[1] The daughter of a farmer, Rosina Binder came from a large family and had ten other siblings, including half-brothers and sisters, with whom she grew up in southern Germany where the Württemberg Pietist lifestyle was commonplace.

[1] Like all Basel missionaries, Widmann had arrived in Ghana as a bachelor and had to prove himself in the field for a minimum of two years, before permission could be granted by the Home Committee to find a suitable wife or so-called mission bride on his behalf.

[2] Though Rosina Binder had never met her future husband, she was asked to marry him and join him at the mission station in Akropong in a tropical region known for its high missionary death toll.

[1] He reported to the Home Committee that Rosina Binder would accept the proposal as soon as her grandmother gave her approval of the union, after which she would learn English and be trained in domestic skills.

The Lord Almighty is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.”[2] The pastor had wanted to bless her by laying on of hands but the church elders objected to it and the suggestion was shelved.

She noted in her diary, “Then I went to my beloved mother, who sat up in her bed and cried her heart out and couldn’t say more than: So you want to go now…Because of her weakness I did not speak many words and quickly rushed out of the room.

[1][2] When they were about thirty minutes outside Korntal, a group of young women with whom she had started a prayer fellowship six months earlier presented her with a token of grapes as “proof of their love” for her.

[1] She had not yet received a letter from her fiancé, Johann Widmann as normal ship connection was yet to be established and communication with the Gold Coast was spotty at best.

[1] She experienced desolation “illness and a spiritual crisis" – a lack of faith, feeling her calling to be a missionary had left her and neither Scripture nor prayer could lift her morale.

[1] A week before her departure, she also received her first letter from Johann Widmann which gave her hope in the sustenance of providence and restored her weakened faith –an asset for her future life in the mission field at Akropong.

[1] While on the first steamship she had even seen in her life, a twenty year-old Rosina Binder wrote a diary entry on New Year’s Eve in 1846, “Today seems to be a special and notable day.

O how much would I have loved to share my joy with my beloved ones at home.”[2][4] Widmann, Binder and the other missionaries departed from the Gold Coast on 19 January 1847 and arrived in Akropong the next day.

[1][2] The newlyweds deeply cared for each other, forging a strong bond and survivalist mindset due to the eternal fear of death from tropical disease.

[2] Johann Winder and Rosina Binder had eleven more children, with four girls dying at an early age and were buried at the Akropong mission cemetery.

[4] She observed the marital fidelity issues between Liberian missionary, George Peter Thompson (1819 – 1889) and Angolan-born Moravian Jamaican educationist, Catherine Mulgrave (c.1827 – 1891).

She remarked, “I told Brother Mohr that it would be much better to be open with each other, because otherwise I am often under a heavy inward pressure.”[2] This situation depressed and distressed her, making her homesick, constantly worrying about her ageing parents in Germany.

[2] She also experienced loneliness as her husband travelled for weeklong stays in neighbouring towns for mission work and to visit members of his congregation.

Rosina Widmann wrote in 1848 that one of her school girls, Amba comforted her tenderly during her illness, characterised by “headache and freezing [chills], dizziness and vomitting”.

God have mercy on me that I will not lose faith.”[2] Her husband eventually recovered from his illness and she nursed him back to full health over a long period.

[2] In an episode at Akropong, one of the Jamaicans, Ann Rochester, an unmarried woman, was writhing in abdominal pain, which could not be relieved with any medication available, herbal or otherwise.

[1] Moreover, when one of the wives of the Akropong ruler - Gyebia, an Asante, had a dispute, her husband, the woman sought refuge at the mission station and was housed by Rosina Widmann.

[1][7] In this period, weaving was the most common form of textile production in the Akan hinterland and the profession of seamstress or dressmaker as introduced by Widmann was a novel innovation there.

[1] The vocational experimental model which also incorporated reading, writing, arithmetic, English and the basics of Christianity, evolved into the girls’ school at Akropong.

[1][2][4] Rose Ann Miller (1836 – 1930), a Jamaican educator and the oldest of West Indian children who accompanied their parents to the Gold Coast in 1843, was Rosina Widmann's de facto interpreter.

[3] Some apprehensive parents did not allow their daughters to attend the school in the mornings when academic subjects were taught but permitted them to go in the afternoon to learn sewing.

[1] In one notable case, a girl named Adwoa Yirenkyiwa, born c. 1841 decided as a child that she wanted to attend Mrs. Widmann's school.

You died for us to redeem us, forgive my sins for the sake of your name.”[1] The Akropong girls who lived with the Widmanns some faced dilemmas: food choices that were culturally forbidden by Akan society.

[1] An Akuapem girl living in her household refused chevon, fearing corporal punishment from her mother if she violated the cultural taboo.

[1] Ernestine Mader, missionary-wife of the School Inspector gave evening lessons in literacy to some of the prospective brides of teacher trainees.

[1] Rosina Widmann stayed in Ghana, working for the Basel Mission for three decades and permanently returned to Korntal at the age of 50 in the spring of 1877, a few months after the passing of her husband.