Former Ghanaian First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, has died at the age of 76.
The former First Lady, politician, and women’s rights advocate died on Thursday morning after what presidential spokesperson Felix Kwakye Ofosu described as a “short illness.”
She was the widow of Ghana’s longest-serving leader, Jerry John Rawlings, who had passed away five years prior.
Her family officially notified President John Mahama, who leads the National Democratic Congress (NDC) party founded by her late husband, later that afternoon.
Agyeman-Rawlings had her own political aspirations, though she was lost out in her bid to become the NDC’s presidential candidate in 2012.
During her time as First Lady, she founded the 31st December Women’s Movement, an organization dedicated to empowering women and teaching them how to earn money to develop their communities.
The movement was named after the date of her husband’s second coup in 1981.
Born in November 1948 into a “middle-class family” in Cape Coast, Agyeman-Rawlings met her future husband while she was a boarder at the prestigious Achimota School in Accra.
Unlike her husband, she pursued a university education, studying art and textiles.
She was married to Jerry Rawlings, who was a flight lieutenant in the air force, a year before he took power at the age of 32.
She was reportedly one of his “most important advisers.”
The couple, described as a “dynamic if controversial duo,” had four children, including their eldest, Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, who is currently an NDC MP.
Her women’s organization, initially seen as an “arm of the NDC,” is widely credited with “significantly helping women across the country,” particularly in poorer regions.
Her efforts also influenced national policy, and she played a “key role in shaping a law in 1989 that guaranteed inheritance rights for women and children.”
Additionally, she is credited with contributing to the “provisions for gender equality in Ghana’s 1992 constitution,” which marked the return to multiparty politics.
In a mark of respect for “one of its most iconic political figures and one who fought for the inclusion of women in politics,” Ghana’s parliament has adjourned as the country prepares to officially mourn her death.
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