Ms Yaa Asantewaa Agyeman-Rawlings, Executive Director, J.J Rawlings Foundation, has paid tribute to her late mother, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, for championing community empowerment and women’s participation in national development.
She said Nana Konadu’s contribution to Ghana’s development went beyond women’s empowerment to mobilising communities and encouraging people to participate in shaping their own future.
Ms Agyeman-Rawlings, second daughter of Mrs Agyeman-Rawlings made the remarks at the launch of the Sheroes of Africa Coffee Table Book in Accra.
The book, authored by Princess Flossy Tachie-Menson, celebrates 100 African women whose lives, leadership and courage have contributed to shaping the continent.
Ms Agyeman-Rawlings said Nana Konadu believed meaningful national transformation required empowering communities, equipping people and creating opportunities for them to influence decisions affecting their lives.
“This was my mother: boots on the ground. She did not believe in championing an idea from a distance. She went where the people were. She listened, she mobilized, she organized and she acted. She always said that there was not a single community in Ghana that she had not been to,” she said.
That approach, Ms Agyeman-Rawlings noted, was demonstrated during the decentralisation programme undertaken by the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) in the mid-1980s.
She said through the 31st December Women’s Movement, Nana Konadu went into communities to educate people about the value of decentralisation and encouraged women to participate in district-level elections and public service.
“She also recognized the opportunity presented by district-level elections and encouraged many women – including some of her own organisers – to put themselves forward for election and public service,” she said.
Ms Agyeman-Rawlings commended the Sheroes of Africa Coffee Table Book for preserving the stories and legacies of remarkable African women for future generations.
“We are deeply moved that Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, has been featured among these remarkable African women and that a commemorative copy is being presented in her honour. May these pages remind them that the flame she carried was never hers alone. It was a flame meant to be passed on,” she said.
Ms Agyeman-Rawlings said October 23, 2026, would mark one year since Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings’ death, adding that her influence continued through the people and communities she inspired.
“Her Legacy, therefore, belongs not only to her children or to her family. It belongs to the women whose confidence she awakened; to the communities whose horizons she expanded; to the young people who saw in her an example of courage and resilience; and to every Ghanaian whose life was touched, directly or indirectly, by her work.
“Yet today reminds us that a life of purpose does not end with physical departure. It continues in the people we inspire, the communities we strengthen, the courage we awaken and the legacy we leave behind,” she said.
The launch was chaired by former Malawi President Dr Joyce Banda, Chairperson of the Sheroes Foundation.
