Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings dead
Former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings has reportedly passed away at the Ridge Hospital in Accra.
The former First Lady was 76.
As the wife of the late former President Jerry John Rawlings, Mrs Agyeman-Rawlings occupied a central place in Ghana’s political and social life for more than two decades.
She first became First Lady in 1979 during the short-lived Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) administration, later returning to the same role under the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) from 1981 to 1993, and continuing through two elected terms of the Fourth Republic until 2001.
Beyond her position at the Presidency, she became a defining voice for women’s advancement. She established the 31st December Women’s Movement, which worked to expand educational and economic opportunities for women across the country.
In 2012, she broke away from the National Democratic Congress to form the National Democratic Party (NDP). Four years later, she made history as the first woman to contest Ghana’s presidency, a landmark in the nation’s political evolution.
Her autobiography, It Takes a Woman, released in 2018, detailed her journey from her early life in 1948 through decades of advocacy and leadership.
The book was intended as the first in a series reflecting on her personal and political experiences.
