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English Bosman and Dutch Bosman: A Comparison of Texts - III
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 October 2013
Extract
[This continues the comparison of texts of the English and Dutch versions of Bosman. For earlier instalments see History in Africa 2(1975), pp. 185-216, ans 3(1976), pp. 91-126. Procedural matters are discussed in the first instalment, to which the reader is referred]
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © African Studies Association 1977
References
Notes
1. In fact, Bosman used throughout this section the term paap, a pejorative term used for a Roman Catholic priest or Catholics in general (paaps = popish)
2. By NOT using the term “Negroe” Bosman probably wanted to include the possibility of Europeans taking such an oath. This did happen occasionally. For instance, Bosman's contemporary Von der Groeben, offered in his Guinesische Reisebeschreibung an explicit account of his own “oath drinking” to confirm his contract with the chiefs and elders of Pokesu for the lease of “Mount Manfro” for the construction of the future headquarters of the Brandenburg African Company, Fort Gross Friedrichsburg. He was given a mixture of gunpowder and gin, on the presumption that this concoction would explode in his body if he broke his ½ word.
3. i.e. “just before.” This is likely to be a reference to the Bakatue festival of Elmina, which is generally held in July. After offerings have been made to the gods of the Benya river, the temporary ban on fishing is lifted.
4. Ardrasians were the inhabitants of the kingdom of “Ardra” or Allada, at that time the most powerful of the states on the Slave Coast.
5. The meaning of this word is not clear.
6. Perhaps a reference to the famous Asante priest Okomfo Anokye. See note 8 below.
7. Here again, Bosman took the Opportunity to make scurrilous remarks about Roman Catholics. The remark about “those who had greater part in such sacred devotion” (to the supposed underwear of the priest) probably referred to the common Protestant accusations of those days of all kinds of sexual debauchery among the supposedly celibate priests. Although one could not really speak of persecution of Roman Catholics in the Dutch Republic, they did suffer important curtailments of their civil rights, and Bosman may even have made such unfriendly remarks in order to ingratiate himself with the authorities.
8. “Paap” (cf. n. 1) This passage seems to refer to Okomfo Anokye, Osei Tutu's chief priest and creator of the Golden Stool who must have been a contemporary of Bosman. If so, it would be by far the earliest reference to this individual. His “Country-Men” were probably Asante traders coming to the coast and the great “Club” standing in front of his house may well be a reference to the famous sword he is alleged to have stuck into the ground at Kumase.
9. This is rather curious, because the term generally applied to this festival (August/September) is “yam-festival” (Odwira). The Lomowo festival of Accra, celebrated at about the same time of the year, is indeed a corn-festival. The English translation is definitely an improvement here.
10. Probably a reference to the many statues of the Legba, messenger of the gods, generally consisting of a rather crude mud representation of a hunched man, often with very pronounced genitals.
11. Bosman specifically used here the term Gemenebest, commonwealth, and not Republiek.
12. I am not quite clear what is meant by Bear here -pirates perhaps?
13. The English version, “heirs,” seems more logical. Perhaps Bosman wanted to indicate with this word that heirs need not necessarily be relatives. In many passages which follow “Friends” (Vrienden) is used where clearly “relatives” is meant, and often also translated with that term in the English text.
14. Bosman seems to suggest, by using the term bezitter, meaning proprietor or possessor, that by customary law such goods are also recognized as possessions of the one who has seized them.
15. i.e. Crowns. Where the English text used the term “Crown”, the Dutch uses Ryxdaalder (Imperial Thaler or Dollar) of 2½ florins, or 5 shillings.
16. It is not clear whether Bosman referred here to written regulations of Axim fort derived from the Portuguese, or the biblical “an eye for an eye” concept.
17. This case seems to have been by no means unique to Axim. For a similar case see for instance: Dantzig, A. Van: “Who was John Conny?” in Kwame Daaku Memorial Volume, LongmansGoogle Scholar, forthcoming.
18. “Dienaars” literally means “servants,” but officers of the WIC were also referred to as Compagnies Dienaars. But if such officers were meant here, Bosman would not have used the possessive “my.”
19. Indeed, the authority of the WIC in the little states of the Ankobra basin was ill-defined, being based on the rather vague jurisdiction exercised by the Portuguese, before whom various chiefs used to bring their disputes on a voluntary basis. The Dutch claimed that the chiefs in the area were their “vassals” because the Dutch had driven their former “masters,” the Portuguese, from Axim by force of arms. A statement to that effect was first made by Valckenburgh in 1658 in his “Deductie” and often repeated on later occasions.
20. This is one of the clearest indications that Bosman referred here indeed to the military institution of the asafo Companies, (in Dutch “soldier” is soldaat)
21. An obvious reference to Louis XIV, whose complex diplomacy was much misunderstood by his contemporaries, especially in Holland. The Dutch never forgave him for his sudden, apparently unprovoked, Invasion of the Republic in 1672. On the whole Louis carefully prepared his wars, which were invariably preceded by a formal declaration of hostilities.
22. The meaning of this expression, though no longer current in the Dutch language, is fairly certain. Blankenberge is a town on the Belgian North Sea coast. During the later stages of the Dutch War of Independence some Flemish towns, especially those which could be supplied from the sea, received considerable subsidies from the Northern republicans in the hope that they might rise in revolt against the Spanish. After 1600 the Southern Netherlands, however, completely lost the taste for rebellion, and refused to help the Northerners. “Making a Blankenberge account” may therefore mean: take plenty of money, but refuse to do anything for it.
23. de kat steeken in 't vechten: not to take the fight seriously; abandon the fight. No longer a common Dutch idiom.
24. in. de loop blijven: meaning not clear. The word loop means both the barrel of a gun and run or running. Perhaps Bosman really meant here: they remain in the barrel of the gun, in other words, have to do their work, whether they like it or not, just like a bullet, once it is in the barrel, it cannot go back.
25. Paan, from Portuguese pano means piece of cloth to cover the body, generally about six yards worth. The word was until the late nineteenth century commonly in use on the coast, especially among the Dutch. In the Francophone African countries such a piece of cloth is still commonly known as pagne.
26. This literal translation does not really improve the clarity of this passage. Overste means literally “the uppermost.” It is not clear whether the personnel of the WIC were supposed to teach the skippers of the people on the coast not to use the word overste for Director or Commander of a fort. In modern colloquial Dutch the word chef, which might be regarded as a twentieth century equivalent of the eighteenth century overste, is sometimes used in a slightly ironical or humorous manner, for instance in addressing children or in general people who are not in a leading position.
27. From the French quitter and soleil: get out of the sun. This word is no longer in use in modern Dutch and is now known as parasol.
28. De Smouse-kerk: Smous probably derives from the Hebrew name Moshe (Moses); the affix ‘s’ perhaps from the German (Yiddish) des: fo the: i.e. the church of the Moseses. The term “Smous” (Yiddish: Mauschele) was applied particularly to the Ashkenazim (German Jews) who formed the majority of the Jewish community of Amsterdam. To Christians the Synagogue was a noisy place; it had a less “holy” character than the Christian church because Jews gathered there not only for prayer, but also for discussions on the meaning of the texts of the Holy Books; the synagogue was therefore also known as the Sjoel (from German Schule = school). In modern Dutch the word Smous definitely has an offensive character, which it may not yet have had in the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries. Information supplied by Mr. M.B.B. Nijkerk, Amsterdam.
29. Naaymandje: the word naaien (to sew) is a vulgar word, still used in modern Dutch, for “to have sexual intercourse”.
30. Wrens are called winterkoninkjes in Dutch (lit. winter-kinglings). The term was also applied to the Elector Palatine Friedrich V, who was for only a few months in 1619-20 King of Bohemia (“der Winter-könig), an unhappy reign which brough about the Thirty Years' War. The said Doudyns was probably a journalist of the Hollantsche Mercurius, possibly the Dutch edition of the popular Mercure d'Europe of Paris.
31. It is curious that Bosman should have suggested here that sons succeeded fathers as a general rule. In some cases, notably that of Elmina, this may have been the case, but most Akan stools are inherited by maternal brothers or nephews. In what follows Bosman showed that he was well aware of the existence of the matrilineal system of succession. Even under that system there is an important elective element in succession.