She wore many hats while playing the role of first lady between 1981-2001 under her husband’s presidency.
Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, Ghana’s longest serving first lady, was a politician, a women’s rights advocate, an activist, a designer and most times, a mother.
She was on a mission to empower a generation of women. For her, women empowerment meant pioneering interventions for improving gender equity, equality and the empowerment of grassroots women in Africa.
Through the 31st December Women’s Movement, she and other like-minded women established formed a union that addressed the daily issues of women.
To her, the Movement was a way to ensure that women in Ghana did not get left behind in the revolutionary process. Through mass mobilizations across villages, towns and regions, Nana Konadu empowered many women and girls, gaining international recognition for her advocacy.
Through the movement, she established at least 1,800 daycares across the country, ensuring Ghanaian children got an early good start at education. She also mobilized more than two million women across Ghana—from small-scale, village level, economic projects to standing for parliamentary elections.
Described as the most politically exposed experienced Ghanaian female around, Nana Konadu forged a new identity of the role of a first lady in Ghana’s politics.
“I could sit in my quiet place and drink tea and receive visitors,” Nana Konadu said on Restoration, a local television show in Ghana, 9 years ago, highlighting her determination to act beyond the ceremonial position of a First Lady.
Driven by passion, Nana Konadu was determined to change history.
She became an active member of her husband’s political party, the National Democratic Congress, becoming the party’s First Vice-Chairman in 2010.
Nana Konadu left the ruling National Democratic Congress party (NDC) in 2012, after she failed to beat late President John Atta Mills in internal primaries. She quickly formed a splinter party, the National Democratic Party (NDP), positioning her to contest in the 2016 elections as a presidential candidate.
She was the first wife of a former president who had taken that challenge.
Inspired by her father who trained her to aim for the sky, Nana Konadu pushed a narrative well over her years in active politics that women could be anything they desired.
Many believe Nana Konadu blazed the trail for the role of first ladies in Ghana. Many of her successors have since established several organizations, addressing specific societal needs.
On Wednesday, October 23, Nana Konadu passed away at Ghana’s capital Accra, barely a month to her 77 birthday.
