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.