Benjamin Quartey-Papafio

Dr. Benjamin William Quarteyquaye Quartey-Papafio (25 June 1859 or 1863, Accra – 14 September 1924) was a physician and politician in the Gold Coast, the first Ghanian to obtain the degree of M.D.[1]

Life

Benjamin Quartey-Papafio was born into a leading Accra family: his parents were Akwashotse Chief William Quartey-Papafio, also known as Nii Kwatei or 'Old Papafio', and Momo Omedru, a businesswoman from Gbese (Dutch Accra).

He was educated at the C.M.S. Grammar School and Fourah Bay College in Freetown, Sierra Leone before travelling to study in Britain. Gaining a B.A. from Durham University, he entered Edinburgh University as a medical student in 1882, earning his M.B. and M.Ch. in 1886 and becoming a member of the Royal College of Surgeons.[1]

Returning to the Gold Coast, he was a medical officer for the Gold Coast Government Service from 1888 until 1905, and was also in private practice.[1] Quartey-Papafio had three children by Hannah Maria Ekua Duncan, of a Cape Coast/Elmina family; in 1896 in London he married Eliza Sabina Meyer, daughter of Richard Meyer of Accra, with whom he had six children.[2][3]

A member of the Accra Town Council from 1909 to 1912,[1] he was a member of the 1911 deputation to London which protested the Forest Bill.[4] He was an unofficial member of the Legislative Council from 1919 to 1924.[1]

Family

Quartey-Papafio's son and five daughters were educated in Britain: Mercy, Ruby and Grace became teachers in the Gold Coast.[4]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Michael R. Doortmont, The Pen-Pictures of Modern Africans and African Celebrities by Charles Francis Hutchison: A Collective Biography of Elite Society in the Gold Coast Colony, Brill, 2005, p. 347
  2. ↑ Karin Barber, Africa's hidden histories: everyday literacy and making the self, Indiana University Press, 2006, p. 316
  3. ↑ The Times, 19 October 1896
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Jeffrey P. Green, Black Edwardians: Black people in Britain, 1901-1914, Taylor & Francis, 1998, p. 147.