64 – 65 Otto Friedrich von der Groeben | 1 Cf. Schück 1889, vol. 2, pp. 133 f. | 2 Cf. van der Heyden 1993 and Weindl 2001. | 3 Lately Leschke 2019, p. 7. | 4 Cf. Schück 1889, vol. 2, pp. 155–157. | 5 Cf. Zaugg 2018, p. 43. | 6 Peters 1986, p. 9. | 7 Cf. von Mallinckrodt 2016, p. 114. Also called ‘Conny the Great’, Jan Conny encountered Brandenburg’s colonists when they arrived on the Gold Coast to establish Gross Friedrichsburg in what is today Ghana. This marked the beginning of Brandenburg’s (later Prussia’s) colonial endeavours in Africa.5 Once there, representatives of the BAC signed an agreement with ‘three African princes’, which allowed for the establishment of a fort and three exclusive trading ports.6 The Berlin Court hoped the fort would enable it to export gold, one of Ghana’s most sought-after resources. In German historical records, Conny is seen as the primary agent of Brandenburg. However, the reality of the matter was that Brandenburg, like the Netherlands and the British Empire, threatened the livelihood, land and resources of the indigenous people. When the colonists from Brandenburg arrived, many tribes had already been fending off the Dutch and British, which had been extracting their resources for decades. These tribes hoped that the establishment of a colony by the Brandenburgers would help weaken the Dutch colonial stronghold in the area. Thus, their alignment with the colonists, a mission taken on by Conny, is portrayed here as a form of resistance against European colonialism. Although Conny facilitated Brandenburg’s colonial activity, neither his nor his tribe’s resistance to European colonialism is presented as part of Brandenburg and Prussian history. Although Prussia sold Gross Friedrichsburg to the Dutch in 1718, Conny rejected this handover. Instead, he was adamant on preventing the Dutch from strengthening their presence in the area.7 With an army of 20,000 soldiers, Conny attempted to fight the Dutch for four years until they were forced to surrender in 1724. | HATEM HEGAB
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