Jacob Peter Huydecoper (11 November 1811 – 12 February 1845) was an early 19th-century Elmina Euro-African civil servant and diplomat on the

Dutch Gold Coast The Dutch Gold Coast or Dutch Guinea, officially Dutch possessions on the Coast of Guinea (Dutch language, Dutch: ''Nederlandse Bezittingen ter Kuste van Guinea'') was a portion of contemporary Ghana that was gradually colonized by the Dutch (et ...

Early life

Jacob Huydecoper was born in

Elmina Elmina ( Fante: ''Edina'') is a town and the capital of the Komenda/Edina/Eguafo/Abirem District on the south coast of Ghana in the Central Region. It is situated on a bay on the Atlantic Ocean, west of Cape Coast.Straight line distances ...

Willem Huydecoper Willem Huydecoper (November 1788 – 22 February 1826) was an important Euro-African merchant, politician, and diplomat on the Dutch Gold Coast in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Biography Willem Huydecoper was born in Elm ...

and a Fante woman named Akosewa Kombati. He was a member of the prominent Afro-European Huydecoper family, which traces its ancestor to Jan Pieter Theodoor Huydecoper, a Director-General of the Dutch Gold Coast in the 18th century.

Career

Huydecoper started his career in the colonial administration of the

in July 1832, when he was installed as a provisional assistant at Elmina. He became a regular assistant on 15 December 1836. Huydecoper was charged with the recruitment of the so-called

Belanda Hitam Belanda Hitam ( Indonesian; "Black Dutchmen") was an Indonesian language term used to refer to Black soldiers recruited by the Dutch colonial empire for service in the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL), the colonial army of the Dutch E ...

, Gold Coastan and

Akan Akan may refer to: People and languages *Akan people, an ethnic group in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire *Akan languages, a language group within the wider Central Tano languages *Kwa languages, a language group which includes Akan *Central Tano language ...

recruitments for the

Royal Netherlands East Indies Army The Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (; KNIL, ; ) was the military force maintained by the Kingdom of the Netherlands in its colony of the Dutch East Indies, in areas that are now part of Indonesia. The KNIL's air arm was the Royal Netherl ...

, at the Ashanti capital of

Kumasi Kumasi is a city and the capital of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly and the Ashanti Region of Ghana. It is the second largest city in the country, with a population of 443,981 as of the 2021 census. Kumasi is located in a rain forest region ...

, between 1838 and 1842. With this move, he followed in the footstep of his father, who also was the Dutch

envoy Envoy or Envoys may refer to: Diplomacy * Diplomacy, in general * Envoy (title) * Special envoy, a type of Diplomatic rank#Special envoy, diplomatic rank Brands *Airspeed Envoy, a 1930s British light transport aircraft *Envoy (automobile), an au ...

at the Ashanti court between 1816 and 1817.

Death and legacy

Huydecoper returned from Kumasi on 1 February 1842, and was honourably discharged of all his duties on 31 March 1842. Three years later, Huydecoper died in Elmina at the age of 33. Huydecoper is considered the initiator of the

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

mission in Elmina, established in 1842, after he himself was converted to Christianity by The Reverend

Thomas Birch Freeman Thomas Birch Freeman (6 December 1809 in Twyford, Hampshire – 12 August 1890 in Accra) was an Anglo-African Wesleyan minister, missionary, botanist and colonial official in West Africa. He is widely regarded as a pioneer of the Methodist Ch ...

when the latter was stationed at Kumasi in 1839.

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Huydecoper, Jacob 1811 births 1845 deaths Converts to Christianity Dutch Gold Coast people Dutch people of Ghanaian descent Ghanaian people of Dutch descent People from Elmina