Emmanuel Charles Quist

Emmanuel Charles Quist
1st Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana
In office March 6, 1957 – December, 1957
Preceded by	New Position
Succeeded by	Augustus M. Akiwumi
Speaker of the Gold Coast Legislative Assembly
In office March 6, 1951 – March 5, 1957
Preceded by	New Position
Succeeded by	Position abolished on Independence
Personal details
Born	10 March or May 1880[1]
Died	1959
Occupation	Barrister

Sir Emmanuel Charles Quist, OBE, also known as Paa Quist (1880, Christianborg, Accra – 30 March 1959) was a barrister and the first Ghanaian Speaker of the Legislative Assembly^[2] of the Gold Coast and the first Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana.^[3]

Life

Emmanuel Charles Quist was a son of Rev. Carl Quist, a Basel Mission pastor in Accra. He was educated at the Basel Mission School in Accra from 1889 to 1896, and then at the Theological Seminary and Training College at Akropong, Akwapim District. Briefly entering business with the Basel Trading Company, he entered the Middle Temple in England in 1910 and was called to the Bar in 1913.^[1] He became a Crown Counsellor and barrister in private practice in Accra, and a member of Accra Town Council. He was an extraordinary member of the Legislative Council in 1925, and a member of the Legislatve Council, representing the chiefs of the Eastern Province, from 1934 to 1948. A judge at the Cape Coast from 1948 to 1949, he was the first African President of the Legislative Council from 1949 to 1951, speaker of the National Assembly of the Gold Coast from 1951 to 1957, and Speaker of the National Assembly of Ghana from 1957 to 1959.^[1]

Honours

Quist was created O.B.E. in 1942, and Knighted in 1952.^[1] “The Speakers Conference Hall” at the Parliament House has been named after Sir Emmanuel Charles Quist.^[4]

Notes

1. 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. 359
2. "Barrister E.C. Quist O.B.E. becomes First African President of the Gold Coast [i.e. Ghana] Legislative Council". delete character in |title= at position 79 (help)
3. "Rt. Hon. Ebenezer Sekyi Hughes:Speakers of Parliament from 1951 - 2005". Official website of the Parliament of Ghana. Parliament of Ghana. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-04-18.
4. "Conference Hall named after Ghana's first Speaker". Ghana government. 2007-03-07. Retrieved 2007-04-18.

External links

• Council Chamber, with Quist seated in the Speaker's chair in the centre