Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, the longest-serving First Lady of Ghana, passed away on Thursday, October 23, 2025. She died in Accra at the age of 76 (25 days shy of her next birthday on Monday, November 17).
The wife of the late former President Jerry John Rawlings, the former First Lady, died at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, also called Ridge Hospital.
Family sources told Graphic Online that the women’s rights and empowerment advocate was admitted to the hospital on and died on Thursday.
The family of Nana Konadu immediately visited the Jubilee House to inform the Presidency.
High-ranking government officials also met them at the seat of government, while others visited the family residence at Ridge to commiserate with them.
Speaking to the media at her residence Thursday evening, the Akomfrohene at the Manhyia Palace and Head of Mrs Agyeman-Rawlings’ family, Oheneba Akwasi Abayie, confirmed the death of Mrs Agyeman-Rawlings, saying she fell ill and was admitted to the Ridge Hospital, where she, unfortunately, passed away.
He said President John Dramani Mahama and the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, had been duly informed.
“At this stage, the family is obviously in mourning,” he said, and therefore, appealed to the media to respect the family’s privacy during this difficult time.
Nana Akomfrohene said further updates would be communicated.
Meanwhile, people, mainly close family members, have been trooping to the Ridge residence of the former First Lady to commiserate with the family.
The Graphic Online team, which visited the residence just before noon, realised that many of the people drove in and could, therefore, not be easily identified.
Security at the residence has also been beefed up, with a small detachment of police deployed there for the sake of enforcing law and order in case the crowd grows bigger.
Trailblazer
The former First 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.
This followed into the Fourth Republic from January 7, 1993, to January 6, 2001, when her husband served two terms as a civilian Head of State.
In addition to being a strong pillar of support for the husband, Nana Konadu was also a strong advocate for women's empowerment, development and equality in national development.
Her attendance at the first summit on women, commonly referred to as the Beijing Conference, in China, which attained 30 years last month, influenced her advocacy, using the 31st December Women’s Movement and later the National Commission on Women’s Development (NCWD) to advance the cause of women.
Training
Mrs Agyeman-Rawlings was born in Cape Coast in the Central Region to Felicia and J. O. T. Agyeman, a business magnate. However, she traces her extended Ashanti family ties to the Agyeman, Akosa, Bonsu, Osei, and Prempeh, and those of Akyem lineage to Owusu and Sarpong.
She attended Ghana International School and later moved to 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, where she was a student leader of Africa Hall, her hall of residence.
In 1975, she earned a diploma in Interior Design from the London College of Arts.
Nana Konadu pursued further 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 (GIMPA) in 1991.
She also took courses at the 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 earlier years as First Lady, she set up the 31st December Women's Movement in 1982, which embarked on numerous development projects centred around women's empowerment.
She mobilised women and trained many in vocational and technical skills, and also provided them with starter packs to enable them to stand on their two feet and support their families.
The 31st December Women’s Movement also established schools, mostly creches and basic schools, and constructed markets for traders.
Political life
Aside from always supporting her husband and playing the First Lady role so effectively, she was in the thick of things during the formation of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).
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 the 2012 election.
Disgruntled with internal party issues, including complaints of maltreatment during the 2012 presidential primary of the NDC, she formed the National Democratic Party (NDP), on whose ticket she ran for the Presidency in 2016, the first woman to do so, and in 2020.
In November 2018, the former First Lady launched her first book, titled "It Takes a Woman", a biography of Mrs Agyeman-Rawlings, which chronicled her political journey.
The book was the first of four books that provided deep insights into her political activism and experiences.
What she stood for
"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," she wrote in her book.
“Through my work as both an activist and a politician, I strive to demonstrate that it is our continuing responsibility, as African women, to challenge inequality, resist oppression, and question our exclusion from every level of African society.
I’ve come to realise that it takes a woman to break the endemic cycle of poverty.
This is a task too large and too important to be left alone to the government.
So it is up to us, the women of Africa, to bear the responsibility for actions needed to end poverty — first in our homes, then in our communities and, ultimately, throughout our nations, one woman at a time,” she said while addressing the 23rd Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly (Beijing +5) in June 2000 in New York, USA.
Nana Konadu is survived by Dr Zanetor, the Member of Parliament for Klottey-Korle; Yaa Asantewaa, Amina, and Kimathi Rawlings.
Her husband, Mr Rawlings, passed away on November 12, 2020.
