Celebrating Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings on International Women’s Day: My story

Sometime around or about 1983/84, as a boy growing up in Labadi Villas, Burma Camp, a sordid spectacle befell my eyes and I still remember vividly what I witnessed.

An officer (name withheld for obvious good reasons), exited the earth realm to be with the Lord and left behind a young widow and three infant sons.  

I was a shade older than the eldest of the three sons, so if I was about 11/12, you can imagine how young the boys were.

After the laying of the mortal remains of the deceased officer to rest, we began to hear stories and see activities of relatives who had invaded the official bungalow of the deceased officer - harassing and tormenting the life of the grieving widow and her fatherless sons.  

We could not believe it when we heard that the relatives asked the widow to vacate the military bungalow when it was not owned by neither the deceased officer nor his family.

I cannot count the number of times I encountered the poor little boys walking around Labadi Villas in abject dejection and faces carrying deep contours of distress.  

Every now and then, children would pick up snippets of gossip from parents about what was happening to the grieving widow and her equally miserable sons.  

Eventually, per the military regulations, the widow and her sons had to vacate the bungalow and as we say, the rest is history.  

For the record, I know for a fact that the boys have made it through life but that does not justify the harrowing experience they went through with their mother. 

Days

This heart-wrenching story I have captured took place during the heady days of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), under the leadership of Chairman Jerry John Rawlings – and it certainly was not a state-sponsored act. It had all to do with traditional inheritance systems that existed at the time and left many widows in poverty.

Two to three years later, specifically in 1985,  there was the promulgation of the “Intestate Succession Law” PNDC Law 111.

At the time, Mrs Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings was the First Lady and Leader of the 31st December Women’s Movement, set up purely to galvanise women for empowerment and national development.

As leader of the 31st December Women’s Movement, which was fighting non-stop for the rights of women and children, the vivacious and very strong-willed First Lady championed the promulgation of PNDC Law 111.

In summary, the purpose of PNDC Law 111, was inter alia “… to establish a uniform system for distributing assets, to protect widows and children, and to replace Indigenous (obnoxious), inheritance practices”.

The law was promulgated to apply to all persons, regardless of their class or marital status — the law does not discriminate.

Many widows and children have benefited and continue to benefit from PNDC Law 111.  

Subsequently, Mrs Agyeman-Rawlings, in 1995 (during the embryonic phase of our Fourth Republican), led Ghana to the United Nations Conference in Beijing, China, to make major progress in establishing more Rights for Women worldwide.

It was in this period that the 31st December Women’s Movement also sleeplessly fought to send the girl-child to school and with the nation glued to only the state-owned media at the time (especially GTV and Radio Ghana), not a single moment was lost in hitting home the fact that more girls must be allowed to go to school and the crusade yielded great success.

This period also saw the gust with which Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) were also openly engaged in upgrading their skills and also given their due respect and recognition across the country.

Of course, I cannot forget the sustained fight against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) too.

In 2025, as the world commemorates International Women’s Day, and 40 years after the promulgation of PNDC Law 111, I to celebrate and salute Mrs Agyeman-Rawlings for lighting the flame for women’s liberation in contemporary Ghana.

As we say in her local Twi dialect Onipa be ye bi, wan be se orbe ye nyinaa. To wit, “Humans are on earth to do what they can possibly do; not to do all”.

As she continues to be with us as the longest-serving First Lady that Ghana has ever had (19 years), there is no gainsaying the fact that PNDC Law 111 shall live till the end of human existence. 

The writer is the Founder/CEO of the MILLS Institute For Transformational Leadership Development.

E-mail: Sitsoanyidoho1@yahoo.complex