ACCRA, Nov 28 (The African Portal) – Ghana is on Friday holding a state funeral for former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, a prominent advocate for women’s rights and founder of the 31st December Women’s Movement, who died last month aged 77.
Agyeman-Rawlings died on Oct. 23 at Ridge Hospital in Accra. Her death prompted tributes from political leaders, civil society groups and citizens who credited her with shaping gender and social development policies over several decades.
Parliament suspended its sitting after the announcement of her death. Her family has requested privacy during the mourning period.
Agyeman-Rawlings was married to Jerry John Rawlings, Ghana’s longest-serving head of state and later president, who died in 2020. The couple had four children.
Before her activism work, she held positions at the Union Trading Company from 1974 to 1980 and later at Nanali Africarts. In 1984 she established the 31st December Women’s Movement, which ran social programmes to enhance women’s economic and political participation.
Government officials, diplomats and members of the public are gathered at Black Star Square for the ceremony, which continues into the afternoon.
Born on Nov. 17, 1948, in Cape Coast, she studied Textile Design at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology before pursuing additional academic programmes in the United Kingdom and the United States.
The state funeral was held at Black Star Square, where government officials, diplomats and members of the public gathered to pay their respects to one of the most influential figures in Ghana’s modern political history.
