By: Franklin Asare-Donkoh
Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, born on 17 November 1948, was a Ghanaian politician and the widow of former President Jerry John Rawlings.
She served as First Lady of Ghana from 4 June 1979 to 24 September 1979, and again from 31 December 1981 to 7 January 2001.
In 2016, she became the first woman to run for President of Ghana. In 2018, she launched her book titled It Takes a Woman.
Early Life and Education
Nana Konadu Agyeman was born in Cape Coast, Central Region of Ghana, on 17 November 1948, to J. O. T. Agyeman and his wife.
She attended Ghana International School, and later moved to Achimota School, where she met her future husband, the first president under the Fourth Republican Constitution, the late Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings.
She went on to study Art and Textiles at the University of Science and Technology, where she served as a student leader of her hall of residence, Africa Hall. In 1975, she earned a diploma in Interior Design from the London College of Arts.
She further pursued her education over the next couple of decades, acquiring a diploma in Advanced Personnel Management from Ghana’s Management Development and Productivity Institute in 1979, and a certificate in Development from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration in 1991.
She also took courses at Johns Hopkins University and the Institute for Policy Studies in Baltimore, USA, and received a certificate from a Fellows Program in Philanthropy and Non-Profit Organizations.
Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings’ first term as First Lady came after her husband served briefly as military Head of State in 1979.
He returned to power in a military coup in 1981 and ruled until 1992, when he was elected as a civilian president. He served two terms of four years, leaving office in 2001.
She became President of the 31st December Women’s Movement in 1982. She was elected First Vice Chairperson of the NDC in 2009, and in 2011, she unsuccessfully challenged President John Atta Mills for the party’s presidential candidate position for the 2012 election.
Life’s Work
In a statement released by the Embassy of Ghana, former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings stated:
“My desire is to see the emancipation of women at every level of development to enable them to contribute and benefit from the socio-economic and political progress of the country…. Women’s vital role of promoting peace in the family, the country, and the world at large must be acknowledged.
And to do this, they must be empowered politically to equip them adequately for the challenges of critically identifying and assessing solutions for the betterment of society.”
This was the goal of the 31st December Women’s Movement, of which Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings was president.
She described it as a “broad-based, development-oriented non-governmental organization that aspires to achieve these objectives through the effective mobilisation of women.”
In addition, her movement—two million strong—set up more than 870 pre-schools in Ghana and worked actively to promote child development and family planning.
Ghana’s former First Lady said she would continue to work in the women’s movement even if her husband were no longer president.
Her husband led a military coup that seized power in 1981, although he was not established as Head of State until the following year. The country successfully reverted to civilian rule in 1992 and held free elections.
Calling the First Lady “an instrumental part of the revolution in Ghana’s economy,” the Baltimore Afro-American reported that women were Ghana’s largest labour force and wanted to be a central part of the country’s redevelopment.
“Before December 31, 1981, they had no power of influence in law or politics — even the laws that pertained to them.” It was a grassroots movement, with women selling their land, clothes, and jewellery to raise money.
