Ama (37 page)

Williams laughed.

“Tell him that I undertake to pass on his message the very next time I meet King George.”

“He has heard what you have said,” said Augusta, “and he will think on it.”

They sat for a few minutes. The brandy had begun to take effect on some of the elders and a heated discussion broke out. The King listened impassively.

Augusta rose again. “
Àgòo
,” she called for attention. “My lords, the white men have asked me to thank you for your hospitality. They would like to stay longer. However they have pressing business to attend to. Therefore they request your permission for them to take their leave.”

“The road is there: permission is granted,” said the Omankyeame.

The visitors rose and after a final round of handshaking left the palace.

“Well, how did you find our King?” Augusta asked Ama as they emerged into the bustle of the market square.

Ama was about to make an unfavourable comparison with the pomp and pageantry of the Asantehene's court, but she thought better of it.

“He is a handsome man,” she dissembled.

She no longer felt that she could be completely frank with Augusta. She was a slave, after all, and Augusta a slave trader; and the business of that morning's meeting had been the trade in slaves.

“Well, how did you find our King?” De Bruyn asked Williams.

They were again walking ahead of the women.

“He looks a great scoundrel to me,” Williams replied, “but that is only an impression. You have a longer experience with the blacks than I have: how do you find him?”

“You are a good judge of character, Captain,” said De Bruyn. “His Majesty thinks it no crime to cheat us, if he can get away with it. In this he is no different from his subjects: they will boast amongst themselves of their skill and ingenuity in deceiving any Dutchman. The only one of them that I can trust is Augusta and even she, who was once my wife, is not above taking advantage of me if she sees an opportunity.”

CHAPTER 21

Sven Jensen, the Chief Merchant, ranked second after De Bruyn, above the Treasurer and the Commodore. Hendrik Van Schalkwyk stood fifth in precedence.

Jensen was an efficient administrator. As a trader he drove a hard bargain. De Bruyn was content to devolve upon him responsibility for most of the commercial activities of the Company. He had an ear for languages: of all the Europeans at Elmina, he was the only one who had picked up sufficient Fanti to trade without using a mulatto interpreter.

A handsome, at first sight charming man, the Dane was an inveterate, indiscriminate and shameless womaniser. He thought nothing of flouting the strict Company rules of conduct.

He was fond of telling the story of a visit he had paid to a house in the town where he was well-known. An old woman was sweeping the courtyard, her face lined with wrinkles, her flat, empty dugs hanging down before her bent body. Without waiting for an invitation, Jensen had taken a seat and started to employ his charm on the hag. She, however, was not to be taken in by his sweet words.

“First you fuck my daughter,” she had said. “Then you fuck her very own pikin, my granddaughter, who never know a man before. Now, today, my daughter is not in the house and my granddaughter neither. You talk, talk like you also want to fuck an old grandmother woman like me, too.”

“Get out, you shameless wretch, get out,” she had screamed, driving him away with her broom.

Jensen was not above arranging a short term conjunction between a castle employee and a female slave. He rendered no service free of charge, but the nature of the payment was negotiable, in cash or kind, or merely in the form of an obligation set to mature at some future, unspecified date.

As poor Esi had discovered, he was not above paying a private visit to the female dungeons himself.

One of Van Schalkwyk's duties was to send to the Classis in Amsterdam a confidential annual appraisal of the spiritual progress of the Elmina community. There was seldom anything good to report. A reasonable attendance at church could only be ensured by fining absentees. There was a great deal of heavy drinking, and much bad language, both of which would have caused the elders of the Classis particular offence, had they known. Given the least lapse of security, the men would take a female slave, with or without her consent. Van Schalkwyk feared that if the Classis became aware of the extent of the moral depravity at Elmina, they would blame
him
for dereliction of duty, rather than the sinners for their sins. His report was largely constructed of wishful thinking. He was aware, however, that the gentlemen of the Classis were no strangers to human weakness; on the contrary, they thrived on it. So he found it expedient to lend his fiction credibility by spicing it with a few salacious titbits.

Van Schalkwyk had little to lose by disclosing at least part of the gossip about Jensen. He was aware of De Bruyn's dislike for the fellow and he was not averse to doing his friend a secret favour by cutting the Chief Merchant down to size. Jensen was, moreover, not a Dutchman and it was thus unlikely that he would have friends at court who might speak up on his behalf.

Van Schalkwyk sent off his report to the Classis; the Classis wrote to the Council in Amsterdam and in due course De Bruyn received a letter asking him to investigate the allegations made against Jensen. He called the Chief Merchant in and told him the contents of the letter.

Jensen immediately suspected Van Schalkwyk. He made no attempt to deny the charges. Instead he poured out a long stream of furious invective directed at the Chaplain.

De Bruyn let him boil, quietly enjoying his deputy's loss of composure.

“My advice to you,” De Bruyn told him, when he had finished, “is to get married. Quickly. Without delay. I mean properly married, in church. I will issue the necessary instructions to the chaplain. I shall then be able to report the event to Amsterdam and to advise the authorities there of my expectation that the behaviour complained of will cease forthwith.”

Jensen reluctantly accepted the Governor's advice and applied his mind to the selection of the wench who would be honoured with the title of Madam Jensen.

Some years before, a well-known Cape Coast harlot, by name of Taguba, had borne a mulatto child, a girl, whom she had named Rose. The child's paternity was unknown but, judging from her appearance was evidently European. When the girl was about eleven years old, she was seen by a factor at Cape Coast castle, who went by name of John Thompson. Taking a fancy to the girl, Thompson had paid a dowry to Taguba in return for a promise that the girl would be his when she reached a proper age for matrimony.

Jensen had visited Cape Coast on business and Thompson, meeting him for the first time and falling victim to his charm and flattery, had made the grievous error of boasting to his new friend of the beauty of his future wife. Shortly afterwards, Thompson had been promoted and sent to Sekondi as Chief Merchant there. Since he did not trust Taguba, he had persuaded her, in return for a further payment, to let him take the girl with him, solemnly promising that he would not consummate the marriage until after the girl's menarche. This, perhaps, was his undoing.

Thompson had invited Jensen to a farewell party at Cape Coast. Jensen had seen young Rose, Madam-Thompson-to-be, who already, in spite of her tender years, showed undoubted indications of the great beauty which she was to become, and who had, moreover, acquired from her mother precocious skills of coquetry.

At Sekondi, Thompson had looked after the girl with tender care, taught her to speak English and even taken the trouble to teach her to read a little and sign her name,
Rose Thompson
. He had had little else to occupy his idle time since there were no other Europeans in the vicinity to share his port and brandy. He had spoiled Rose by showering her with gifts of cloth and jewellery from his stock-in-trade, in the belief that this would encourage her to return his own undeniable, doting affection.

Jensen, having been instructed to marry, considered all the possible candidates. His light fell on Rose. After paying a professional call on his proposed mother-in-law and paying generously for her service, he discovered little difficulty in persuading Taguba to accept a further dowry in return for her daughter's hand. The two of them established an immediate understanding, each recognising in the other a kindred spirit.

Taguba then visited Mr. Thompson in Sekondi, allaying his suspicions by telling him how much she missed her daughter. In the course of the visit she contrived to have Rose kidnapped by accomplices and put aboard a canoe and sent to Elmina, there to be delivered into the now impatient clutches of Jensen.

Taguba, feigning mourning, returned to Cape Coast. Thompson, believing that his Rose had been panyarred and sold into slavery, immediately went mad and took to his bed.. Soon after he was found there, murdered. Since Rose was now betrothed to Jensen, some suspicion fell on him. However, what little evidence there was, was entirely circumstantial, and in view of the separate and distinct territorial responsibilities of the judicial authorities at Cape Coast and Elmina, not to speak of the likely diplomatic complications should charges be laid, the suspicions remained just that. After some time the rumours subsided and Thompson was forgotten.

Rose, having acquired from Thompson sufficient rudimentary knowledge of the catechism to qualify for baptism, Van Schalkwyk joined her to the Church. The banns were put up and the date for the wedding was announced. It would be the first wedding to be held in the Dutch chapel since that of Jacobus Capitein and his white wife.

* * *

Since it was he who had pressed Jensen into marriage, De Bruyn agreed to bear the cost of the wedding reception and offered to lend Rose the wedding dress of his late wife Elizabeth; moreover, he persuaded Augusta and Ama to make the necessary alterations, which they agreed to do in spite of their shared misgivings about Jensen.

Rose was brought to the Governor's rooms. The seams of the dress were ripped open and pinned to fit the slender form of the young girl.

Ama was fascinated by Rose's light complexion, her long brown hair, straight nose and blue eyes. But the girl was cheeky and Augusta had to reprimand her.

“Did they not teach you to respect your elders in Cape Coast, child? Or was it that white man, what was his name, in Sekondi, who taught you bad manners?”

Rose started to cry. She was still a child. Thompson had pandered to her every whim. He had treated her like a spoiled only daughter rather than his future wife. She had not loved him. Indeed, apart from her mother (and that with reservations), Rose loved no one but herself. But she had quickly come to realise that, unlike Thompson, Jensen would stand no nonsense from her. Now she began to miss her former mentor. When she heard of his murder, she wept bitterly. Then she finished crying and forgot about him. Her only regret was that she had had to leave behind all the presents he had given her; and that Jensen clearly had no intention of taking the risks contingent upon an attempt to recover them.

**********


The wedding was set for a Saturday afternoon.

Taguba's maternal uncle and family head, known as Kwesi Broni, agreed to give the bride away. Taguba and Kwesi Broni and a large party of friends and relations arrived at Elmina at dawn, just as the castle gate was opened. Jensen had set aside two rooms for them, one for the men and one for the more numerous women and children.

Old Kwesi Broni had persuaded the Chief Merchant at Cape Coast castle to let him have, on hire, a fashionable European suit, complete with buckled shoes, breeches, waistcoat, ornately embroidered jacket and powdered shoulder length wig, to which he proposed to add his favourite deerskin hat. He took his bath and his breakfast, attended by his granddaughter, the bride. Then he changed into this attire. After admiring his reflection in a looking glass he set out to inspect the castle courtyard and the town. He was followed by a chattering entourage of his extended family, who sang and danced from time to time, as the spirit moved them.

There was a long-standing rivalry between Edina and Cape Coast (or Oguaa, to give it its proper Fanti name) a rivalry which mirrored that of their respective Dutch and English patrons. In spite of this their townsfolk were united by many ties of marriage and clan. Uncle Kwesi Broni took the opportunity to pay his respects to his near and distant in-laws in Edina. Custom required that libation be poured at each port of call. Old Man, in consequence, became somewhat unsteady on his feet. As the time of the wedding ceremony approached, he had to be helped back to the castle and up the steep stairs to the church, where he sat down and promptly fell asleep.

In another room set aside for the purpose, Taguba and her sisters spent the morning dressing their daughter, doing her hair and adorning her with such paraphernalia and accoutrements as beads and bangles, necklaces and charms.

Jensen had invited all the officers above a certain rank to attend the wedding. He had no close friends, but all his drinking companions would be present. After the business with Thompson, he had decided not to send any invitations to Cape Coast castle.

However, Van Schalkwyk had thought this a good opportunity to reciprocate the hospitality which Philip Quaque had shown him. The Chaplain of Cape Coast castle had been borne over to Elmina in a hammock the previous day, accompanied by his personal slave. He would stay for a week.

Ama, never having attended a church service before, was excited at the prospect. It was not the religious aspect which intrigued her. She enjoyed the tales she read in the Bible, but she regarded them as no different from the rich fables she found in other books, nor indeed from the folklore of her childhood and the Asante Anansesem. Her intelligence rejected Van Schalkwyk's claim that the European god was the only one there was. She had grown up aware of the pervasive spiritual presence of her ancestors, mediated by the elders in the three shrines of the Owners of the Earth: the Earth Shrine, the River Shrine and the Fertility Shrine of the women. Unlike the ancestors, the gods were remote and impersonal.