Benjamin Quartey-Papafio

Dr. Benjamin William Quarteyquaye Quartey-Papafio (25 June 1859 or 1863 – 14 September 1924) was a physician and politician in the Gold Coast, the first Ghanaian 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. degree 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; on 8 October 1896 at St Bartholomew's Church in Smithfield, London, he married Eliza Sabina Meyer,[2] daughter of Richard Meyer of Accra, and the couple had six children.[3][4]

A member of the Accra Town Council from 1909 to 1912,[1] he was a member of the 1911 deputation to London that protested the Forest Bill.[5] 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.[5] His son, Percy, trained as a doctor but was unable to practice due to failing eye sight caused by cataracts.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 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. ↑ Jeffrey Green, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a Musical Life, Routledge, 2015, p. 90.
  3. ↑ Karin Barber, Africa's Hidden Histories: Everyday Literacy and Making the Self, Indiana University Press, 2006, p. 316. ISBN 978-0253218438.
  4. ↑ The Times, 19 October 1896.
  5. 1 2 Jeffrey P. Green, Black Edwardians: Black People in Britain, 1901-1914, Taylor & Francis, 1998, p. 147.


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, April 29, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.