[1][2][3] Asante worked closely with the German missionary and philologist, Johann Gottlieb Christaller and fellow native linguists, Theophilus Opoku, Jonathan Palmer Bekoe, and Paul Staudt Keteku in the translation of the Bible into the Twi language.

[11] As a child, he began his formal education when his father gave him to the Basel missionary, Johann G. Widmann as a houseboy and year later, he was sent to J. C. Dieterle to become a personal assistant in his household.

[1][2][3] By his own account, he had his conversion experience during a singing exercise at school when he sang the hymn, “Come ye sinners, poor and needy.” by the American composer, Ira D.

[1][2][3] In 1848 he was among five students in the pioneer class of the newly opened Basel Mission Seminary at Akropong, for a five-year course training as a teacher-catechist and becoming proficient in German, Greek, Latin, and Hebrew.

[1][2][3] Other members of the foundation class were John Powell Rochester, Paul Staudt Keteku, William Yirenkyi and Jonathan Palmer Bekoe.

[1][2][3] After two years at Larteh, he was transferred to Gyadam then the capital of Akyem Kotoku, on the Birim River, about 15 miles (24 km) north of Kyebi, as an assistant to the Basel missionary, Simon Süss.

[1][2][3] By December 1876, Asante had baptized many former slaves of the stool including Johannes Bosomtwe, the sword bearer; Noah Duodu, the horn blower; Thomas Amoadeefo, the chief executioner and Yaw Boakye, the Okyehene's brother-in-law who doubled as the state treasurer or Sanaahene.

[1][2][3] Eventually, the British authorities got wind of the political tensions and sensing a possible disturbance of the erstwhile colonial power structure requested that the Basel mission transfer Asante to different town.

[1][2][3] Many mission workers and coverts fled to the Kwahu mountain ranges or hid in forests, others escaped to the coast while a few returned to the old traditional religion to protect their families.

[1][2][3] Asante then went to Anum on the eastern bank of the Volta River, 50 miles (80 km) inland, to reopen a mission station there which was closed as a result of the Asante-Togoland conflict of this period.

These new developments encouraged him to venture into farther towns such as Palimé, Togo, Salaga in northern Ghana and Kete-Krachi where the people rejected Christian proselytizing in favour of the village idol, “Odente”.

He sold copies of the Twi Bible in 1885 in the Central Province coastal towns of Cape Coast, Saltpond, Winneba, Kwanyako and Nsaba.

[1][2][3] After mission work in Gyadam, Asante was transferred to the seminary at Akropong as a tutor and partnered with Johann Gottlieb Christaller to prepare school pamphlets for teaching in the Twi language.

[1][2][3] Other translations of works into the Twi language include Man’s Heart, Satan’s Abode and Ancient Heathenism of Germany, an exposé of Germanic pagan rituals.

[1][2][3] He composed the Twi hymn, “Wiase yi nya hyew a, nnipa nyinaa” which is often sung at Presbyterian funerals in Ghana.