In today’s edition of GhanaWeb’s Sankofa Series, we throw the spotlight on Ghana’s first physician and doctor in the then Gold Coast Colony.

He was born in June 1859 to Chief Quartey-Papafio and a businesswoman, Momo Omedru.
Benjamin Quartey-Papafio’s brother, Emmanuel, was an agriculturist and a trader, and Arthur, was a lawyer. Two other members of the Quartey-Papafio family, Clement W. and Hugh (children of Emmanuel William Kwate Quartey-Papafio), also became barristers.

Quartey-Papfio schooled at CMS Grammar School and Fourah Bay College in Freetown, Seirra Leone.

He later travelled to Britain and enrolled at the St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College in 1882 to study medicine before relocating to Edinburgh University.

He graduated with a degree M.B and M.Ch. in 1886 and became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons.

He was the first African to receive a medical degree in the Gold Coast.

He returned to the Gold Coast (now Ghana) and served as a medical practitioner for the Gold Coast Government Service from 1888 till 1905.

Quartey-Papfio married Eliza Sabina Meyer and had six children with her.

A member of the Accra Town Council from 1909 to 1912, Quartey-Papafio was also a member of the 1911 deputation to London that protested the Forest Bill.

He was an unofficial member of the Legislative Council from 1919 to 1924 and a practicing Anglican.

Benjamin Quartey-Papafio died on September 14, 1924.

You can also watch this episode of People & Places here: