Rosina Widmann, née Binder, (13 November 1826 – 14 November 1908) was a German educator and Basel missionary-wife who opened a girls’ school at Akropong in pre-colonial Ghana. She was the first exemplar of a European missionary-wife who worked in Ghana for a long period. Between 1847 and 1877, Widmann lived on the Gold Coast and was actively involved in both the Christian ministry and women's vocational education. Her sojourn in Akropong was in three phases: January 1847 to April 1850; December 1851 to June 1867 and January 1869 to spring 1877. Widmann was also a prolific writer, noted for her detailed diary entries of her thoughts and travels, everyday life as a missionary-wife, her interactions with her school pupils and with the Akan peoples of Akropong, providing a vivid narrative of nineteenth century European missionary activity in colonial Ghana, situated against the Akan culture.

Rosina Binder was born on 13 November 1826 in Korntal, a then newly founded Pietist village close to Stuttgart, Germany. Some scholars have suggested that her grandparents may have been among the first settlers of Korntal. 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. Her mother was the second wife of her father. She had a very basic education and later enrolled at a girls’ school where she learnt sewing and housekeeping. In her records, she was described as “a simple Christian who had no higher education” but nonetheless gifted with an appreciable Biblical knowledge. It is said that in nineteenth century Germany, Rosina Binder had “aspirations to rise socially but only knew ordinary cooking.”

In 1845, when Rosina Widmann was nineteen years old, she received an unusual arranged marriage proposition from the Basel Mission: a thirty-one year-old German man, Johann Georg Widmann (1814 - 1876) who had attended the Basel Mission Seminary in Basel, Switzerland and had been working on the Gold Coast as missionary for three years was looking for a life partner. Upon the recommendation of the Rev. Jakob Heinrich Staudt, the local Lutheran minister and a former lecturer at the Basel Mission Seminary, Binder had been chosen by the Basel Committee of Friends as a potential suitor for J. G. Widmann. 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. Due to the cost of travel, Johann Widmann could not physically go to Europe to find a bride. 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. By her own account, Johann Widmann did not even know her name. The Basel Mission Inspector, Wilhelm Hoffmann who happened to be in her hometown met Binder and found her suitable. 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.

Rosina Binder accepted marriage proposal. On 17 September 1846, at her commissioning service, the Lutheran pastor, the Rev. Staudt, selected Psalm 46 with emphasis on verses 1 and 7 as her Biblical verse for blessing: “God is our shelter and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. The Lord Almighty is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.” The pastor had wanted to bless her by laying on of hands but the church elders objected to it and the suggestion was shelved. At the time of her departure from her hometown in Germany, her mother was gravely ill after giving birth to her youngest child. 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. Therefore, I forgot to say goodbye to my little two week-old sister, Sophie.”

On 19 September 1846, in Pietist fashion, she bade an emotional farewell to her grandmother, parents and siblings before leaving with four missionaries, Johann Dieterle, Joseph Mohr, Johannes Stanger and Friedrich Meischel who were also going to the Gold Coast. 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. She entered a London-bound passenger steamship. During the voyage, she and the missionaries often sang Lutheran hymns.

Rosina Binder was in London for nearly two months, from 23 September to 20 November 1846. During her stay in London, she wrote in her diary, “I looked at all the strangeness, strange people, strange language and strange customs with a heavy heart. Besides, I was very afraid of the long sea voyage.” While in the British capital, she struggled to learn the English language. The big city was strange to her as were the fashion style and Victorian version of pietism.

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. She worried even more when she learnt that her mother’s health was deteriorating. 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.

She was hosted by an English couple, Mr. and Mrs. Young. Per historical records, Mr. Young appeared to have made inappropriate advances towards her which she rejected. Mrs. Young blamed her for her husband’s boorish behaviour. In anguish and out of fear, she locked herself in her bedroom to pray, suppressing her cries with the room’s sofa.