Some people wear fashion. Others make them and one of such people who set fashion trends in Ghana is Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, Ghana’s Former First Lady. With an impeccable sense of style, she steps up to every occasion with glitz and glam.
With a profound love for African culture and fashion, she shows up with a variety of indigenous fabrics in vibrant colours that get heads turning wherever she goes as she makes the effort to truly stand out for every occasion.
She was Ghana’s First Lady from 4 June 1979 to 24 September 1979, and 31 December 1981 to 7 January 2001 respectively. She was born on November 17, 1948, and schooled at Achimota School and there, she met her husband-to-be, Jerry John Rawlings. She furthered her education at the University of Science and Technology. In 1975, she earned an interior design diploma from the London College of Arts.
She married Jerry John Rawlings, the Former President of the Republic of Ghana, in 1977. Again, she earned 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 often wears African Print, Kente, Lace and all sorts of colourful fabrics sewn into the popular ‘Kaba and Slit’ style we know. One of her major signature pieces is the headwrap which comes in vibrant fabrics and colours and wherever you meet her, you are likely to see her in a headwrap that comes in various styles.
A mother of four children, three daughters and a son, she has championed the cause of women on many fronts. She has been the President of the 31st December Women’s Movement since 1982 to date.
She has been in the lead of women empowerment in Ghana and has been pivotal in encouraging women to participate in politics in Ghana. Again, she has helped empower women to be economically independent through her advocacy works and is said to have been pivotal in the establishment of the Interstate Succession Law in Ghana.
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 then competed with President Atta Mills for the party’s flagbearership position at the party’s congress in 2011 but did not win. In 2016 she became the first female flagbearer to stand to be elected for the seat of presidency in Ghana on the ticket of the National Democratic Party.
She has been involved in a number of charitable causes as the National Radiopathy Project, Friends of the National Zoo, and the Ghana Girl Guides Association. For her hobbies, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings enjoys swimming, reading, dancing, camping, and collecting dolls from across the globe.
Indeed she has been a first lady with a true sense of leadership and style and has inspired many Ghanaian women over the years. I have been watching her from afar over the years and I believe her contribution and effort is worth noting.
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