Former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings dies at age 76

Former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, passed on at the Ridge Hospital in Accra on Thursday after a short illness. She was 76 years old.

She was the wife of the late former President Jerry John Rawlings and was Ghana’s longest-serving First Lady, a position she held from 1981 to 2001 across both military and civilian administrations led by her husband.

According to reports, the late Mrs Agyeman-Rawlings had been unwell for some time and was under close medical supervision prior to her passing.

Nana Konadu was widely recognised for championing women’s rights and empowering communities across the country. Beyond her role as First Lady, she was a pioneer of women’s empowerment and established the 31st December Women’s Movement (DWM) in 1982—an initiative aimed at empowering Ghanaian women through entrepreneurship, education, and political participation.

She was also the founder of the National Democratic Party (NDP), a political party she formed after breaking away from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in 2012.

In 2018, she launched her first book titled “It Takes a Woman,” a biography chronicling her journey from her youth in 1948 through her years in political and social advocacy.

Her last public appearance was on September 18, when she was accompanied by her children to the final funeral rites of the Asantehemaa, Nana Konadu Yiadom III, at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi.

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