Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings (born 17 November 1948) is a Ghanaian politician and the widow of former President Jerry Rawlings, under whose capacity she served as the First Lady of Ghana from 4 June 1979 to 24 September 1979 and from 31 December 1981 to 7 January 2001. In 2016 she became the first woman to run for President of Ghana.
Early life and education
Nana Konadu Agyeman was born in Cape Coast, Central Region of Ghana, on 17 November 1948, to J. O. T. Agyeman and his wife. She attended Ghana International School. Later she moved to Achimota School, where she met Jerry John Rawlings. She went on to study Art and textiles at the University of Science and Technology. She was a student leader of her hall of residence, Africa Hall. In 1975 she earned an interior design diploma from the London College of Arts.
She further pursued her education over the next couple of decades, 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. She also took courses at Johns Hopkins University, the Institute for Policy Studies in Baltimore, USA, and received a certificate for a fellows program in philanthropy and non-profit organizations.
Agyeman-Rawlings' first term as first lady came after her husband served as military Head of State briefly in 1979. He returned to power in 1981, and, having been elected as civilian president in 1992, remained in power until 2001. She has been the president of the 31st December Women's Movement in 1982. She was elected First Vice Chairperson of her party in 2009 during the second term of her National Democratic Congress (NDC) party's tenure in office under President John Atta Mills. She unsuccessfully challenged Atta Mills for the party's flagbearership position at the party's congress in 2011.
Life's work
In a statement released by the Embassy of Ghana, former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings stated: "My desire is to see the emancipation of women at every level of development to enable them to contribute and benefit from the socio-economic and political progress of the country.... Women's vital role of promoting peace in the family, the country and the world at large must be acknowledged. And to do this, they must be empowered politically to equip them adequately for the challenges of critically identifying and assessing solutions for the betterment of society."
This was the goal of 31 December Women's Movement of which Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings was president. She described it as a "broad based development oriented Non-Governmental Organisation that aspires to achieve these objectives through the effective mobilisation of women." In addition, her movement—two million strong—has set up more than 870 pre-schools in Ghana and has worked actively to stir up interest for the accomplishment of child development and family planning.
Ghana's former First Lady has said that she would continue to work in the women's movement even if her husband were no longer president. Her husband led a military coup that seized power in 1981, although he was not established as head of state until the following year. The country successfully reverted to civilian rule in 1992 and held free elections. Calling the first lady "an instrumental part of the revolution in Ghana's economy," the Baltimore Afro-American reported that women were Ghana's largest labor force, and they wanted to be a central part of the country's redevelopment. "Before December 31, 1981, they had no power of influence in law or politics--even the laws that pertained to them." It was a grassroots movement, with women selling their land, clothes, and jewelry to get money.