Two men are lying, or rather posing, on the ground. Their bicycles are wedged into each other. The two cyclists behind them were lucky and were able to stop in time. The picture does not look dramatic, the missionaries look too theatrical and the composition is too well thought out. But how is it that missionaries around 1900 in Ghana, the former Gold Coast, are on the road by bicycle?
Right from the beginning, i.e. as early as the 1830s, the Basel missionaries found that their constitution did not allow them to carry out heavy physical work in the unfamiliar climate and remain healthy and fit. There are several reports from early Gold Coast missionaries that their deceased colleagues had not taken care of themselves physically and had consequently become ill from exhaustion and died. Transport by native porters therefore became established early on, and for decades missionaries and their relatives had themselves transported from A to B in hammocks for longer distances.
Rudolf Fisch, who came to the Gold Coast in 1885 as the first missionary doctor, could not come to terms with this system. If someone was seriously ill at a mission station and urgently needed his help, he first had to look for porters and negotiate payment. An immediate hammock transport to the seriously ill was therefore often out of the question. He therefore decided to buy a bicycle. At first, those around him thought he was crazy and he had to put up with a lot of ridicule. But the bicycle proved itself. Dr. Fisch writes: "Now ... I can use the early morning hours or the late evening or night hours and be at the place without being bothered by the sun." He was now independent of time and flexible.
Soon he wasn't the only one riding his bike. On our Website you will find wonderful pictures with groups of missionaries riding their bikes! By the way: In 1905 a report by Dr. Fisch appeared in the evangelical Heidenboten: "My first motorcycle ride". However, this went with some obstacles and the bicycle remained a popular means of transportation for missionaries for a long time.
Text: Andrea Rhyn, historian and research assistant in the Mission 21 archives.
