Netherlands - Ghana relations since 1593: some highlights

In 1701, now 300 years ago, David van Neijendaal, from Amsterdam, was sent as official envoy - the first European - to a new power in the interior of Ghana in West Africa: the Ashanti - kingdom.

De Westindiëvaarder 'Dubbelen Arent' 
David van Neijendaal arrived in Kumasi, the new capital of the Ashanti-kingdom in November 1701. He stayed there for almost a year before returning to Elmina, then an important city on the Gold Coast of West Africa, where the Dutch had a trading base since almost one hundred years.
However, long before this historic event happened, the first Dutchman who set foot on the coast of West Africa, did this already in 1593. The following story tells some more details about this several centuries long and friendly relationship between the Dutch and the people of Ghana.
 

It is more than 400 years ago that the first Dutchman set foot on the shores of West Africa. This happened in late 1593, he came from Enkhuizen; his name was Barent Eriksz. He sailed out of Medemblik, a city some 50 km north of Amsterdam, on first November 1590, on his ship the 'St. Pieter', with a crew of 36 men. His aim, like that of many other Dutch maritime traders during those years, was to sail to Brazil to buy sugar, but trade-winds and the need for repairs made him drift off all the way into the Gulf of Guinea and eventually to the Island of Il Principe. There, he and his crew were taken prisoner in September 1591 and brought to São Tomé, the main island.
For almost one and a half year they were kept prisoner on São Tomé by the Portuguese, who were then dominating the seafaring trade of Europe with Africa and South America.

During his stay there Eriksz overheard secret stories from other, probably French, prisoners about goldtrading on the West African coast. After his safe return to Holland, in early 1593, he told some business-people in his hometown what he had heard about this goldtrading. They quickly prepared for a new voyage with a ship of just eighty tons and also a new crew of 25 men (sadly enough 30 out of 36 of his previous crew had died on São Tomé from malaria, which was prevalent there due to the very unhealthy rainy seasons on that island). The new ship's name was 'Maecht van Enkhuysen' and she sailed from Enkhuizen late June 1593. To avoid any unwanted attention at the start of his voyage - interloopers from Calais and Dunkerque and potential future competitors - Eriksz did not pass with his ship through the English Channel - but rather he sailed north, around England and Scotland and then he sailed straight south to the Gold Coast, to a place near Elmina.

Willem Bosman, koopman in dienst van de WIC in West-Afrika.
Elmina was then an important harbour on the West Coast of Africa - and firmly controlled by the Portuguese, for more than 100 years already.
After doing his business there, Eriksz returned directly to Holland, loaded with gold, ivory (about 900 pounds) and "greins" or black pepper, arriving safely back in Enkhuizen in March 1594. The whole journey had taken him less then nine months and he had not seen any hostile sail in all those days.
Eriksz' voyage turned out to be a very successful one. Other Dutchmen with their ships were stimulated by this success and soon followed suit. During the early 1600's more than twenty Dutch ships came every year to this part of the Coast of West Africa and around 1630 already twice that number.

 

In 1613, the maritime merchant Pieter van den Broecke returned to Amsterdam from a one-year voyage to West Africa with almost 100 000 pounds of ivory and he also carried some gold. According to reliable accounts of those days, between 1623 and 1636 some 1,137,430 pounds of ivory (valued then at DFL 1,178,688.- or € 534.865,30) and 40,461 goldmarks (or almost 10 000 kg and then worth DFL 11,733,890.- or € 5.324.607,14) were imported into Holland.

When Ericksz died in 1613, he himself had made some 13 voyages to the Gold Coast within a period of 20 years. His first visit, in late 1593, marks the beginning of the relationship between the Dutch and the people of Ghana. During the years that followed, many ships sailed from Holland to this part of Africa, mainly to trade in gold and other African trade-goods mentioned earlier, in exchange for manufactured goods like textiles, brass pans, spirits, iron bars, beads and other ornaments. The - calvinistic - Dutch were very keen on establishing successful trading contacts with the various peoples in this region but this was not liked by the Portugese, then a powerful nation in Europe, who refused any interference with their lucrative trade (nor their Catholic missionary activities).

The Portugese had first come to this part of Africa around the early part of the fifteenth century, stimulated by their King, Henry 'the Navigator' and also with Papal blessings (Sixtus IV). The Portugese built a Castle in Elmina in 1482 to monopolise the coastal trade and did this for more than one hundred years. It may be worth mentioning here that Christopher Columbus visited Elmina and the Castle, almost ten years before he sailed across the ocean and discovered America in 1492.

Pieter R. van Dijk