Kurankyi-Taylor

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

Life

Ernest Eggay Kwesi Kuranki-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, Manchester University 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 was a member of 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 left 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.

References

  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, Hakeem 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

Edited: Matthew Gardner (Grandson)

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