Former First Lady of Ghana, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, has died at the age of 76.
She was the widow of Ghana’s longest-serving leader, Jerry John Rawlings, who died five years ago after leading two coups and later serving as an elected president in a multi-party polls.
According to Presidential spokesperson, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, who confirmed the sad news, Agyeman-Rawlings died on Thursday morning after a short illness.
Already, Social media is awash with tributes to the former first lady, politician and women’s rights advocate, even as her family visited President John Mahama later in the day to officially inform him of her passing.
President Mahama leads the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the party founded by her late husband after taking over the reins of power in the West African nation.
As first lady, Agyeman-Rawlings founded the 31st December Women’s Movement to empower women economically and promote community development. Her advocacy helped shape Ghana’s 1989 inheritance law and contributed to gender equality provisions in the 1992 constitution.
Named after the date of her husband’s second coup, which took place in 1981, the Movement made great strides in not only empowering women, but also teaching them to engage politically while earning money to develop their communities.
Though she also had political ambitions, Agyeman-Rawlings lost out in her bid to become the NDC’s presidential candidate in 2012.
Born in November 1948, Agyeman-Rawlings came from a middle-class family and grew up in the city of Cape Coast where she later studied Art and Textiles at University.
She met and married her future husband, Jerry Rawlings in 1977, when she became a boarder at the prestigious Achimota School in the capital, Accra.
The couple had four children, including Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, an NDC Member of Parliament.
Ghana’s parliament has adjourned in her honor as the nation prepares to officially mourn one of its most influential female figures.
Meanwhile, Ghana’s parliament has adjourned to mark the former first lady’s death as the country prepares to officially mourn one of its most influential female political figures and someone who fought for the inclusion of women in politics.
