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.

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.

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

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. 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, daughter of Richard Meyer of Accra, and the couple had six children.

A member of the Accra Town Council from 1909 to 1912, he was 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.

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