'A Danish Jew in West Africa'
Wulff Joseph Wulff's story of straddling between two worlds of European and African religion and culture
Aerial Vew of The Wulff House (1840) by HACSA FoundationHeritage and Cultural Society of Africa Foundation
A Danish officer arrives on the west coast of Africa
Wulff Joseph Wulff was a Danish civil servant and officer at the Christiansborg Castle in Osu. He was born in Denmark in 1809 and arrived in Osu, Accra in 1836. He completed the construction of the Wulff House in 1840 and died in 1842. The house is located on Castle Road, on the same street as the Christiansborg Castle.
Wulff moves into the local community
Wulff wrote a biography entitled A Danish Jew in West Africa in which he documented feeling unwelcome and experiencing ethnic and religious prejudice when he lived in the Christiansborg Castle. He therefore decided to build his own house in the nearby community.
Aerial Vew of The Wulff House (1840) by HACSA FoundationHeritage and Cultural Society of Africa Foundation
The Wulff family legacy in Osu
He married Sarah Malm, an ethnically mixed Ghanaian-Danish woman with whom he had three children. The Wulff House became the family house of descendants of Wulff Joseph Wulff, including those offspring who later became Wulff-Cochrane and Wulff-Vanderpuije.
Name Plaque (1840) by HACSA FoundationHeritage and Cultural Society of Africa Foundation
The house was named in memory of Frederick VI of Denmark
Wulff completed construction in 1840 and moved out of the Castle. His brother-in-law Behrens sent him a sandstone plaque stating the name of the house, the year it was built and his name. This was installed above the entrance. He named the house “Frederichs Minde” after King Frederick VI of Denmark, who died in 1839.
Establishing a new lineage
“Frederichs Minde” means ‘in memory of Frederich.” The German spelling for the King’s name was used instead of the Danish. The acquisition of their own house was of tremendous importance to Wulff and his wife. In the Ga tradition, the building of a house led to the establishment of a new lineage.
Burial practices of the Ga people
Wulff died two years after his house was completed. Both Wulff and his daughter Wilhelmine Wulff-Cochrane are buried in a room within the house. The practice of burying family heads in homes was prevalent amongst the indigenous Ga people of Accra in the nineteenth century.
Square and Rectangular Shaped Graves in The Room (2020) by HACSA FoundationHeritage and Cultural Society of Africa Foundation
Wulff considered home burials primitive upon his arrival in Accra but relented to avoid his last remains being interred in a Christian cemetery with his Danish colleagues. His grave is square, decorated with marble and surrounded by terracotta tiles. His descendants allege he was buried standing up according to Jewish tradition to save space in the room.
His daughter Wilhelmine Wulff-Cochrane is buried by his side, lying in a rectangular grave.
Descendants of Wulff Joseph Wulff mark the legacy of a growing European-African indentity that is part of Ghana's past. Learn more about his descendants, from the late 1800's to the twenty-first century.
Theodore Ulysses Wulff
First born of Wulff and Sarah Malm
Wilhelmine Josephine Wulff
Born c.1840, only daughter of Wulff and Sarah Malm
Frantz W. I. Wulff
Third born and second son of Wulff and Sarah Malm
Thomas Wulff Cochrane, Esquire
Son of Wilhemine Josephine Cochrane. Born 20th November 1860
Mr. Frantz Wulff-Cochrane and his wife
Son of Thomas Wulff-Cochrane
Mrs. Stella Lokko (Née Wulff-Cochrane)
Daughter of Thomas Wulff-Cochrane.
Edmund Wulff-Cochrane
Son of Mr. Thomas Wulff-Cochrane
Mr. Leslie Stanley Wulff-Cochrane
Born in 1940
Died in 2020
