Richard Kweku Abusua-Yedom Quarshie was a businessman, a Ghanaian diplomat and politician. He was the minister of state in the second republic.

Early life and education

Richard was born on 6 March 1918, in Ewusiadjo near

Dixcove Dixcove is a coastal village and a fishing community in the Ahanta West district, a district in the Western Region of South Ghana, located approximately 35 km west of the regional capital of Sekondi-Takoradi. The current Paramount Chief of Up ...

in the Western Region. He went to secondary school at

Achimota School Achimota School ( /ɑːtʃimoʊtɑː/ ), formerly Prince of Wales College and School at Achimota, later Achimota College, now nicknamed Motown, is a co-educational boarding school located at Achimota in Accra, Greater Accra, Ghana. The school wa ...

. Quarshie was trained as a Barrister at

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

, London.

Career

Quarshie entered the Civil Service in 1940 and became a Labor Officer in 1945. In 1956, he was employed by the Foreign Service. In 1963, he was the Sub-director and Resident Director of the Consolidated African Selection Trust Ltd. (CAST), which operates in diamond mining. On 1 July 1968, Quarshie became the Founding President of the Ghana Industrial Holding Corporation (GIHOC) and later became President of the

Ghana Cocoa Board The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) is a Ghanaian government-controlled institution that fixes the buying price for cocoa in Ghana. Farmers are protected from the volatile prices on the world market through the price-fixing. Besides the higher quality ...

Diplomatic duties

Quarshie was one of Ghana's first diplomats. He set up missions in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and Paris. He was the Secretary of Foreign Affairs when he was sent to the

Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

on 22 November 1960. He was brought to Leopoldville by

Henry Templer Alexander Major General Henry Templer Alexander, CB, CBE, DSO (17 May 1911 – 16 March 1977) was a British Army officer who served as Chief of Defence Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces between 1960 and 1961. Early life Alexander was born on 17 May 191 ...

, the then Chief of Defence Staff of the

Ghana Armed Forces The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) is the unified armed force of Ghana, consisting of the Army (GA), Navy (GN), and Ghana Air Force. The Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces is the president of Ghana, who is also the supreme military commander ...

. This was apparently to replace Nathaniel Welbeck, the then Ghanaian ambassador (chargé d'affaires) to Congo. Welbeck's residence was besieged by the Congo military upon allegations that he was plotting against

Mobutu Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga (; born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu; 14 October 1930 – 7 September 1997) was a Congolese politician and military officer who was the president of Zaire from 1965 to 1997 (known as the Democratic Republic o ...

's regime with the then deposed

Patrice Lumumba Patrice Émery Lumumba (; 2 July 1925 – 17 January 1961) was a Congolese politician and independence leader who served as the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then known as the Republic of the Congo) from June u ...

. Quarshie was arrested in his hotel by Congolese soldiers and held for an hour.

Politics

During the NLC era, Quarshie was appointed as a Commissioner for Trade and Industry. At the inception of the second republic, he was elected as member of parliament to represent Ahanta constituency in the 1st Parliament of the 2nd Republic. That same year he was appointed Minister for Trade and Industries and he remained in that position until 13 January 1972 when the

Busia government This is a listing of the ministers who served in Busia's Progress Party government during the Second Republic of Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Gu ...

was overthrown by the SMC.

Personal life

He was married to Emma Wilhelmina Philips (1917–2004). He also had a traditional marriage to Elizabeth Oheneba Akua Asafu-Adjaye with whom he had five sons (Alan, Richard, James, Mordecai, and Michael Quarshie). His son

Hugh Quarshie Hugh Anthony Quarshie (born 22 December 1954) is a Ghanaian-born British actor. Some of his best-known roles include his appearances in the films ''Highlander'' (1986), '' The Church'' (1989), ''Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace'' (1 ...

is a British actor. His hobbies included gardening, badminton, and walking. He is a Christian.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quarshie, Richard Abusua-Yedom 1918 births Year of death unknown Ghanaian diplomats Ghanaian MPs 1969–1972 20th-century Ghanaian businesspeople Alumni of Achimota School 20th-century Ghanaian politicians Lincoln's Inn Ghanaian Christians People from Western Region (Ghana) Progress Party (Ghana) politicians