Carl Christian Reindorf (31 May 1834 – 1 July 1917)[1] was a Euro-African-born pioneer historian, teacher, farmer, trader, physician and pastor who worked with the Basel Mission on the Gold Coast.

[7] Reindorf's grandfather, Augustus Frederick Hackenburg was a Danish merchant who came to the Gold Coast in 1739 and later became the colonial Governor, leaving the position in 1748.

[1][2] Given his knowledge of traditional healing through herbal medicine, gleaned from travels around the Gold Coast, Reindorf acted as the physician and surgeon to the wounded soldiers during an 1870 local war between the Ga and Akwamu peoples.

[1] In appreciation of his medical services in treating the wounded after the Ga-Akwamu war, he was the recipient of a citation of commendation from the Administrator (1867–1872) and later Governor (1879 -1880), H. T. Ussher during the welcome ceremonies for a visiting contingent from Lagos, Nigeria.

[1] In 1903, he was part of the committee at Abokobi that revised the Ga Bible, including Ludwig Richter, Jakob Wilhelm Werz, Christian Kölle and Daniel Sabah (1854-07).

[1] The inspiration or impetus for his magnum opus came from a strong sense of nationalism and the linguistic work that had been carried out on Twi oral traditions by the German philologist and fellow Basel missionary, Johann Gottlieb Christaller (1827–1895).

[1][2] Reindorf was also likely influenced by Christian Jacob Protten (1715–1769), a fellow Ga-Danish mulatto or Gold Coast Euro-African and an 18th-century Moravian missionary and educator in Christiansborg who wrote the first recorded grammatical pamphlet in the Ga and Fante languages, which was published in Copenhagen in 1764.

[9] The couple had eleven children including a prominent Gold Coast physician and a 1910 medical graduate of the Durham University, Dr. Charles Elias Reindorf, who died in 1968.

[2][6] The chiefs and people of Osu accorded him a "full state funeral" with "the attendance reported as being the largest seen in Accra for many years"[7] At the church service, six Basel Mission pastors, including his fellow native Ga ministers, Jeremias Engmann (1840–20), W. A. Quartey who was later elected the third Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of the Gold Coast from 1925 to 1929[22] as well as Ludwig L. Richter and Samuel Wuta Ofei (1850–22) delivered eulogies.

[24] Reindorf's name also appears on a tablet in the chapel listing pioneering missionaries of Osu origin, in recognition of their contributions to formal education and the growth of the Presbyterian faith in Ghana.