In the early nineteenth century, European missionaries poured into West Africa convinced they were bringing light to a “dark continent.” Many did not last long enough to preach. Disease, especially malaria, killed them with ruthless speed. Among the few who survived those early years was Andreas Riis, a Danish missionary whose life and mission in the Gold Coast were shaped less by European medicine or theology than by African knowledge he had been taught to despise.
Andreas Riis was born on 12 January 1804 in Løgumkloster, Denmark, to a farmer and a housewife. In his youth, he apprenticed in his father’s workshop and lived a carefree life, but a profound religious experience led him to devote himself to missionary work.
He enrolled at the Basel Mission Seminary in Switzerland in 1828, and after four years of training, he was ordained a Lutheran minister in 1832. That same year, he set out for the Gold Coast under the Basel Mission. He arrived at Christiansborg (Osu), near present-day Accra, a a region already notorious among Europeans for the high death toll among white settlers and missionaries.
Riis and his fellow missionaries had been sent to the Gold Coast to spread Christianity, establish schools, and teach European trades. They aimed to convert the local population, and train them in literacy, and introduce skills such as carpentry, shoemaking, and masonry, part of the Basel Mission’s effort to combine religious teaching with practical development.
The mission quickly faced disaster. Within months, several of Riis’ fellow missionaries succumbed to tropical diseases. Other missionaries sent from Europe had already died within months of arrival in previous years, leaving the mission nearly deserted and its prospects bleak. With nearly all European missionaries dead, Riis considered returning to Europe, seeing the mission as almost impossible to continue.
Two months after the deaths of his colleagues, Riis fell seriously ill with malaria, then vaguely referred to as “coast fever.” The European medical treatments available at the time did little to help, and his condition grew worse, bringing him close to death, just as it had claimed so many missionaries before him.
At that time, most Europeans considered it unthinkable to turn to African healers. Local medical practices were dismissed as superstition, and traditional religious practices were labeled “heathenism.” To missionaries, seeking help from such sources was seen as morally wrong and spiritually dangerous. But desperate and with no other options, Riis made a bold choice.
On the advice of one of his local friend familiar with local customs, Riis went to a local herbalist. The herbalist treated him using traditional remedies, including plant-based medicines rich in natural quinine. Against European expectations, Riis gradually recovered.
This moment is important. While European missionaries saw themselves as the sole bearers of knowledge, it was African medical expertise that saved Riis’s life when Western medicine had failed.
Even so, Riis’s decision was highly controversial among his fellow missionaries. Turning to a traditional healer was considered an “abomination,” not because it didn’t work, but because it challenged the belief that African culture was inferior and spiritually corrupt. At the time, European missionaries grouped African religion and medicine under the label “heathenism,” using it to justify cultural contempt, religious control, and the dismissal of African knowledge.
After his recovery, Riis became minister at Christiansborg, managing schools and church affairs. He later moved inland to Akropong, a hilly, forested area with a cooler climate better suited for missionary work. He settled there in 1835, building a solid timber house almost entirely by himself. The locals called him “Osiadan,” meaning builder, in recognition of his work. Riis embraced local life, learning Twi, eating local foods, and living simply among the people.
Despite his efforts, Riis faced immense challenges. Mortality among European missionaries was extremely high, and he suffered the personal loss of several family members, including his wife, Anna Wolter, and one of his children.
By 1840, after nearly eight years without a single conversion, Riis convinced the Basel Mission to recruit freed Caribbean slaves and their descendants as missionaries. They were expected to adapt better to West Africa’s climate.
In 1843, a team of 24 Jamaicans and one Antiguan arrived in the Gold Coast. These recruits helped stabilize the mission and eventually led to its success.
Riis’ leadership style was strict and demanding. He often clashed with colleagues and superiors and faced accusations including financial irregularities, misuse of mission labor, trading prohibited goods, and alleged sexual misconduct.
In 1845, these disputes led the Basel Mission to recall Riis to Switzerland for a formal disciplinary review. Although he defended his actions, the committee ultimately revoked his appointment, ending his service on the Gold Coast without recognition or ceremony.
After his recall, Riis continued missionary work in Grimstad, Norway, serving as a traveling preacher and chaplain until his death on 13 January 1854, at age 50.
Andreas Riis story matters not because of missionary success, but because it exposes a deeper truth. Riis survived in the Gold Coast not through European science or religious certainty, but through African knowledge that missionaries condemned as heathen.
His life exposes a broader contradiction of the era: African societies were widely treated as inferior, yet were essential to European survival, and the knowledge that kept Europeans alive was dismissed until it could no longer be ignored.
Sources:
https://dacb.org/stories/ghana/riis-andreas/
