Thomas Bowdich served as a writer for the African Company of Merchants, a British trading company that was active along the Gold Coast of West Africa (now Ghana) between 1752 and 1821. The Company had replaced the Royal African Company and was responsible for continuing British involvement in the Atlantic slave trade until its abolition in 1807. After abolition, the Company concerned itself with missions to the kingdoms in the interior of the region.
In 1817, Bowdich was commissioned to join a mission to Kumasi, the capital of the Asante (or Ashanti) Empire. The principal aim was to guarantee Company control over the Gold Coast, which the mission achieved. While travelling through the Asante Empire, Bowdich made several significant observations on Asante culture that are of great use to historians of pre-colonial West Africa. He also collected several pieces of Asante craftsmanship that he presented to the British Museum on his return to London in 1818. He published this illustrated account of the mission the following year. The account is notable for the respect that Bowdich showed towards the Asante people; he was greatly impressed by the country and provides detailed descriptions of Asante customs, such as the yam festival, a five-day celebration of the first yam harvest, which takes place each autumn. The festival is one of the most important events in the Asante year and consists of a series of purificiation rituals to mark the new harvest.

Bowdich returned to Africa in 1823 in order to undertake an expedition into the interior of Sierra Leone to study the natural history of the area with his wife Sarah. He died of malaria in early 1824, stranding his wife and children in The Gambia. On her return to Britain, Sarah Bowdich established herself as a significant natural historian (see RCIN 1057038).