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Kurankyi-Taylor

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Ernest Eggay Kwesi Kurankyi-Taylor
Member of Parliament for Kumasi South
In office
1956–1959
MonarchQueen Elizabeth
Governor GeneralCharles Arden-Clarke
Prime MinisterKwame Nkrumah
Preceded byEdward Asafu-Adjaye
ConstituencyKumasi South
Personal details
Born1922
Cape Coast
Died1959
Manchester
Political partyConvention People's Party
Other political
affiliations
United Party
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge
OccupationPolitician
ProfessionJudge
Known forPan-Africanism

Ernest Eggay Kwesi Kurankyi-Taylor (1922 in Cape Coast, Ghana - 1959 in Manchester) was a prominent Ghanaian judge and activist.

Life

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E. E. K. Kurankyi-Taylor was the son of James Eggay Taylor, a Cape Coast merchant who was an old boy of Mfantsipim School and an active member of the Aborigines' Rights Protection Society and the National Congress of British West Africa.[1] Kurankyi-Taylor was educated at Mfantsipim, Fourah Bay College, University of Manchester and Cambridge University, where he earned a Ph.D.[2]

During his time in the United Kingdom, he was active in the Pan-African movement, and was one of the delegates to the 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress.[3] He represented the Negro Welfare Centre in Liverpool, together with his brother Jimmy Taylor, who helped organize the 1945 Manchester Pan African Congress,[4] and was also a member of the West African Students Union (WASU).

Upon Kurankyi-Taylor's return to Ghana, he taught at Mfantsipim and University College of Ghana. He was originally a member of Kwame Nkrumah’s Convention People’s Party (CPP) during the fight for independence from Britain. Kurankyi-Taylor later was expelled from CPP due to differences with Nkrumah and joined the National Liberation Movement (later United Party) led by Dr. Kofi Busia and Dr. J.B. Danquah.[5] Kurankyi-Taylor was elected to Parliament from Ashanti (Kumasi South) in the 1956 Elections with the highest vote in the whole elections.[6]

When he died unexpectedly in Manchester at the age of 37, Dr. J. B. Danquah paid him tribute: "Kurankyi-Taylor was a persuasive, eloquent and trenchant advocate who devoted himself not only to the cause of his party but also to the nation as a whole".[7]

His wife, Dorothy Kurankyi-Taylor (née Dorothy Davies) published a selection of poems Reflected Thoughts, in 1959. It is not known whether Kurankyi-Taylor had a significant role in these works. The two met during his studies in Manchester.

Personal life

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Kurankyi-Taylor was the uncle of Kofi Dsane-Selby.[8]

References

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  1. ^ Adu Boahen, 1996. Mfantsipim and making of Ghana: A Centenary History 1876-1976, Sankofa Educational Publishers, Accra, Ghana. Page 25.
  2. ^ Ashanti Indigenous Legal Institutions and Present Role, Ph.D thesis, University of Cambridge, 1951.
  3. ^ Adi, Hakim and Marika Sherwood 1995. The 1945 Manchester Pan African Congress Revisited. New Beacon Press: London. Page 119
  4. ^ Ibid., page 16.
  5. ^ Austin, Dennis 1970. Politics in Ghana 1946-1960. Oxford University Press: London. Pages 168, 170, 268.
  6. ^ Ibid., page 351.
  7. ^ Daily Graphic, Ghana, January 29, 1959, Page 2. Available from the National Archives, Ghana
  8. ^ Essamuah, Colin; Epistle, Abura (8 September 2017). "In memory of the perfect gentleman — Dr Kofi Dsane-Selby, 1931-2017". Graphic Online. Retrieved 28 November 2023.

Edited: Matthew Gardner (Grandson)