Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, the longest-serving First Lady of Ghana, has passed on. She died on Thursday morning [Oct 23, 2025] in Accra.
She was 76. (born November 17. 1948).
She became the first woman to run for President of Ghana in 2016, and in 2018, she launched her first book titled “It Takes a Woman.”
Information gathered indicates the former First Lady, who was the wife of late President Jerry John Rawlings, died at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, also known as Ridge Hospital, this morning.
The former Fist Lady is the longest to have served in that position from June 4, 1979 to September 24, 1979 under the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and from December 31, 1981 to January 6, 1993 under the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), two military regimes headed by her husband, and from January 7, 1993 to January 6, 2001 when former President Jerry John Rawlings had his two terms as a civilian Head of State.
Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings was born in Cape Coast in the Central Region.
She attended Ghana International School and later moved to the Achimota School, where she met Jerry John Rawlings, who later became her husband.
She went on to study Art and Textiles at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi.
She was a student leader of her hall of residence, Africa Hall at KNUST.
In 1975, she earned an interior design diploma from the London College of Arts.
Nana Konadu further pursued her education, 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.
Nana Konadu also took courses at Johns Hopkins University, the Institute for Policy Studies in Baltimore, USA, and received a certificate for a fellows programme in philanthropy and non-profit organisations.
In her first term as First Lady, she set up the December 31st December Women’s Movement in 1982.
She was elected First Vice Chairperson of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in 2009 and later in 2011, she unsuccessfully challenged then President John Evans Atta Mills for the party’s presidential candidate position for Election 2012 but lost.
First book
In November 2018, the former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings launched her first book titled “It Takes a Woman“.
The book is a biography of Mrs Rawlings and chronicles her political journey.
The book was the first of a series of four books that was to provide deep insights into her political activism and experiences.
The 331-page book chronicles the life journey of Mrs Rawlings from her days in 1979 to her younger years in 1948 and tells the story about the formative years of her outspoken advocacy for women empowerment and Founder of the political party, the National Democratic Party (NDP), after she left the National Democratic Congress (NDC), which was formed by her husband.
At the launch of the book, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the then Vice President of Ghana said the book presents Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings as a perfect example of a true woman who was resolute in the fight for women’s emancipation without knocking the heads of men and women together.
“When I read the title of the book, It Takes A Woman, I initially thought it was a bit provocative but the more I think about it, the more I realize that yeah it is true. The role and contribution of women in our society have historically been underestimated but in truth, it really is an enormous contribution,” he said.
“In typical Nana Konadu’s style, the book pulls no punches in its criticism of gender discrimination and chauvinism, inequality and an aggressive pursuit of personal aggrandizement.” Dr Bawumia pointed out and said it also taught the path to seeking development and welfare of humanity which could be tough and rough.
Mrs Rawlings
In her remarks, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings said, Africa has everything from minerals, forest, oil and intellectual capacity that could make the continent great but said “one area that we need to strengthen is the ability to document and analyse historical information.”
That, she said, will help guide the continent, the people and for that matter Ghanaians.
“We need to constantly improve on the quality of life and so we need to read as individuals and inculcate the habit of reading to the young ones. We have to encourage the young ones to read but because of the existence of iPads and tablets they are not picking books to read out of curiosity.” She lamented and said “if we as Africans do not document, others will do that for us.”
In 2016 she became the first woman to run for President of Ghana.
Source: Graphic.com.gh
Discussion about this post