Carl Christian Reindorf

Life & Legacy

Carl Christian Reindorf (31 May 1834 – 1 July 1917) was a Euro-African-born pioneer historian and pastor who worked with the Basel Mission on the Gold Coast. A teacher, farmer, trader, traditional medicine physician, he wrote The History of the Gold Coast and Asante in the Ga language; scholars consider the book a "culturally important" work and an increasingly important source for Ghanaian history. The work was later translated into English and published in 1895 in Switzerland. He used written sources and oral tradition, interviewing more than 200 people in the course of assembling his history.