Nationality Ghanaian Name Susan Ofori-Atta Relations Sir Ofori-Atta 1 Role Physician | Profession Medical Doctor Died July 1985 Religion Christianity | |
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Susan Gyankorama Ofori-Atta also de-Graft Johnson (1917 – †1985) was a Ghanaian physician - the first female doctor in the Gold Coast. Susan Ofori-Atta was the first Ghanaian woman and third West African woman to earn a university degree. Ofori-Atta was also the second West African woman to become a physician after Nigerian, Agnes Yewande Savage. In 1933, Sierra Leonean political activist and higher education pioneer, Edna Elliot-Horton became the second West African woman university graduate and the first to earn a bachelor's degree in the liberal arts. Eventually she became a medical officer-in-charge at Kumasi Hospital, and later, she assumed charge of the Princess Louise Hospital for Women. Her contemporary was Matilda J. Clerk, the second Ghanaian woman and third West African woman to become a physician, who incidentally was also educated at Achimota and Edinburgh. Susan Ofori-Atta was made an Honorary Doctor of Science by the University of Ghana for her work on malnutrition in children, and received the Royal Cross from Pope John Paul II when he visited Ghana in 1980 in recognition of her offering of free medical services at her clinic. She helped to establish the Women's Society for Public Affairs and was a Foundation Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her achievements were a symbol of inspiration to aspiring women physicians in Ghana.
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Early life and education
Ofori-Atta was born in Kyebi in 1917 to Nana Sir Ofori Atta I, the Okyenhene and Paramount Chief of the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Area and Nana Akosua Duodu, his wife. A member of the historically important Ofori-Atta dynasty, she received her primary education at St. Mary's Convent at Elmina in 1921 and enrolled at Achimota School in 1929 for her secondary education. Susan Ofori-Atta was one of the pioneer students after the college was opened in 1927 where she was the Girls' School Prefect in her final year and sat for the Cambridge School Certificate. She studied midwifery at the Korle-Bu Midwifery Training School, graduating in 1935, and had further training in midwifery in Scotland. After her tertiary education, she practised midwifery at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. She further continued her education at Edinburgh University Medical School where she obtained her MBChB degree in 1949. Her medical education abroad was sponsored by her wealthy chieftain father, Ofori Atta I.
Career and advocacy
Ofori-Atta began her career as a midwife and then studied to become a pediatrician, making her the first female doctor in the Gold Coast now known as Ghana. In 1960, she volunteered her time at a Congolese hospital that was understaffed. She left the Princess Marie Louise Hospital to join the University of Ghana Medical School where she was a founding member of the Paediatric Department before starting her own private medical practice for women and children at her clinic, the Accra Clinic.
She was an advocate for women and children causes and opposed the Akan system of inheritance, advocating legislation to address the issue and give right to the spouses and children to inherit their deceased spouses and fathers who died intestate. Her efforts led to the PNDC Intestate Succession Law promulgated in 1985. She was a member of the 1969 Constituent Assembly which drafted the Constitution for the Second Republic of Ghana.
Susan Ofori-Atta was honoured by the University of Ghana, in 1974 with an honorary Doctor of Science for her pioneering research work into childhood malnutrition, “Kwashiokor”. She was an active in the Catholic Church in Ghana, especially the Accra Diocese. She was an executive member of the Federation of Association of Catholic Medical Doctors and a member of the Ghana Catholic Doctors Association.
Personal life and family
She was married to E.V.C. de-Graft Johnson, a barrister-at-law based in Accra. Her older brother was William Ofori-Atta, the Gold Coast politician and lawyer, former foreign minister and one of the founding leaders of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) as well as a member of "The Big Six", the group of political activists detained by the British colonial government after the 1948 Accra riots, kicking off the struggle for the attainment of Ghana's independence in 1957. Her other brother was Kofi Asante Ofori-Atta, a Minister for Local Government in the Convention People's Party (CPP) government of Kwame Nkrumah and later Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana.
Death and legacy
She died of natural causes in July 1985 in the United Kingdom. A girls' house at her alma mater, Achimota School was named after Ofori-Atta.