Former First Lady of Ghana, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, has passed away at the Ridge Hospital in Accra, family sources have confirmed. She was 76 years old.
Nana Konadu, the wife of the late former President Jerry John Rawlings, was Ghana’s longest-serving First Lady, serving under both military and civilian governments led by her husband.
Her tenure began on June 4, 1979, under the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), and continued from December 31, 1981, to January 6, 1993, under the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC). She later served as First Lady during Ghana’s Fourth Republic from January 7, 1993, to January 6, 2001.
Beyond her official duties, Nana Konadu was a trailblazer in women’s empowerment and political activism. She founded the 31st December Women’s Movement, which championed women’s rights, literacy, and economic independence across Ghana.
In 2012, she broke away from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to establish the National Democratic Party (NDP). Although she and several others were disqualified by the Electoral Commission from contesting the presidential election that year, she made history in 2016 by becoming the first woman to contest the presidency of Ghana on the NDP ticket.
In November 2018, Nana Konadu released her first book, It Takes a Woman — a 331-page biography that chronicled her life from her early years in 1948 through decades of public service and political engagement. It was intended as the first of four volumes offering deeper insights into her activism and experiences.
Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings leaves behind a remarkable legacy as a pioneer of gender equality, political participation, and social transformation in Ghana.
