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HISTORY OF RAMSEYER PRESBY

HISTORY OF RAMSEYER MEMORIAL CONGREGATION, ADUM-KUMASI

The Ramseyer Memorial Presbyterian Church, Kumasi, have been in existence for well over hundred years. History has it that, in June 1869, Rev. Fritz Augustus Ramseyer, his wife and brother Johannes as well as a black convert Thomas Owusu were taken as captives of the Asante army under Adubofour.

Having been held as hostages for nearly five years and all efforts to secure their release had failed, the British Army attacked Kumasi and finally released them in January 1974. After their release, it was Ramseyer’s most ardent wish to return to Kumasi as a free missionary and to continue from where he left off.

Thus in 1896 when the British army entered Kumasi and took the King, Prempeh I, the Queen mother and other high courtiers as captives to Elmina, Ramseyer took that opportunity to return to Kumasi twenty-two years after their release.

He acquired a land at Bantama near present day Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital with the help of Thomas Owusu. By the end of the first year, two stations and two schools had been opened. The fact that the opening of the Kumasi mission station followed a British Military occupation, made it unpopular since Christianity was considered “a religion of the victor”.

The modest beginning produced significant results such that by 1900 when the Yaa Asantewaa war ended, further missionary work had been achieved. A total of 33 baptisms had been recorded with a Christian community of over 160 converts. Also, a total of 311 pupils were enrolled in 16 schools established within Kumasi.
As a result of the traumatic experiences of the war, Rev. Ramseyer and his wife went back to Europe. On the 13^th of December, 1901, Rev. Ramseyer returned to the country to begin the reorganization of the church against strong resistance from the Basel Mission in Switzerland. In 1907, the construction of a chapel and minister’s residence also began. Communal labour was offered by the members of the growing church who were dominantly African converts.

On completion of the chapel, it was named Ebenezer Presbyterian Church. However, after the death of Ramseyer on the 6^th of August, 1914, a decision to immortalised his memory during the moderatorship of Rev. C.E. Martinson led to the renaming of the church to Ramseyer Memorial Presbyterian Church. Read more