Promotion d'Otho a la dignité de général de l'armée des nations unies
"Promotion of Otho to the Dignity of General of the United Nations Army" (caption translation). This engraving depicts a solemn ceremony involving about 500 African soldiers encircling an open space wherein are seated Danish traders and political elders, including the paramount chief of Akra. In the background is the Fort Kongensten and the village of Ada Foah in the Voltaic region. Isert described the image as his "poor attempt at representation by my inadequate brush." Paul Erdmann Isert (1756–1789) was a German botanist and chief surgeon to Christiansborg at Osu, Accra in Danish Guinea in 1783. He collected plant specimens, and realizing that local inhabitants had no written language, he recorded an ethnographic and botanical record of the Danish Gold Coast.
Image Title
Promotion d'Otho a la dignité de général de l'armée des nations unies
RegID
SI-OB-870
Date
1793
Title
Promotion d'Otho a la dignité de général de l'armée des nations unies
Source
Paul Erdmann Isert, Voyages en Guinee et dans les isles Caraibes en Amerique. . . Traduits de l'Allemand (Paris: Chez Maradan, 1793).
Language
French
Item sets
Pre-Colonial Africa: Society, Polity, Culture
Spatial Coverage
Africa--Voltaic--Ada Foah
Reproduced In
Original image in Paul Erdmann Isert, Reise Nach Guinea Und Den Caribäischen Inseln in Columbien (Kopenhagen: J. F. Morthorst, 1788). The image from 1793 Paris editions is much cleaner. There are slight differences among the 1793 Paris editions, including inverted versions held at the Library Company of Philadelphia and John Carter Brown Library. This illustration, with a misleading caption, in Anthony Tibbles (ed.), Transatlantic Slavery: Against Human Dignity (London: HMSO, 1994), fig. 21, p. 99.
Researchers
Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May
Last Updated
2007; 28-Aug-19
Identifier
B006