# Pieter de Marees describes the Gold Coast (1602)

URL: https://allhistories.com/ghana/timeline/1602-pieter-de-marees-describes-the-gold-coast
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Themes: main-event

In 1602 the Dutch merchant Pieter de Marees published a Description and Historical Account of the Gold Kingdom of Guinea, based on a stay on the Gold Coast in the 1590s. The book described the people, trade, religion, food, dress and warfare of the Fante and Akan communities near Elmina, and included engravings. It was widely read and was soon translated. De Marees wrote with a trader's eye and shared European prejudices, but he recorded details of gold trading, markets, the use of weights, and local customs that are hard to find elsewhere. Historians use it as a key early source for the social history of the coast. It also promoted Dutch interest in setting up trade and forts. The accounts mention food such as maize, fish and palm wine. No single named ruler is documented for the lands of present-day Ghana at this date. The period is represented in the rulers file by the placeholder entry 'Early Akan, Mande-linked and Gur states of the Gold Coast', so the event belongs to the history of local communities and early polities rather than a documented head of state. De Marees's book is a source of detail for early Ghanaian social history and is widely used by scholars. It also reveals the viewpoint of European traders and shows how images of Africans were created and spread. Its engravings also shaped European images of Africa for generations.

## Why it matters
His book is among the earliest eyewitness accounts of Ghanaian society and a basic source for the period.

Ruler at the Time: [Early Akan, Mande-linked and Gur states of the Gold Coast](https://allhistories.com/ghana/rulers/early-akan-mande-linked-and-gur-states-of-the-gold-coast)

## Sources
- [Pieter de Marees](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_de_Marees)
- [dutch-portuguese-struggle-guinea-coast](https://ebsco.com/research-starters/diplomacy-and-international-relations/dutch-portuguese-struggle-guinea-coast)
- [History of Ghana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ghana)