material for a sophisticated local geographic treatise. In 1803
he submitted a well-crafted report on the economic potential of the African enclave to the Chamber of Customs, which at the time administered
the African establishments and the Danish West Indian colony. His report incorporated a substantial discussion of the climate, terrain, and
hydrography; naturally occurring products, agriculture, hunting, and fishing; the forms of government, law, and religion; and the people's
domestic disposition of their material possessions. Thonning concluded his report with the assessment of articles of trade that the chamber had
particularly required of him: none of the local African products would support commercial exploitation, he wrote. He recommended instead
taking advantage of the tropical soils and climate of West Africa to introduce the large-scale production of coffee, cotton, and sugarcane on
plantations subsidized in the beginning by the state and, he did not hesitate to state, worked by slaves.
The Chamber of Customs forwarded Thonning's report to Ernst Schimmelmann, the enormously influential minister of finance, to whom most of
the substance of the 1792 legislation banning the slave trade can be ascribed. Indeed Schimmelmann controlled Danish Atlantic colonial policy
in this period. Well before 1792 he had been able to foresee that a country that secured for itself a source, independent of the Atlantic slave trade,
of sugar and other tropical luxuries would soon enough be advantageously placed in European commerce. Schimmelmann took a great interest in
Thonning's report and invited the young scientist to prepare a detailed plan for the establishment of an agricultural colony on the coast.
Thonning's elaborate plan was being studied at the highest levels of the government when the Danish regent, Crown Prince Frederik (later King
Frederik VI), cast his nation's lot with Napoleon after the 1807 British bombardment of Copenhagen. The more pressing and ruinous business of
war now swept aside all thought of new colonies. … When the government was obliged to make drastic cuts in state expenditures after the
Napoleonic Wars, it was Thonning who drew up a conservative new standing budget for the Guinea coast forts.*
Since the abolition of the slave trade had taken effect, Thonning reminded the king in the representation (or legislative proposal) he prepared to
justify the new budget, the African establishments had been of "no advantage to the mother state." It seemed, however, "quite clear from the
state of the West Indies that European colonial agriculture there will become more and more uncertain," he argued. "The West Indian islands
will then, in a changed condition, in no way be able to produce sufficient quantity of colonial products for Europe's usual provisio n, and demand
will force the European colonial system, in a form adapted to the circumstances, to turn to Africa. Denmark has then no nearer place than its
Guiñean domain for such agricultural undertakings, and scarcely any prospect of obtaining any nearer."
Important humanitarian considerations also obtained, Thonning pointed out: "Just as Denmark gave Europe the example of the abolition of the
slave trade, thus might Denmark also possibly be destined to show the rest of Europe the way" to the civilization of Africa. "Only through
colonies will the Europeans be able to spread culture and milder customs, as well as win influence among the natives, and by a suitably wise way
of proceeding gradually open the way to the abolition of the slave trade and thralldom here, where it is older than the very oldest knowledge of
the land, and thoroughly rooted in the nations' present constitution and every condition." It would be improvident to abandon the African
establishments at such a juncture, Thonning reasoned. The crown endorsed the young officer's representation. The budget was cut severely; three
of the four Danish forts on the coast were closed down, but Denmark maintained its African position.
Thonning drew up the chamber's response, which, like virtually every other step taken by any agency of the absolute monarch's government, had
to be approved first by the assembled chamber and then by the king himself. Because the only collateral for loans would be the plantations
themselves, Thonning noted cautiously, the chamber could not "unreservedly recommend [the council's] suggestion." He nevertheless ventured a
forceful new statement about Denmark's colonial prospects in Africa and the proper role of the state in realizing them.
Thonning was interested not in small loans to private planters but in the precedent they might set. The African territory, Thonning wrote, was
"richly equipped by nature compared to the colonized lands in the West Indies," with "many advantageous qualities for an agricultural colony,"
but, he pointed out, a number of factors "much hinder a colony's development." … Private investment alone would not suffice: the establishment
of a colony would have to be a long-term state enterprise.
Thirty years had now elapsed since Thonning had left the coast, and, though he had the utmost confidence in his own grasp of West African
colonial geography, he knew that he could not ask the other members of the Guinea Commission to accept his unsupported opinion that a new
colonial undertaking might be feasible.
Theodore Vogel, a German botanist attached to the Niger expedition. About ten years ago, I believe another plantation was
formed at the foot of the mountain in Akwapim, named 'Frederik'sgav', and as we wished to visit it … The distance is fourteen or fifteen miles,
almost exactly north by east. We set out at 1 1 a.m. and arrived at 6 p.m. The house of the superintendent lies half-way up the mountain ridge. At
the foot of the mountain is a negro village and the plantation. In the plantation were the useful edible plants of this country: the settlement
consists of a coffee ground of no great extent. Governor Dall told us that about three years back the trees had been destroyed by an insect and
they were now very small, 3 - 4 ft., but thriving and bearing abundantly. The soil is excellent and rich, but the establishment looked neglected.
Close by is another coffee ground belonging to Mr. Richter. Near these grounds is an avenue of Soursops {Annona muricata) and Oranges.
Close by there are several trees, now bearing fruit of Akee or Blighia sapida. The Danes still have slaves.
"Carstensen was a reliable observer and an articulate rapporteur of local affairs …the English translation of his papers
therefore opens up a gold mine of information to the international and Ghanaian community of scholars, and to all among
the general public who are interested in Ghanaian history." Prof. Per Hernæs
Sitting on the terrace of the royal plantation Frederiksgave, his favourite retreat, Governor Edward Carstensen came to see
the inevitable: Denmark had to give up her "possessions" in Africa. As fate would have it, he came to be the instrument by
which two centuries of Danish involvement on the Gold Coast was terminated, thereby making way for the emergence of
the colonial system that developed there. After the abolition of the slave trade, Denmark had struggled to find ways and
means to legitimately continue to stay at the Coast. At an early stage the Danes initiated a number of attempts to establish
experimental plantations to cultivate export crops such as cotton, coffee and sugar. But a transition from slave trade to
"legitimate" products required stability and peace, and a need for control, which the rather limited Danish presence was not
able to maintain. Closing the Books comprises a compilation of the official reports that the last Danish Governor sent home
during his term of office at the Gold Coast. The reports reflect his personal views regarding the economic and political
situations there, as well as his ideas on the "civilization of Africa".
In the keep of the Museum of Maritime Affairs in Copenhagen, it is the-only known interior picture of a Danish
fort. A watercolour painted by Joinville, François-Ferdinand-Philippe- Louis-Marie d’Orléans, Prince de François
d'Orléans, the son of Louise Phillippe King of France. On January. 28, 1843, 25 year old at the time he was the
guest at Fort Christianborg of the last governor of Danish Guinea, Edward Carstensen. In the painting Prince de
Joinville is sitting in the centre with his back to the arcades and the governor is seen proposing a toast to Louis
Philippe, the King of the French, the father of the young prince. .
Educated at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology where he currently lectures, Poku started his
practice as a painter and illustrator. His work has evolved incorporating new territories of digital expression and performance.
1O February 1843
G.J. 365/1843.
To the distinguished Board I must relate an event which will be recorded in the annals of
the Guinea Coast as extraordinary.
His Royal Highness the Prince of Joinville has visited the most important European
establishment on this coast. His Royal Highness left France with the purpose of visiting
the French establishments in Senegal. Not until his arrival there, did the Prince decide to
see for himself the main emporia [trading places] of the slave trade, and to sail the seas
where the disputed right to visitation had its origin. Thus, this cruise of the Prince de Joinville
along the coast of Guinea is at the moment just as unknown to France as it was to us at
the moment when the frigate La Belle Poule anchored in front of the Dutch Fort St. George
d’Elmina. His Royal Highness visited Fort Elmina and from here he crossed overland to
the English Chief Fort Cape Coast Castle. From there he again weighed anchor to honour
the Danish Chief Fort Christianborg with his presence.
On 27 January, in the morning, I received the most surprising news from Cape Coast Castle
that the Prince de Joinville had arrived on the Coast and could be expected on his journey
to the Lower Coast to anchor at the Danish chief fort. I had hardly given the necessary orders,
which a message of such distinguished visit would require, before a French frigate was announced
to have weighed anchor in the Danish roads. The thick harmattan dust prevented us from
noticing the arrival of the ship earlier. But we could now barely see a first class frigate at anchor
just outside the fort. Convinced that this frigate had to be La Belle Poule with Prince Joinville on
board, I went out to present my compliments to His Royal Highness. In addition the fort saluted
with 21 gun shots, while the frigate answered with an equal number. The Prince of Joinville
received me with courtesy that surpassed all my expectations. His Royal Highness invited me to
his table [dine], and not before 7 [p.m] did I leave La Belle Poule, filled with admiration for a
prince who with his royal descent combines all the abilities of a handsome mariner.
His Royal Highness landed at the fort on Saturday 27 January at 7:30 in the morning. Everything
that the short time could permit had been done to prepare for a decent reception of the prince.
On the beach where I received His Royal Highness, the troops of Ussu town and the free mulattos
lined up with flags and banners, and the prince was accompanied by the troops to the gate of
the fort, with constant firing of rifles and shouting and a deafening noise from the country’s drums.
In the Assembly hall of the Establishment I bade the prince welcome on Danish ground, and with
the French flag waving next to the Danish, he was greeted by 21 cannon shots. The negroes outside
the fort then gave a performance showing their way of fighting in battle, which highly interested
His Royal Highness. Then the town’s Black dignitaries appeared in a procession in the fort to greet
the French prince. The town’s female mulattoes danced in the fort’s yard. With this and with an
inspection of the fort and other distractions, the time passed up to 12 [noon] and I invited His
Royal Highness to take part in a meal, where I proposed a toast to the French King Ludvig [Louis]
Phillip and his [illustre] illustrious family. Thereupon His Royal Highness responded by proposing a
toast to the King of Denmark and his family.
“The whole coquettishness of these young ladies consisted in the setting up of their
woolly hair, cut like a hedge in the most amazing way, and in the fineness of their
delicious skin, which shone like satin, a softness which they obtain by the daily bath
and rubbing of the body with fine sand.
Unfortunately, this rubbing does not remove the body odor. I have never been able
to stand the smell of Negroes and Negresses, but I have known people who were
completely intoxicated by it and who, despite the fact that their health was destroyed
by the African fever, repeatedly begged to return to their service in Senegal and on
the coast to relive this smell ”.
As highlighted by the book - the official reports sent home during his term of office - the last governor resident at Christianborg
castle on the Atlantic coast often went away to Sesemi at the foothills of the Akwapim Range on retreats to Fredriksgave where
the Danish royal plantation was sustained by workers and enslaved.
At Fredriksgave on the Danish royal plantation amongst others cotton, coffee, and tobacco were cultivated.
Tamarind indica. Tamarind came to be a distinctive feature of Danish presence and enterprise on the limits
of the Gold Coast which is the Akwapim Range from where the avenue to Fort Christianborg was lined with
pairs of the tropical tree.
COTTON TAMARIND
compiled by the curator amma birago at kapokstudios
0
TOBACCO COFFEE
compiled by the curator amma birago at kapokstudios
1
AURAL AMBIANCE
Closing The Books - Commentary and some reports of the last Danish Governor
entered in his journal during his term of office.
Little Karen. Danish Guinea. Is she an attractive proposition? Is she worth the attention and investment by the mother country? Is she worth the
claim as a Danish possession? What has so far been prospected? What does Little Karen have to offer? What does she hope for in return? Will
she bare her minerals, cast her pearls abroad? Could she ever reject her culture and take on ours? Will she give her body and perhaps her soul?
And it was little Karen will not look after then rightly never ever
the young king saw give it to your young queen shall I be yours
she lit up like a star let me go with my honour
amongst all servants small and listen little Karen
she lit up like a star oh hear you little Karen if you make me son angry
amongst all servants small and will you do my bidding then I will have you placed in
my half kingdom a barrel with spikes
and listen little Karen I will give to you
and will you do my bidding and if you have me placed
the silverbound knives two the half kingdom in a barrel of spikes
I will give to you I will not look after then god in heaven knows
give it to your young queen, my innocence
the silverbound knives two let me leave
I will not watch after with my honour they placed little Karen
give them to your young queen in the barrel of spikes
let me leave with my honour and listen little Karen then came two white doves
if you wont be mine to her with god's peace
and listen little Karen then I will have you be placed
and will you do my bidding in the prison tower and the young king grew pale
the stone house in the forest in his golden hall
I will give to you and if you have me placed then came two black ravens
the stone house in the forest in the prison tower to him with the horror of hell
Sometimes I Feel
Like a Motherless Child
Sometimes I feel
a motherless child
a long way
from home.
Sometimes I feel
I am almost done
a long way
from home.
Painter Artist Kwabena Afriyie Poku, lecturer, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science &Technology
Akosua Biney Vocalist - Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child
Closing The Books Actor - The Reading Performance by Christian Clausen - A Retired director of Huset Theater In Copenhagen,
Clausen was born in 1945 Clausen and was educated at the State Theatre School in Copenhagen in 1972 and
thereafter had a long career as an actor, director, manager and scriptwriter.
Unknown A Danish Folksong Og Det Var Liden Karen
THE CURATOR
Tending cultural anthropologist Amma Birago shapes spaces for conversation critical in the pursuit
of the interpretations and implications of identity and community especially for the indigenous
African in a world supposed free. Investing in creative writing and curating spaces, she as well
interweaves and repackages academic research in an effort to support various, new or obscure
however vital perspectives. Her works comprise of theatrical performances, film processes and as
well narrative art installations one of her most recent titled Starbucks Atlantica - identity-making by
coastal Atlantic Africans spellbound by modernism.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS