6 interesting things about Nana Konadu Agyemang-Rawlings' childhood, growing up

She is known as the first woman to run for Presidency in Ghana and the very first to occupy the position of the First Lady under the Fourth Republic, as wife to Ghana’s first President under the Fourth Republic; Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings.

She is also acknowledged for her role in the 31st December Women’s Movement which sought to champion women development and promote women in politics.

Quite a number of other things additionally but beyond that, she has some interesting things about her growing up that she revealed in an interview with Citi TV.

GhanaWeb picked and highlights 6 of these:

1. She is a member of the Royal family. According to Konadu Agyemang-Rawlings, she is a cousin to the Asantehene.

“I’m from the Ashanti Region, direct descendants of the Royal Family. The Otumfuo is my cousin. My grandfather had 2 or 3 brothers who were Asantehenes in succession,” she said.

2. She grew up and moved around in 3 towns before returning to Accra to school.

According to her, she was born in Cape Coast where her father was in management position at the University Admissions Center, she stayed in the Western Region at a point and finally moved to the Eastern Region before returning to Accra.

“I was born in CapeCoast. My brother and I were born in Cape Coast. My sister was born in Swedru. My father was then the head of UAC in Cape Coast. We were moved to Tarkwa.

“We were moved to Nkawkaw. It was booming. At the time, I believe they wanted to send my father to Kumasi but the British had a system of not letting anyone move to their area so he was moved to Nkawkaw in a year. My real schooling started in Accra,” she said.

3. She was homeschooled by her mother who was a teacher till she moved to basic school

“First we started with my mum just teaching us in the house because my mum was a teacher by profession and then we were moved to Progress School. It was close to Osu Cemetery.

“I went to Ghana International School prior to Secondary School at Achimota,” he added.

4. She was one of the best in Athletics at Achimota School.

“I was the sprinter for Achimota School – 100 meters, 200 meters and the relays. And high jump and long jump,” she noted.

5. Her course in secondary school got changed following an interesting incident. She failed to go to the morgue when it was a requirement to pass for the course.

“It’s a bit embarrassing because when I was in lower 6, I chose to do science and the teacher took us twice to the Korle Bu morgue. First we had to go and see those at the burns, they will explain to you how people are treated and all, it was okay but the second time they took us to the morgue and I was at the door. They expected everyone to go in there, they were doing something that they wanted us to see but I stayed at the door, he was beckoning me but I was still standing there so he came to me and said, let’s go in there and I said no, I’m not going in there. There are dead bodies in there, I’m not going in there.

“He told the headmaster, there’s no way I can do science so I was sent back to the arts class,” she added.

6. She was led to attend KNUST against her wish to school at the London School of Economics.

“My applications were both to Legon and KNUST. In legon I opted with some coercion from my uncle to do economics. There was some problem and the students went on strike so the umiversities were closed.

“So we stayed at home. My dad then said since you want to do economics, I have been to the London School of Economics so I’m travelling, you come with me and I’ll put you in school. So he asked me to go say goodbye to my uncles; the architect and the Economist and he asked me where you are going to and I told him. He said, you are not going anywhere.

“He said go and sit in your car and go, I’ll talk to your father myself. I get home and my mum is asking if I said my goodbyes. My dad comes from work and says my uncle is coming for them to have a discussion about the trip. It was like she got entry into Tech, let her go into Tech.

“He literally took me and got them to put me back in architecture. After my uncle left I went and told him I wanted to do arts. I changed,” she added.

Nana Konadu was speaking on Citi TV’s Footprints program.

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