Johannes Zimmermann

Johannes Zimmermann (2 March 1825 – 13 December 1876) was a missionary, clergyman, translator, philologist and ethnolinguist of the Basel Evangelical Missionary Society of Switzerland, who translated the entire Bible into the Ga language of the Ga-Dangme people of southeastern Ghana and wrote a Ga dictionary and grammar book. Mostly an oral language before the mid-nineteenth century, the Ga language assumed a written form as a result of his literary work. Zimmerman's work built upon the single introductory grammatical treatise written by the Euro-African Moravian missionary and educator, Christian Jacob Protten, in the Ga and Fante languages, and published a century earlier in Copenhagen, in 1764.

Early life and education Johannes Zimmermann was born on 2 March 1825 on Kirchstraße 5 (5 Church Street) in the town of Gerlingen, Kingdom of Württemberg, now German state of Baden-Württemberg. After he finished his apprenticeship, he went on foot to Basel, Switzerland with the aim of training as a missionary.

Johannes Zimmermann built his mission house in the village of Odumase, the hub of the Kingdom Manya-Krobo where he saw himself as an "ambassador of Jesus". The tribal chieftain, King Odonkor Azu, is open-minded and supportive of the Christian mission. As a sign of his friendship with Zimmermann, the Krobo paramount chief instructed his subjects to carve a stool from a special piece of wood. The chief's son, Tei, moved in with the Zimmermann family. The king anointed Johannes Zimmermann, “Teitsɛ” meaning the "father of the king's son Tei".

Selected works The following publications are some of Zimmermann's literary works: Zimmermann, J. (1855). “The Four Gospels in the Ga Language.” London Zimmermann, J. (1885). “A Grammatical Sketch of the Akra or Ga Language and Some Specimens of it from the Mount of the Natives,” Stuttgart, 1858, revised edition published as "A Grammatical Sketch of the Akra or Ga Language and a Vocabulary of the Same with an Appendix on the Adanme Dialect," 2 Vols. Stuttgart As punishment, the Home Committee, suspended Zimmermann, stripping him of his rights to travel home to Europe every year on furlough, effectively making him a local missionary on the Gold Coast for the next twenty-two years. They brought her onto a slave ship from Africa to Jamaica. Near the coast of Jamaica, the ship got in distress and sank. Mulgrave had earlier been married to the Americo-Liberian, George Peter Thompson who had been educated in Basel Mission training school in Basel, Switzerland as a mission assistant. A graveyard, Zimmermann Presbyterian Cemetery, was named in his memory