Emmanuel Evans-Anfom


Emmanuel Evans-Anfom, is a Ghanaian physician, scholar, university administrator and public servant who served as the second Vice Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology from 1967 to 1973.

Early life and education

A member of the Ga-Dangme people of Accra, Evans-Anfom was born on 7 October 1919 at the Evans family house, High Street, Accra. His father, William Quarshie Anfom, was of Shai and Nzema origin. His mother, Mary Evans, was the daughter of William Timothy Evans, a teacher-catechist of the Basel Mission Middle School or the Salem School at Osu. The Evans family was a well-known Euro-African Ga family on the Gold Coast. In 1925, he enrolled at the Government Boys School in Jamestown. He attended the Presbyterian middle boarding school, the Salem School at Osu where the principal at the time, Carl Henry Clerk encouraged him to apply for a Cadbury Scholarship for study at Achimota School instead of going the normal teacher-training route at the Basel Mission-founded Presbyterian teacher training seminary at Akropong, now known as the Presbyterian College of Education, Akropong. He was elected the School Prefect of Achimota School. In January 1939, he enrolled in the inter-preliminary medical course of Science at Achimota. In that course, he received advanced training in physics, chemistry, botany and zoology. At Achimota, he won a Gold Coast medical scholarship in 1941 to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 1947. He also studied in a postgraduate diploma course in tropical medicine, completing in 1950.

Medical career and professorship

Evans-Anfom worked in various hospitals in the government medical system: Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Dunkwa-On-Offin Government Hospital, Tarkwa Government Hospital, the Kumasi Central Hospital, Tamale Government Hospital and Effia Nkwanta Hospital in Sekondi. During his long medical career, he worked with other medical trailblazers such as Susan Ofori-Atta and Matilda J. Clerk, the first and second Ghanaian women physicians respectively. A pioneering medical educator himself, he was approached by the first Ghanaian surgeon, Charles Odamtten Easmon in 1963 for a teaching professorship position at the then newly established University of Ghana Medical School, an offer he eventually accepted. He also did medical outreach in the Congo in the 1960s. In 1996, he was adjudged the "Alumnus of the Year" by his alma mater, the University of Edinburgh for "his major contribution to the development of medicine in the Congo and to medical education in Ghana." In 1958, Evans-Anfom co-founded the Ghana Medical Association together with Charles Odamtten Easmon, Silas Dodu, Anum Barnor and Dr. Schandorf.

Term as Vice-Chancellor

Dr Anfom served as the second Vice-Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology from 1967 to 1973. At KNUST, Anfom first introduced the ceremony commonly known as "Matriculation" into the university entry ceremonies. He has chaired a myriad of committees, boards and missions, both locally and on the international scene in Africa, Europe and North America.

Commissioner of Education

Evans-Anfom served as the Commissioner of Education under the military governments of Fred Akuffo of the Supreme Military Council and later, Jerry John Rawlings led Provisional National Defence Council in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He was a member of the Council of State in the Hilla Limann government from 1979 to 1981. Emmanuel Evans-Anfom was also a Chairman of the National Council for Higher Education, the Chairman of the Education Commission, President of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences and Chairman of the West African Examinations Council.

Personal life

Evans-Anfom has four children with his first wife Leonora Evans, a West Indian American who died in 1980. In 1984, he married Elise Henkel. He became a Founding President of the Gold Coast Hockey Association in 1950. He has served as a Presbyter of the Ebenezer Presbyterian Church, Osu, where he is a congregant.

Awards and honours